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Christopher O'Neill posted |
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<9445dc2b0604070151t68e184fdo3601938bb52d0871@××××××××××.com>, excerpted |
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below, on Fri, 07 Apr 2006 09:51:58 +0100: |
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|
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> some examples: |
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> |
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> . A few days ago someone posted on the dev list asking about KDE3.5.x and |
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> it's current masked status. As a KDE user myself I was also interested in |
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> the answer to his question, but to my dismay his first response was less |
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> than helpful! Although he did eventually get a satisfactory response, |
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> wouldn't it have been better if he hadn't had to ask at all? |
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|
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As a user and booster of my favorite meta-distribution =8^), that |
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disturbed me, too, both the one sort of (non)-response, and the fact that |
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the OP response indicated my own response might not have been as helpful |
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as intended. |
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|
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> . I notice certain other popular distros are now running GCC4 (and have |
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> been for some time), yet we are still running 3.4.6 (on ~x86). [snip] |
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> |
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> . How's portage 2.1 getting along? I notice it gets frequent updates. |
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> |
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> I am not asking for answers for those questions, they are merely |
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> examples (I could think of many more, so please don't single these out). |
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|
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I have a fair knowledge of the status of all three of those (tho not so |
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much on when something's going stable, or x86 in particular, as I run |
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~amd64 exclusively), because I have all three merged and running, |
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unmasking where necessary to do it. (Xorg-7.0/modular is another example, |
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again, unmasked and merged early, here, after following the developments |
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on it here.) However, getting bogged down in the examples won't further |
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the discussion, as you say. |
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|
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> The point I am making is how we (the users) are in the dark on how |
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> Gentoo is progressing. This is the main reason I have subscribed to this |
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> mailing list (as well as Gentoo-Users) in an attempt to keep track of |
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> what's happening, but without much success). |
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|
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I've had a bit more success here, as I use this list as an pointer finder, |
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then follow those pointers to the appropriate lists and/or unmaskings |
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and/or status bugs to try for myself, if it looks interesting. |
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|
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> Ideally, what I'd like is for the various dev teams to compile a weekly |
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> status report, which could then be compiled into the weekly newsletter |
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> (which currently seems to be lacking much useful information). It would |
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> be great if we (the users) could find out what's going on behind the |
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> scenes of our favourite distribution. |
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|
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I like the idea, but practically speaking, once a week is way to often, as |
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it will both increase the work load (thereby cutting the actual work done |
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on the project in question) and the noise factor. |
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|
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I'd suggest (and maybe it's what you had in mind, but it just didn't come |
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out that way) a status report from one or two /feature/ projects each |
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week, not /all/ of them each week. Rotate them such that all the |
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interesting ones (and ones with devs that want to participate) get covered |
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once every month or quarter. |
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|
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I'd also point out the Gentoo Planet developer blogsite |
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( http://planet.gentoo.org ). Many devs have blogs that cover the stuff |
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their doing that users may find interesting, in more or less detail. |
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Actually, /this/ needs to be covered a bit better or more frequently in |
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GWN, and that would pretty much eliminate the need for independent feature |
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coverage. |
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|
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Note that GWN does cover it occasionally, but due to a rather nasty |
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incident some months ago where a dev thought the GWN article |
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misrepresented the situation from his blog (and not rehashing that or |
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pointing the blame at any party), the GWN folks likely avoid it to some |
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extent. I don't think that's necessary, however, provided the snafus that |
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evidently happened there as far as notifying the dev in a timely manner |
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that his blog was going to be covered, could be avoided. |
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|
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Thus, perhaps my suggestion should be to find someone that could dedicate |
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a bit of time each week (or once or twice a month in any case, it doesn't |
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have to be /every/ week) to such a feature. Having someone routinely |
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responsible for it will take the pressure off the regular GWN editors, and |
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should encourage the necessary research and pre-feature dev contact, to |
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ensure things go smoothly and there's not a repeat of that earlier |
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unpleasant incident. |
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|
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-- |
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Duncan - List replies preferred. No HTML msgs. |
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"Every nonfree program has a lord, a master -- |
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and if you use the program, he is your master." Richard Stallman in |
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http://www.linuxdevcenter.com/pub/a/linux/2004/12/22/rms_interview.html |
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|
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|
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-- |
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gentoo-dev@g.o mailing list |