[gentoo-user] Re: Is Gentoo Healthy? (The Return)

[Alexander Skwar]

· Grant <emailgrant@×××××.com>:

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

No, Debian is no "meta-distro". It's a distribution just like 
Fedora Core or Mandriva. The only thing that sets Debian apart
is, that it's a truely non-commercial distribution and that it
is quite big. Another "Debian specialty" is, that it has a "mission",
so to speak.

> It's not exactly thriving is it?  Is the
> meta-distro concept perhaps flawed?

No, I don't think so. It's just not something which is completely
"main stream compatible". And I don't think that this is bad ;)

> The thought of installing the
> latest Ubuntu release, wading through a bunch of software I'll never
> use, and waiting for the next big release before anything is updated
> makes me wanna throw up.

Yep.

Alexander Skwar
-- 
Your step will soil many countries.


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