Re: [gentoo-dev] Re: [gentoo-web-user] Hardened PHP now in Gentoo

[Jon Portnoy]

On Wed, May 19, 2004 at 01:30:00PM +0200, foser wrote:
> On Tue, 2004-05-18 at 21:08 +0100, Stuart Herbert wrote:
>
> > I'm pro-choice, and do not agree with the idea of aggregating USE flags just
> > because they sound similar.
>
> The second time you mention choice. I guess we know what Gentoo is about
> by now, the 'choice' argument is too often used just to end criticism.
>
> Choice is an illusion, if you there's too much choice it is no use to
> anyone anymore, because nobody really knows what it is all about. This
> is already the case with the loads of USE flags/portage options/etc. we
> have. Gentoo shouldn't be about choice for the sake of it, it should be
> about simplicity/managability : stuff that works. It's a trade-off.
>
> I wasn't too happy with the introducation of local USE flags for just
> the reasons that are becoming a problem now. Too much flags, everybody
> adds them at will without good reasons. We used to just say to people
> who wanted a specific (rare) set-up that they could easily edit the
> ebuild themselves to their need, but nowadays it seems we have to hold
> hands all the time and add complexity for nothing. That's good for
> nobody really. The installation manual used to be like 5 pages, by now
> it's a book of it's own per arch. I don't think that's a good thing and
> we should be really, really careful about what we can do to stop this
> movement.
>
> - foser

The users seem to be perfectly happy with having a maximum of choice via 
local USE flags. Most people are also okay with the handbook. So what's 
the problem, exactly? Should we force everyone to do what _you_ want 
rather than what _they_ want?

-- 
Jon Portnoy
avenj/irc.freenode.net

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