Okay, as a brand new hopeful user of Gentoo since yesterday, I feel qualified to at least voice a "newb" opinion. I've used Linux for several years. I was a pretty die-hard RedHat user until I heard all the positive hype about Gentoo. I *knew* going into it that it would be a bit tricky to setup. However, what I didn't really plan on, was just how annoying it is to setup every freakin' thing on a box in a tedious manner. I was told the stage-3 was the way to go, but I'm still compiling X and KDE and whatever-the-fsck-else I need just to get a GUI, two days later. This has several times made me want to chuck this installation out the window. The only reason I haven't is because my 'geek friends' and coworkers are all running it and keep quelling my pain by saying how nice it will be when I'm done. And they often help me set things up when I'm beating my fists on my notebook or extending a hand full of hair (recently pulled from my scalp).
For this distro to take off, the installation needs to radically be improved and simplified, and the OOBE (out of box experience) needs to be improved by an order of magnitude! I could have installed Fedora or any other distro and been up and productive by now, or by yesterday for that matter. I *really* like the concept of Gentoo and I *really* would like to see it gain the market share it deserves. Portage/Emerge appears to be a very powerful and intelligent idea. But 24-hour compile times on a Pentium4 2.0Ghz with 640MB RAM is just maddening, frustrating and ridiculous. I thought Gentoo was supposed to use the binaries when it can? Surely someone else out there has compiled KDE, X, etc. for a Pentium4 class machine... Why isn't emerge getting them for me?! *grrrr* Daevid Vincent http://daevid.com > -----Original Message----- > From: Scott Taylor [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Sent: Thursday, February 26, 2004 5:14 PM > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Subject: Re: [gentoo-user] Re: [gentoo-dev] No XFree86 w/ new license > > We've ALREADY been staring at the same version of XFree for quite some > time. It's not exactly the most progressive or actively developed > package in the world. Its about time we see motivation for OTHER > packages to get the spotlight, and breathe new life into an area that > had been growing rather stale. Hooray for competition! > > > On Thu, 2004-02-26 at 18:05, Bryn Hughes wrote: > > ALL the distro's are having this same problem though. The current > > version of X works and is still available under the license it was > > released under. There's nothing stopping anyone from continuing to > > work with it for the time being, it just means new versions aren't > > necessarily going to find their way in to gentoo or several other > > distros for that matter. I don't think this is a case of > saying "oh > > well, no more GUI" but we may be staring at the same > version of X for a > > while. > > > > Bryn > -----Original Message----- > From: William Kenworthy [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Sent: Thursday, February 26, 2004 3:16 PM > To: Donnie Berkholz > Cc: gentoo-user List > Subject: [gentoo-user] Re: [gentoo-dev] No XFree86 w/ new license > > I must agree that a gui is essential. Without this, most of gentoo's > user base will disappear overnight, as it will be useless for any > desktop application. Less users=less support, less development and > eventually oblivion. > > BillK > > On Fri, 2004-02-27 at 00:05, Donnie Berkholz wrote: > > On Thu, 2004-02-26 at 10:57, Stewart wrote: > > > Yes, it is a major component. Nay, it is a critical > component. Without a > > > GUI, we may as well write our source code on toilet paper > and distribute > > > it to the developers to be used appropriately. > > > > > > Graphical User Environment = Market Acceptance. Period. > > > > You make the assumption that part of what makes Gentoo what > it is, is > > having X. This is not the case. It doesn't matter what you say about > > market acceptance, if Gentoo is not provided by default > with X (meaning > > X is part of "system" in my interpretation), it is not a "major > > component" of the "operating system." > > > > D -- [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list
