Re: [gentoo-project] Some focus for Gentoo

[Ultrabug]

On 14/01/2015 04:43, Donnie Berkholz wrote:
> Wanted to share my thoughts on where I think Gentoo should go, in
> terms of direction. Would love to hear your thoughts.
>
> http://dberkholz.com/2015/01/13/gentoo-needs-focus-to-stay-relevant/
>
>
My general feeling is that the focuses we really need must tend to
attract more users. I'll give here my 2 cents in light on how it
evolved here at work.


1. People who need extreme flexibility

I can't agree more tho I don't have embedded in mind : I can't help to
think we're too greatly understaffed to shine on all those side and
time consuming topics of application so it would be a waste of a main
distro focus.

Every sysadmin I talked to or recruited coming from another distro
always tries to argue on how easy it is on Ubuntu/Debian/Bla until
they need something specific on their package or simply don't need
something else and keep dependencies to a minimum.

Then they understand what is to me one of the true value of Gentoo and
why we chose and run it in production for so long here.


2. People who want to learn how Linux works

They are rare or can easily get tired on failures. I still think we've
a lot to ease there (see next point).


3. People developing software ARE NOT People who want to learn how
Linux works

I heard about two upstream devs running Gentoo for the exact reasons
you mentioned and I guess we all fit your description here but I'm not
sure we represent a large part of the developers community.

Let's face it, you've all seen it in any dev conference : most devs
run on Mac now. Because "it just works out of the box and I don't have
to deal with X or Y" I hear all the time [1].

While I enforce a quite strong Gentoo training to any new recruit
joining *my* teams (both ops & devs) I have to admit that we chose
Ubuntu for the rest of the devs here because the entry ticket of
Gentoo is too high and too demanding to the lambda developer who's not
Linux minded (meaning, running Windows or Mac at home).

Hearing "I prefer to spend X hours coding than battling with my
system" is common (and makes sense sometimes).



4. That being said

I think a "Make Gentoo usable quicker and faster" focus would greatly
improve the "People developing software" and "People who want to learn
how Linux works" ones.

This is what I believe makes Arch Linux attractive to devs and people
willing to understand Linux better and I'm convinced that it's one of
the few topics Gentoo should really focus on.

Thanks again for the topic mate.

Ultrabug

[1] It still amazes me that people developing free software can
endorse Apple hardware but it is the reality and my lonely point of view.