Gentoo Archives: gentoo-user

From: Paul Hartman <paul.hartman+gentoo@×××××.com>
To: gentoo-user@l.g.o
Subject: Re: [gentoo-user] Goodbye, Gentoo
Date: Fri, 27 May 2011 05:03:10
Message-Id: BANLkTimG2mvV96cru3A0zNL6ECiE3JDVDQ@mail.gmail.com
In Reply to: [gentoo-user] Goodbye, Gentoo by Kevin O'Gorman
1 On Thu, May 26, 2011 at 6:28 PM, Kevin O'Gorman <kogorman@×××××.com> wrote:
2 > It looks like it's time to take Gentoo off of my main machine.  I feel a
3 > little sad about it, or I'd just quietly go away.
4 >
5 > A few months ago, an update made the machine headless -- well, it could no
6 > longer bring up X but I could use the console-mode for admin, and log in via
7 > SSH from my laptop and run GUI programs.  I was busy at the time, first
8 > deciding and then implementing my retirement, so I let it go.
9
10 Sorry to see you go!
11
12 > The real headache is all the stuff I'm going to have to port.
13 >
14 > 1) Apache and dynamic (Python CGI) web site.
15 > 2) Postfix
16 > 3) About a dozen accounts that just do wget(1) data gathering triggered by
17 > the cron daemon.
18 > 4) DNS (I run my own domain on a commercial DSL account)
19 > 5) NTP client and server
20 > 6) Whatever else I forgot I set up over the years.
21
22 Maybe you can run them from your previous gentoo installation inside a
23 chroot until you can reproduce them in Ubuntu proper.
24
25 > My original reason for using Gentoo is that this machine was pretty exotic
26 > when I bought it, and I wanted to be able to tweak the compiler to get the
27 > most out of it.  I can still do that for specific applications I'm working
28 > on, but otherwise it's really a non-issue now.  I have gotten pretty tired
29 > of updates that take over 48 hours to compile, and the occasional mess-up
30 > that once or twice led me to rebuild with empty-tree and took a week or so.
31
32 I have a laptop from 2004 and am increasingly irritated by the slow
33 build times. Keeping Gentoo up-to-date with it takes a very long time,
34 especially since I use it so infrequently. Having several days worth
35 of compiling just to bring it up to date is tiring, when it causes the
36 fan to blow at full speed (and full decibels) and heat which
37 approaches that of the Sun. If I ever get around to it, I'm going to
38 give Sabayon a try. Hopefully then I'll have the familiar Gentoo setup
39 but without the building from source.
40
41 > So I guess I shouldn't complain (and I'm not).  I'm just not in the target
42 > market for Gentoo any more.  It was fun, though.
43
44 After using Gentoo for so many years, I find the maintenance in Ubuntu
45 to be rather anti-climactic. "256 packages to update? Oh no! Oh, look,
46 it's done already." :)
47
48 Good luck and congratulations on your retirement.
49
50 Paul