"Over the past few days, I discovered that the Gentoo Foundation's charter is in the process of being revoked by the state of New Mexico, apparently due to regular paperwork not being filed by the trustees. What this means is that the Gentoo Foundation is currently hanging for its life by a string, and at any day could cease to exist as an entity. That is the very bad news. The good news is that I was able to talk to Grant Goodyear (trustee) this morning on the phone, and I have confirmed that Grant had received my email about the revocation issue that I sent 2 days ago and that he will be resolving this critical issue in the next couple of days by filing the appropriate paperwork with the state of New Mexico, and this paperwork will also remove me as President of the Foundation."
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Member since:2006-02-06
I, too hope everything goes well.
I'm not a Gentoo user myself, but I believe most Linux users have to admit that many nice stuff comes from Gentoo community, in terms of patches and documentation to various things that can easily be applied to most distributions out there.
Member since:2006-07-26
What turned me on to Gentoo was that it seems to be one of the first distro's out there to run on new hardware, probably because of it's installation procedure. Or maybe it is because of the kind of people that run Gentoo.
I started with Gentoox on the Xbox. Then I installed it on my fileserver, then on my main desktop. Just last night I installed it on my 2-day-old PS3.
I think it was the first Linux distro to run on the new Intel Macs as well.
Member since:2006-06-21
The free software world is merciless like that. If there's not enough interest, things start to decay and are abandoned. I don't just mean users, you need developers too.
Perhaps they should ask themselves what's missing from Gentoo. What makes it special, as a Linux distro? Why would I want to use it or develop it?
I mean besides the emerge system; some people regard it as stupid, both because it requires compilation and because it doesn't really teach anybody about Linux. And even if it was all that, there are several other equally good package management systems out there.
And also don't say Gentoo is "stable" or "fast" or other completely subjective perceptions.
Perhaps emerge was just a fad and it's fading out. You can't keep a distro alive just based on the fact that at some point the packaging system had a clever angle.
Edited 2007-07-23 23:59
Member since:2006-06-09
actually gentoo is a great teacher for what's happening in your linux installation...and... no there are no many equally good managers, especially for sources? none...
It's actually what you want to be.
If you want a rock solid installation you set the minimum or none optimizations for the packages.
If you want speed you set all optimizations you wish for, preying to your god not to break anything.
Ofcourse you can always choose the middle ground.
Binary distros? well, you stick with what others have already chose for you...
"Just the packaging system?" oh please...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gentoo_Linux
Member since:2006-03-10
Very true, and this is the danger Gentoo faces right now: its core of developers and other "do-ers" who keep the whole entity on the road, imploding.
I mean besides the emerge system; some people regard it as stupid, both because it requires compilation and because it doesn't really teach anybody about Linux. And even if it was all that, there are several other equally good package management systems out there.
Equally good, perhaps, but none I think as unique as Portage. If you choose Gentoo you know you're signing up to long, tedious updating processes, so it's not something one does unless one sees benefits in this approach, or simply fancies a challenge. I'd have to disagree on the "not learning anything" item though: I've learned a great deal about the inter-relation of various core and non-core programs when they don't build
and I think you learn a bit by osmosis as well, if you actually just watch the compiling process some of the time (YMMV). Sidenote: I always thought it was quite handy for the developers having all their users accustomed to compiling stuff, as they can tell the bug-reporter to tweak ebuild X or modify USE-flag Y, then rebuild and report the results. Easier than trying to replicate a tricky bug on your own system, and the reporter gets to join in the sense of accomplishment (and immediate payoff) if the fix works.
You certainly won't hear me saying either
"Fad" implies no intrinsic benefit once the novelty factor has worn off, which (as you may have guessed) I'd strongly refute. It's not for everyone's taste, but it is an utterly unique approach with its own strengths (and weaknesses) and it remains Gentoo's strongest selling-point. For my part, I find the payoff is a sense that the OS I use every day is, in some sense, lovingly crafted by my own hand (though I acknowledge the contribution made by the processor and autotools
This might be considered something of a conceit, but that's how Gentoo makes me feel and why I continue to love using it.
Edit: tag typo. [tagpo?]
Edited 2007-07-24 00:51
Member since:2005-07-06
Member since:2005-07-06
Well, the foundation is still going to dissolve. There are plans to move to the Software Freedom Conservancy and dissolve the gentoo foundation in about 3 months. Also, for the people that don't think there are any problems with gentoo in terms of community/leadership I ask this, if daniel robbins resigned 3 years ago how come the state of new mexico still thinks he is the president. That seems like a big issue that people forgot to resolve after he left.
Member since:2006-03-12
"Also, for the people that don't think there are any problems with gentoo in terms of community/leadership I ask this, if daniel robbins resigned 3 years ago how come the state of new mexico still thinks he is the president. That seems like a big issue that people forgot to resolve after he left."
Because Paperwork has little to do with Leadership...and nothing to do with community, in fact suggesting there is *any* link is bizarre.
Member since:
2005-07-06
I really hope that everything goes well with this. Gentoo has been my favorite distro for years and it would really be a shame for the gentoo foundation to dissolve.