Re: [tlug] [OT] Intel core duo errata

["Josh Glover" <jmglov@example.com>]

On 08/07/07, burlingk@example.com <burlingk@example.com> wrote:

> Then there is Gentoo, another beast all together.  It is all up to the
> admin. Even the "average" user gets to be an admin there. :P  It
> can be rock solid solid stable, but still has access to the latest packages.
> However it can get ugly fast if things do go wrong. :P

You mean just like Debian Unstable? ;)

I see what you are getting at, but really any Linux distro gives you
enough rope with which to hang yourself. However, if you know how to
*use* that rope, you can lasso you one tasty steer for a hulkin' 1
kilo steak that would make even an Argentinean's mouth water. ;)

With Gentoo, as with any other distro, you need to know which versions
of which packages are stable, and apply only security fixes. Debian
and the BSDs do a good job of doing a lot of that work for you,
though, I'll give you that.

One thing that we've kicked around quite a bit over at the Gentoo
project is having a stable profile that admins can deploy for the
rock-solid versions of stuff, but it just seems that the effort never
gets off the ground. I guess it is just not a sexy enough project, and
hardcore admins who run Gentoo already have their custom package masks
and profiles, so they don't need it.

> That is why Debian and BSD are so stable.

Well, BSD makes Debian look like Windows NT 3.0 in terms of stability.
After all, Debian is running the Linux kernel, which even in the
stable branch has a lot more experimental code (where "experimental"
means "has not been running for ten years without a reboot in Yahoo's
datacentre" ;) than does BSD.

> I kind of wish that Microsoft had done the same thing, then at least we could
> understand WHY they are as popular as they are.  ^^;;
>
> As it stands, wakarinai.

Microsoft took over the desktop PC and then slithered into the
datacentre with young admins who had never used a non-Microsoft MS.
That is the secret to their popularity.

--
Cheers,
Josh