Re: [gentoo-dev] Re: When is Gentoo 1.4 going to be released?

[Matt Beland]

On Tue, Oct 22, 2002 at 01:43:35PM -0600, Tom Syroid wrote:
> I know you well enough that I can safely say you're not about to go off
> using a new version of something on any kind of critcal box without testing
> it first. So on the assumption that you have already discerned
> program/tool/system utility is "ready for prime time", what's wrong with
> simply edited the "frozen" entry in package.mask and installing it?

There's nothing wrong with doing that, for myself, other than the
annoying need to push out modified package.mask files to my systems
after an 'emerge rsync'. (Well, and the security policy here at work
doesn't allow for "unsupported" external packages, which our security
team considers masked packages to be - but what they don't know won't
hurt 'em.) 

But there are a couple of other problems. First and foremost, not every
package held up by the freeze is in the portage tree and masked; I know
of at least a few others that I use which are currently "out of date"
because of the freeze. Sure, I could make ebuilds on my own - I have, in
a couple of cases. 

Second, for me it's no big deal to edit the package.mask file or create
custom ebuilds. Is that true of everybody? Is it even true of the
majority, considering the general user population? I know from observing
my local LUG that people start complaining when RedHat RPMs aren't
immediately available for the latest cool software release - is the
Gentoo community that much more forgiving?

Finally, this doesn't answer my real question - why don't we know the
answer to the question "how are the preparations for the release of 1.4
going?" Why are we not getting any communication from the development
team? For that matter, why is there an ebuild freeze at all? If the
portage tree weren't frozen, would we even care how long it took to
release 1.4?
 
> While I concur that the Gentoo development team as a whole could do a
> better job of communicating TODO's and loose timelines to the community, I
> don't see how a frozen Portage tree is preventing you from utilizing the
> distribution in any way you heart desires.

It's an inconvenience, not a barrier. My point was that we're not
complaining about not getting "something free" on the schedule we
demand. I don't need to use Gentoo at all; I could use FreeBSD, or 
stick with Debian or RedHat or any of a dozen other distributions, or go
with a complete Linux-From-Scratch system. Gentoo is a convenience, a
useful method of eliminating some of the work while still getting a
system which does what I want. If the development team doesn't 
communicate TODOs and timelines and expectations, if they don't
make use of their user community to help make the distribution better,
the utility and convenience of using Gentoo is decreased as a result.

Which is the real problem here - without the rapid updates and
community-contributed ebuilds, Gentoo is not as useful as a
distribution.

-- 
Matt Beland
matt@××××××××××××××.org
http://www.rearviewmirror.org