On 8 Nov 2009, at 22:51, Alan McKinnon wrote:
On Monday 09 November 2009 00:41:08 Stroller wrote:
Any time I spend messing with obscure kernel config options is time I
could be spending reading a good book, instead [1].
Sorry, spending time configuring my kernel loses, as does this
thread.
And yet you use gentoo....
Considering what gentoo is and how one interfaces with it, should
you not
rather be using a binary distro where someone else does the heavy
lifting?
Something like Fedora, OpenSuse, Ubuntu?
Not at all.
Are you taking this discussion combatively?
I like Gentoo, I'm used to it, familiar with it (at least fairly so),
I find it easy. When I've tried other distros I've found myself
wasting time for various reasons.
I find CLI configuration reassuring - this is basically why I switched
away from Windows - because at the command line I "know" that an
operation has performed successfully, instead of having to rely on a
checkbox which is supposed to work like magic.
I suspect that, ultimately, it's the USE flags that save me time. If I
have to recompile _by hand_ just one or two programs because a binary
distro doesn't include the options I need, or because it adds GUI
dependencies which I don't want "cluttering up" my headless server,
then that is probably a bigger waste of my time than using Gentoo.
Remember that if I do that I also have to manage those packages
manually, check for updates, worry about them getting clobbered by the
distro's own updates, have hassle when other installed packages demand
a dependency which I have fulfilled with this manual installation.
What do you think is demanding or time-wasting about Gentoo?
I just don't see why I should spend time messing with something, just
because you (or Volker or anyone, not to make this personal) doesn't
like the way it "looks". When it works perfectly!
Stroller.
