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On 7/3/07, Grant <emailgrant@×××××.com> wrote: |
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> In December 2006 I started a thread titled "Is Gentoo Healthy?" in |
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> which I was roundly put down for raising the possibility that the |
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> decline in the number of Gentoo users could possibly affect the |
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> remaining Gentoo users in a negative way. |
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> |
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> Is everyone still toeing that line? The Gentoo Weekly Newsletter |
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> hasn't been published in almost two months. Is Gentoo destined to be |
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> just another distro starved for contributors and struggling to stay up |
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> to date? If so, I really misjudged it. The meta approach of Gentoo |
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> is superior to any other in my mind, and I think it's growth and |
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> potential are being stunted by the "we don't need them" attitude which |
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> perpetuates Gentoo's lack of usability features for beginners. |
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> |
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> Gentoo needs as many users as possible to reach its potential. It's a |
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> short-sighted mistake to think that non-contributing users do Gentoo |
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> no good. Non-contributing users become contributors as time passes. |
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> Car mechanics all start as car drivers. |
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> |
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> - Grant |
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|
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Hi Grant, |
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I think Gentoo is 'healthy', in the sense that it continues to |
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thrive. On the other hand I have, over the last 6-9 months started to |
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think of Gentoo as 'mature'. The distro has apparently become what it |
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is going to be. While that may not be all I hoped for it is clearly |
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worth while and a contributing member of the group of Linux distros so |
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that's great. |
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|
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As a non-developer, general work-a-day Linux user I do feel that |
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Gentoo has lost some of its energy. Maybe that's all part of becoming |
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a mature distro. When I first started with Gentoo in (I think 2000) |
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this was a very lively place and it was clear that there was a real |
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push on to grow the tools, grow the distro, grow the user base. While |
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I think that today those metrics would still be considered valuable, |
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it is not my view that there is a lot of energy being put into taking |
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things to the next level. (Whatever the heck that might be!) |
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|
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Anyway, I value Gentoo greatly. It's been a really great distro to |
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me. Folks have treated a non-IT Linux dummy like me with great respect |
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and for the most part a pretty gentle hand. I've learned a lot when I |
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wanted to. The documentation, in my mind, is second to none which |
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makes my life easier. (Sometimes....) |
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|
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What's in Gentoo's future? I haven't a clue. I have wondered a few |
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times in the last year if I'd have to look for another distro one of |
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these days.....but I never have. Two to three years ago that thought |
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never entered my mind. |
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|
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Cheers, |
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Mark |
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-- |
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gentoo-user@g.o mailing list |
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