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I've been a Linux user since 1994 and looked forward to trying Gentoo |
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Linux 1.2 on my IBM laptop. I cut my teeth on Slackware (kernel 0.94) |
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and certainly have compiled my share of apps. from scratch. However, I |
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doubt anyone is a complete master of all aspects of Linux. I certainly |
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don't pretend to be. |
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|
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Initially, I had minor problems getting a basic Gentoo system up. |
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Networking gave me a little trouble due to hardware problems, but those |
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were resolved fairly quickly. |
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|
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My problem is with your portage system. Basically, almost 40% of the |
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software I've tried to install doesn't. Some of it dies with no error |
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messages, other's with the inability to simply create directories. Open |
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Office wouldn't compile because your glibc's are too old and I couldn't |
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find any newer one's on your site. Permission errors abound which is |
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rather interesting when one is running as root. |
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|
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You're web site maintains that your portage system is better (in |
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design?) than Debian's apt-get and BSD's ports systems. Unfortunately, |
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you have yet to prove it to me. I've never tried Debian and won't, |
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since I don't care for the "Debian attitude". I have used Free BSD's |
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ports system and have yet to see it fail. Unfortunately, I can |
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personally attest to the fact that portage does fail, and often. |
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|
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With that said, I would like to compliment you on a great concept for a |
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Linux distribution. I strongly believe you are on the right track. |
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Unfortunately, your package system needs significant improvement. I |
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wish you the best of luck and may try your distribution again sometime |
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in the future. However, at the present, I need a Linux system with |
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working applications more quickly than the week of spare time I've |
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already taken trying to build one with Gentoo. Thus, I have little |
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alternative but to give up on Gentoo and install Mandrake or SuSE. |
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|
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I wish you the best of luck in improving your Linux distribution and |
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look forwared to trying it again in the future. |
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|
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Sincerely, |
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|
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Gary Whysong |
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Assoc. Professor |
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Environmental Resources |
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Arizona State Univ. East. (Gary.Whysong@×××.edu) |