On 10/04/16 03:06, Rich Freeman wrote: > > By that argument, when you run emerge chromium shouldn't it just dump > the chromium sources in /usr/src, so that you can build and install > your own chromium? > > The whole point of a source-based package manager is that it actually > BUILDs the packages. Why do we treat the kernel differently from > every single other package? > > I get that users often want to build their own, and that is fine. We > SHOULD have a package that dumps sources in /usr/src (though to be > honest I prefer to just fetch mine using git). However, why shouldn't > emerge virtual/kernel not just give you a /boot/vmlinux-x.y.z the same > way that emerge vim gives you a /usr/bin/vim? > I take your point, but I would argue that the kernel and boot subsystem really are special cases .. you don't go hacking around the chromium sources to fundamentally alter the way/order it works, right?! Likewise, if you don't like chromium, you might install firefox .. cf. say, Lilo and grub. It is the flexibility (and, I concede, the complexity, and hence 'power') that defines Gentoo here.
This also applies to the whole /usr debate .. and yes, I agree there are caveats with both our existing setup and many of the others discussed on this thread. I think there is a debate to be had, and whilst it has born the inevitable bike-shedding, I think there could be some merit in a 'flattened' system. I suppose the natural follow-on question from this, is "how best to achieve it?".
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