> In December 2006 I started a thread titled "Is Gentoo Healthy?" in
> which I was roundly put down for raising the possibility that the
> decline in the number of Gentoo users could possibly affect the
> remaining Gentoo users in a negative way.
>
> Is everyone still toeing that line? The Gentoo Weekly Newsletter
> hasn't been published in almost two months. Is Gentoo destined to be
> just another distro starved for contributors and struggling to stay up
> to date? If so, I really misjudged it. The meta approach of Gentoo
> is superior to any other in my mind, and I think it's growth and
> potential are being stunted by the "we don't need them" attitude which
> perpetuates Gentoo's lack of usability features for beginners.
>
> Gentoo needs as many users as possible to reach its potential. It's a
> short-sighted mistake to think that non-contributing users do Gentoo
> no good. Non-contributing users become contributors as time passes.
> Car mechanics all start as car drivers.
>
> - Grant
Hi Grant,
I think Gentoo is 'healthy', in the sense that it continues to
thrive. On the other hand I have, over the last 6-9 months started to
think of Gentoo as 'mature'. The distro has apparently become what it
is going to be. While that may not be all I hoped for it is clearly
worth while and a contributing member of the group of Linux distros so
that's great.
As a non-developer, general work-a-day Linux user I do feel that
Gentoo has lost some of its energy. Maybe that's all part of becoming
a mature distro. When I first started with Gentoo in (I think 2000)
this was a very lively place and it was clear that there was a real
push on to grow the tools, grow the distro, grow the user base. While
I think that today those metrics would still be considered valuable,
it is not my view that there is a lot of energy being put into taking
things to the next level. (Whatever the heck that might be!)
Anyway, I value Gentoo greatly. It's been a really great distro to
me. Folks have treated a non-IT Linux dummy like me with great respect
and for the most part a pretty gentle hand. I've learned a lot when I
wanted to. The documentation, in my mind, is second to none which
makes my life easier. (Sometimes....)
What's in Gentoo's future? I haven't a clue. I have wondered a few
times in the last year if I'd have to look for another distro one of
these days.....but I never have. Two to three years ago that thought
never entered my mind.
Hey Mark,
Thanks for the insight. I hope it never happens, but if the day comes
when Gentoo suffers a lack of contributors to such an extent that I
have to find a new distro, where will I go? Is Debian the only other
meta-distro out there? It's not exactly thriving is it? Is the
meta-distro concept perhaps flawed? The thought of installing the
latest Ubuntu release, wading through a bunch of software I'll never
use, and waiting for the next big release before anything is updated
makes me wanna throw up.
- Grant
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