[gentoo-dev] vile and more

[Jan Wells]

One day I'll change distros.  Your is in the running for sure.  A big 
deal for an old guy who is sometimes all thumbs, but I'm thinking along 
those lines.  I was pleased to see that vile/xvile is included among 
your packages.  Hurray for that (though the maintainer is past due for a 
  new version, seems to me).  icewm and xfce?  I don't know whether I'll 
end up with icewm mostly or xfce mostly, but I use each of those more 
than either gnome or kde.  Ted (an .rtf "notepad") seems to be missing. 
    I use Ted lots.  Python 2.2 -- is that not a worry?  I cannot cite 
specifics, but some items I've got now don't like the latest Python.

Indeed, dependency issues have become a big deal here.  I've been 
running Mandrake and can't resist grabbing stuff off the shelves at 
Madrake Cooker.  For the most part, and until recently, all was well. 
Now there's an awful, catch-22 issue with libpng or some such.  Probably 
you are dealing with the same nightmare?  I do like trying the latest 
and greatest of this or that; but messing up the installation here I do 
not like.  gentoo would help alleviate the problem?

You're using grub.  Here, multi-boot is achieved via System Commander, 
with lilo residing under /boot on the second of my two SCSI drives.  The 
arrangement causes grief with kernel updates.  Or in my hands, it does. 
  How would gentoo react to being installed on the second drive, I 
wonder?  grub would need to be installed on the first partion of the 
first drive (along with three DOSs plus NT)?  I've become attached to my 
familiar System Commander, but maybe you would advise getting rid of it 
in favor of grub.

Well, mostly I wish to register a Bravo! for including vile.

By the way, I'd not be able to anything with gentoo before a CD was 
available for purchase.  No CD burner here, and I use a modem for 
Internet access.

Best wishes,
     Mr. Jan Wells.