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> There have been some really interesting points brought up recently |
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> about "where is Gentoo going?" |
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It feels like this topic comes up every year :) |
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> I have been wondering that myself. |
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> Some people seem to think that Gentoo has the potential to be an |
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> enterprise player. |
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Maybe, maybe not ... but I don't see why we couldn't do a little bit |
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more to make it easier for others to use us as a base. |
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Isn't that what *we're* about - being a metadistribution? |
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> I think that attempting to take Gentoo in the "enterprise" direction |
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> is a mistake. I think that we are a hobbyist distribution. This |
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> doesn't mean that we should not strive to meet some of the enterprise |
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> goals. Those things can be important to hobbyists too. But I don't |
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> think we should be aiming for corporate America. |
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We have groups focusing in other directions. If there's a group of |
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people who want to make Gentoo enterprise-friendly, why not let them do |
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so? |
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> I don't even understand why that goal appeals to people. |
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An enterprise-friendly Gentoo appeals to me personally because I find |
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those problems interesting. They're problems that I enjoy learning |
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about, and trying to solve. I have enterprise experience both technical |
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and managerial, and I find the whole domain fascinating. |
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> Let other distros go there! |
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If you mean let other distros go to the place with suits and support |
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contracts and backporting, I agree. I want to see an |
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enterprise-friendly Gentoo, but I want to see the corporate risks and |
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costs taken on by third-parties outside the project. |
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> I want Gentoo to run in people's homes, in student |
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> dorm rooms, etc. |
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Well, yes, to a point, but (without intending to offend anyone) you can |
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learn a lot more by learning to setup a web server cluster than you can |
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running a web server in your bedroom. F.ex, in the bedroom, /home/httpd |
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seems as good a place as any to put your website. It's only when you |
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learn how to build larger systems that you can understand the merits of |
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moving to /var/www/<FQDN> or better still the /srv tree. |
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Part of my motivation is educational. |
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I believe that Gentoo can play an important educational role in people's |
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lives. I want a Gentoo distribution that can grow with a user's |
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experience and needs, not one that the ultimately have to move away from |
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because someone decided for those of us who are interested that we're |
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not going there. |
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And I think Gentoo can play an equally important educational role in |
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developers' lives too. |
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> Places where people want a fun distribution that |
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> they can tailor and work on easily. |
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Amen. I never want us to lose any of those points. |
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> I'd like Gentoo to be a place where neat things are developed. |
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Aren't we really a place where neat things are packaged up? |
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> Also I find it amusing when people say that Gentoo exists for the |
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> users. I think that is wrong. Gentoo exists for the *developers*. |
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> It's our playground, and it's the reason we use a live tree rather |
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> than switching to an actually sane approach. The users are cool |
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> because they point out bugs, help solve problems on bugzilla, suggest |
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> enhancements, provide patches, and notify us of package updates. |
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> Sometimes they become developers. But the truth is that Gentoo sees |
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> improvement and maintenance in the areas that appeal to the |
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> developers. And that is why Gentoo exists for the developers first, |
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> the users second. |
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I agree that it's our developers who drive Gentoo, and not really our |
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users - simply because it's the developers who volunteer their time to |
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work on the things that interest them. |
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But I'm personally not comfortable with "it's our playground" being the |
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accepted approach to *everything*. I've been away from Gentoo for |
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awhile, and on coming back, I've been shocked and disgusted with what |
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seems to pass as acceptable treatment of users these days. |
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I think Gentoo needs a little more "it's about the users" than we have |
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right now just to keep us from collectively going off the rails. |
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Best regards, |
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Stu |
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-- |
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Stuart Herbert stuart@g.o |
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Gentoo Developer http://www.gentoo.org/ |
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http://stu.gnqs.org/diary/ |
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|
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GnuGP key id# F9AFC57C available from http://pgp.mit.edu |
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Key fingerprint = 31FB 50D4 1F88 E227 F319 C549 0C2F 80BA F9AF C57C |
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-- |
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