Chí-Thanh Christopher Nguyễn posted on Sun, 02 Dec 2012 01:28:26 +0100 as excerpted:
> If this change is applied anyway, I suggest to at least produce a news > item in order to not surprise users about the sudden loss of their > openldap server. I wouldn't object to a news item. More information is good. <mode=rant> However, hasn't it always been gentoo policy to *STRONGLY* encourage users to run emerge --pretend/--ask and EXAMINE THE RESULTS for anything unexpected, and resolve it in one way or another to "expected", before going ahead? Thus, anyone suddenly losing their openldap server as a result of a simple uncaught USE flag change, "gets to keep the pieces", as the saying commonly goes. Gentoo has /always/ been about reasonable documentation but has /never/ been about handholding. We've never been afraid to point users who expect to be handheld or babysat to other distributions that are a more appropriate match to their expectations. So yes, a news item is reasonable as it's arguably part of that "good documentation". But in general, there's something wrong if we're unduly worrying about loss of functionality involving a USE flag change, or even a simple USE flag default change, because equally as arguably, anyone not catching such things with the --pretend/--ask they do BEFORE letting things just run, and/or not following up accordingly, really should be thinking about a distribution other than gentoo in the first place. That's a fact that's not really practical to change at this point, both because we haven't the manpower to do all the required handholding, and because it would make gentoo into something it's not, and something it was never intended to be. Paraphrasing Star Trek's Bones, that would be "Gentoo, Jim, but not as we know it." </mode> -- Duncan - List replies preferred. No HTML msgs. "Every nonfree program has a lord, a master -- and if you use the program, he is your master." Richard Stallman
