[Hudlug] A gentoo question

[Chris Wood]

hudlug-admin@mailman.lug.org.uk wrote:
> Hi folks
>
> I've been having a lot of problems recently with debian sid due to the
> change of default compiler from 2.95 to 3.2. I'm having to be careful
> to avoid dependency hell, and some of my KDE 3.1 packages are
> crashing in new and interesting ways.
>
> Would Gentoo get me out of all this by letting me compile everything
> myself?
>

I'm sure it would to some degree, but with beeding edge stuff you'll
invariably have problems.
I remember running slackware with a 1.1.17 kernel when I first started using
linux, and religiously downloading and compiling each new kernel the day it
came out.

Lots of them fell over, as dev kernels have always done, some wouldn't
compile, and I seemed to spend all my spare time answering questions in
'make config' followed by sitting watching files compile for 30 minute
stretches.
I got bored in the end, and went back to using the machine for much more
interesting things like browsing newsgroups and the web.
I don't tinker too much these days - I'm happy with my RH8 install - it
looks good, and works really very well. I don't care that I could send 3
days recompiling everything in gentoo so that it's fully optimised for my
hardware and maybe 5% faster. I wouldn't notice the difference...

I like the idea of apt - it's wonderful for getting new packages on your
machine if you are on a broadband connection, and I wish RH had it [I know
you can get apt-rpm].
However I really think it's use in non-stable Debian distros is asking for
trouble. I've a mate that insists on running the latest bleeding edge stuff
on his work machine, and blindly runs an apt-get upgrade every morning when
he gets into work. A year or so ago after doing this he found that nothing
worked any more due to some upgrade of glibc or somesuch that was broken
[soz - don't remember exactly what it was]. I'm sure thousands of people
spent the rest of the day tearing their hair out trying to get his their
machines working again. My mate certainly did, and our boss was not best
pleased, understandably.
He still runs an upgrade every morning, which probably goes to show
something...

> I think I might take a lieu day on monday to have a proper go at this
> over the weekend.
>

If you want to do it, then spend the whole day recompiling your OS just so
you can get the very latest version of KDE running. I can personally think
of lots of better things to do with a day off!
I'd personally wait a few months and let the disto maintainers deal with all
the headaches instead.

</rant mood="grumpy, soz, no offence meant">

C.