Re: [gentoo-user] Time to move on?

[Neil Bothwick]

On Sat, 21 Mar 2009 23:50:04 -0600, Mike Diehl wrote:

> However, lately, Gentoo seems to have been plagued with problems.
> Circular blockers.  32/64 bit libraries.  Package re-organization.
> Others.

That's inevitable with a versionless distro like Gentoo. With the other
distros you have mentions, when the relationship between two packages
changes, you don't notice because you only make the switch with what is
effectively a re-install. With Gentoo,it is possible to try to upgrade
one of the packages without the other, hence the need for blockers.

> So here is the question:  Are these just growing pains, or is this the
> trend with Gentoo?  If I resolve to update frequently, will these
> problems become more rare?

It is a reducing trend, as portage gets better at resolving things
automatically. The current method of resolving blockers has greatly
reduced the time spent on them compared with a year ago. Frequent updates
are a definite advantage, because when such issues do occur, they happen
one at a time, making resolution much easier (like the mktemp
which only needed a quick emerge -C then carry on). When you save
up several months' worth of minor issues and let them all hit at once, it
becomes more of a hassle to sort out.

You should also run emerge --sync followed by glsa-check at least once a
week to make sure you don't miss out on important security fixes. Another
reason to keep up to date.


-- 
Neil Bothwick

"Bother," said Pooh, as he drained the vodka bottle dry.