Re: [tlug] New Custom Server for Linux - Advice Needed

[Joe Larabell <fred62@???>]

On Sat, 19 Aug 2006, Josh Glover wrote:

> > I have been running an AMD64 system with Gentoo for over a year now and
> > have yet to run into anything that simply "doesn't work".
>
> Right, because Gentoo compiles everything for your architecture. Not
> all distros provide 64-bit versions of everything, and it seems that
> you can get sucked into dependency hell pretty easily.

Yeah, I know... I'm pretty much sold on Gentoo already. My amd64 is like
the third machine of mine that's been running Gentoo right from the start.
For most standard x86 processors, one could make the argument that a
from-scratch distro is only useful if you want to squeeze the last 0.1%
worth of performance from the machine. But given how long amd64 has been
out and we're still hearing about non-64-bit-compatable distros? I'm
guess I'm feeling somewhat vindicated in my choice of distro...

BTW, thanks Josh for playing a role in making Gentoo what it is...

> Note that unstable packages (e.g. ~x86, ~ia64, etc.) are not
> "untested". Gentoo's ebuild policy says that the ebuild must work for
> at least the developer before it can be committed to CVS. So unstable
> ebuilds have worked for at least one person.

Ok... so 'untested' is a bit strong too ;-)...

What I meant was that most packages are available by default sooner on x86
architectures than they are on most others (like amd64). But, despite
that, I have yet to experience any real problems with the masked stuff.
And I have about 50 packages currently marked '~amd64' in my setup.

> The rules for marking
> ebuilds stable are actually pretty strict--the ebuild has to have been
> out there for several months with no active bug reports and a
>reasonable number of users.

BTW, what's a 'reasonable number of users'. In some cases, I would not
mind being counted as a happy camper if it would help some package to
become unmasked sooner (in other cases, I don't use the package enough to
really offer a reliable opinion). I have never seen any means of voting
for stability, other than among the developers themselves. Is there some
place I can comment when something works so the powers-that-be know there
is one more satisfied user.

---
Joseph L (Joe) Larabell            Never fight with a dragon
http://larabell.org                     for thou art crunchy
                                  and goest well with cheese.