Re: [tlug] Re: Long-term Stability Distros

[Josh Glover <jmglov@example.com>]

2009/3/16 Edward Middleton <emiddleton@example.com>:

> Its a tradoff, Your cycles verses CPU cycles.  Gentoo wastes a lot of
> CPU cycles but can save you a lot of cycles.

Yes! I always make the point at work that we need to optimise for
programmer time, not machine time.

> I don't always agree with the choices Gentoo makes as a distribution

I think I *never* agree with the choices Gentoo makes as a
distribution, but the nice thing is that those choices are rarely
forced on the users, and when they are, you can still keep things your
way if you want to.

> When I used Debian and Redhat based distributions I rarely every
> made packages.  With Gentoo I package almost everything I install.

I have found this as well, which is quite surprising, because to be
honest, it is *easier* to write an RPM spec than an ebuild. I would
assume writing the "Makefile" for a .deb is also trivial.

I think the reason may be because the Gentoo package system (Portage,
to the uninitiated) delivers so much value that you really miss its
features when working with unpackaged software. So you sit down for an
hour with the Ebuild HOWTO[1], write your first ebuild, realise that
if you know how to write Bourne shell scripts you know how to write
ebuilds, and never look back.

Cheers,
Josh

[1] http://www.gentoo.org/proj/en/devrel/handbook/handbook.xml?part=2&chap=1