I am only a user and have been keeping out of this debate but I feel I need to at least express my thoughts. I have been folllowing the Sunrise thread(s) since it started. I have done a couple of ebuilds a long time ago and would love to have been able to contribute to Gentoo but due to time constraints - not enough of it <G> - I just can't.
I have been a longtime Gentoo user and have loved it because A) it had no rpms (I had to write them for Caldera), B). It allowed me to configure a system for me quickly that ran well without bloat C) It was easy to keep updated - no hassling with Yast, yum, apt-get, etc. and D). it was dependable - you could download the x86 and know it would work with very few issues. However, I am going to be building a new system from scratch and this sunrise mess is causing me to revevaluate my choice of distro. My concerns - first for my systems - are that it is allowing essentially anybody to submit almost anything with no QA. It's a BMG that's offical! My concern - for users - is that since it's officially supported they will expect things to work and when they don't - as they will not - Gentoo's reputation will suffer. Gentoo provides a means for people to participate on several levels. They can do as I did and do a few ebuild and submit them to bugzilla - if there's enough demand then they'll eventually get in portage. They can also take a quiz and do ebuilds on a more official level. Or they can work to be a developer. All of these paths ensure that we have proper QA and control. The sunrise people seem bent out of shape that ebuilds sit in bugzilla and don't get in the tree. One comment was that it's discouraging. Well, tough - the user who submitted it can get over it and realize that the application that is so precious to him is not that wonderful to anyone else. I did with mine - I understood that I did them to accomplish something I needed and I put them in bugzilla just in case anyone else had a need but I had no expectation of them going into portage. In fact one of my ebuilds was based on another ebuild someone put in portage for the same reason - the author had a need, wrote an ebuild and then shared it. If a user really wants his ebuild in portage he'll take the quiz and become a more official part of Gentoo - but he will have been tested and checked out. I administer systems (mainly Windows but also AIX and LInux - and Linux is my main home system!) at my job in IT Operations. Some of my systems can shutdown the business if I mess up. That's why I do things like run upgrades on test systems or use VMware to test out before I turn the changes loose. At home I also need my system to run and work. I won't be downloading Sunrise stuff but I UNDERSTAND the consequences - most users will not understand as they figure "It's gentoo so it works". Look at the confusion with ~arch vs arch. People go with ~arch and then get upset when it breaks. I know I'm only one user but I'm really disappointed that the Council turned sunrise official. It gives me serious concern a bout Gentoo's reliablity and their reputation. On Sunday July 30 2006 23:06, Ciaran McCreesh wrote: > On Sun, 30 Jul 2006 22:50:31 -0400 Seemant Kulleen <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > wrote: > | Show me at least that concern being concrete and we have a > | starting place. > > -!- [Users #gentoo-sunrise] > -!- @genstef devon bonsaikitten_ Zamorate eimono|home dev-zero brebs > staskorz @nichoj_work eimono SunriseCIA richiefrich +Peper @CHTEKK > SunriseBot TiCPU shillelagh Juippis > > -- > Ciaran McCreesh > Mail : ciaran dot mccreesh at blueyonder.co.uk -- Brett I. Holcomb -- [email protected] mailing list
