Hello,
On Monday, November 27, 2017, Jigme Datse Yli-RAsku <
[email protected]> wrote:
> Is Skype "largely unusable" on Gentoo? It feels like about 3 days ago I
> was forced to upgrade because "this version is no longer supported" and
> to upgrade I had to keyword the latest version. If this keeps
> happening, to me, this is broken. And I'm not sure if the problem is
> that we are so far behind, that when Microsoft removes support we only
> just barely meet the requirements, or if there is something I am missing.
>
> I *do* like to keep my computer updated, but unless I misunderstand (and
> it seems that Gentoo has changed a lot since I started using it about
> 15-20 years ago (I think)) stable is the recommended way to run the
> system unless you want to go into "here be pesky programmes" territory.
> When I started, even "stable" was a lot more work than previously used
> distributions, but with Gentoo, I've always felt that with Gentoo, while
> doing "basic stuff" can be more difficult, other distributions have
> always been "if it doesn't work out of the box, it's probably not that
> worth trying to figure it out."
>
> I still feel that getting things working in Gentoo is always "a bit of
> work" and if it "doesn't just work" it often still can be done without a
> whole lot more work. But having to upgrade in a "manual way" on
> approximately a weekly basis just to have functionality tells me that
> something is badly broken (and I don't feel it is Gentoo in this case,
> but I need to have some better understanding).
>
> I know, that when I was trying to figure out just "what was supported" I
> actually wasn't getting good information...
>
If it is keyworded it is "supported" unless you are using very niche
software. This does not mean anyone will be able to help you fix things
quickly.
Unstable packages typically run well. I routinely fix issues by using
unstable or even unkeyworded packages over the stable versions. Most issues
arise when stable and unstable packages interact, usually due to breaking
interface changes. So, paradoxically, an unstable (or testing) system can
be more stable than a stable system.
If you fix an issue by using an unstable package you can request
stabilization. Sometimes people forget to do it. For a package like Skype,
though, I suspect it will be stabilized as soon as possible.
Cheers,
R0b0t1
