[Sussex] Re: Gentoo problems.

[Geoff Teale]

On Mon, 2004-02-23 at 08:20 +0000, John D. wrote:
<snip>
> Da Nada Senor.
> 
> But mainly because so much of Linux is over my head. I honestly feel that the 
> relative complexity of "it"  is what gives so much ammunition to the 
> "anti-linux" crowd - and yes their seniment's are easy for one to sympathise 
> with.

John,

Part of the problem here is that you are working with Gentoo - it is a
fantastic distro with a lot of advantages, but it really is the domain
of the advanced user.

As some of you now know, I was talked into becoming a Fedora developer
by people whom I respect.  A large part of the clinching argument was
that the majority of people need a good working distro that is easy to
use _and_ powerful.  Although the likes of Lindows and Xandros have all
gone a long way on the ease of use front and debian, slackware and
Gentoo have the power at your fingertips only  the likes of Red Hat and
SuSE have proven themselves on the middle ground.  Most inexperienced
people do (and should) look to Red Hat, SuSE and Mandrake as their
principle Linux provider if they are looking to replace desktop systems
or home computers.   Now I know that Gentoo and Debian are more than
capable of fulfilling these roles (and are superior in many respects)
when they are in the hands of a skilled user.  I have waxed lyrical for
a long time about how great a Gentoo system can be, and there are enough
Debian fans here to sink the Queen Mary, but the plain truth is that
neither of these systems is consumer or business ready in the wider
sense, and in the case of Gentoo it's very nature means it never will
be.  However Red Hat and SuSE have been making a living in precisely
these communities for a long time, and they continue to do so, and to my
mind they are getting very, very good at it.

Now that Red Hat have basically opened up a bit with the Fedora project
(although that process, in my current experience is by no means
complete) we have the opportunity to make a really great distribution.  

To John (and other like him) I say this:

Please do persevere with Gentoo if your aim is to learn how a Linux
system is screwed together and do real productive work at that level, or
indeed if your aim is to get every last pennies worth of bang for your
buck.  You shouldn't criticise Linux for giving you this opportunity -
it's certainly not something you have the option of doing under Windows.

However, if your aim is simply to learn to use Linux or UNIX at a a
slightly more technical level than web surfing and word processing then
the likes of Fedora or SuSE still leave you plenty of scope to do this.
You'll find that in most cases they'll "just work".

-- 
Geoff Teale <gteale at cmedltd.com>
Cmed Technology