Return to Gentoo
So, I’m no longer using Ubuntu on any of my computers at home (okay, its still on one box, but I don’t really use that one and will reformat it when I get the chance). It was fun while it lasted, but some things started to annoy me and I could not deal with it anymore. So, what bothered me? Here’s a short list:
- How bugs get fixed and pushed out. So, what does this mean exactly? Take for example this: bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/psycopg2/+bug/108067. This bug alone caused me great headaches at work since the package is completely useless on my 64bit installation. Not a big deal for one package, but if that is how they are going to handle getting fixes out, I’m not going to be too happy.
- I like being on the bleeding edge. There are lots of cool things in Ubuntu, and getting stuff to work is extremely easy (most of the time), but the turnaround time on getting new and exciting things is 6 months.
- The overall community. Yes, Ubuntu is easy, so the community that you have is not as technical as I’m used to. Yea yea, go ahead and say Gentoo is full of ricers (they are just a very very vocal minority), but there are certainly people that know more about how things work using Gentoo, so its a different atmosphere, and I like it.
Only a few things really, but I just got fed up and decided to switch back to what I know and am used to.
So, I’m back to using Gentoo now and slowly starting to look at bug reports again and trying to help where I can. Am I going to try and become a developer again? Who knows, I’m seeing how I like being involved again and take it from there.
Debian testing/unstable don’t have the drawbacks listed above.
Consider Arch Linux as a possible option to Gentoo. Although, I’m not sure how “bleeding edge” you want things. I know its more bleeding edge than Ubuntu! LOL!
I think this two distributions are incomparable.
By the way, thanks to the backports repository in ubuntu you can be bleeding edge now.
I agree with you.
you can test debian but gentoo is a greatest distro for anytime
first gentoo , then debian.
goodluck
Really good and really interesting post. I expect (and other readers maybe :)) new useful posts from you!
Good luck and successes in blogging!
Whoot, welcome back!
I think you expected more from the Ubuntu development cycle then they could give. There are the 2000 core packages(gnome,bash,firefox…) that get higher priority. If yours was not core, its basically someone recompiling a Debian source package for the Ubuntu environment. Any more fixes would be made by anyone interested through the MOTU process or a patch from you. So you could have contributed a patch if one existed, which would have made for the fastest fix. Ubuntu is more open to devs/fixes than Debian. The comment about the user community of Ubuntu being less knowledgeable on average is true because of its focus. Some folks ask veiled Ubuntu questions in Debian forums/irc because of the higher avearge knowlege. Debian has a 2 yr cycle, Ubuntu 6 months. I am not familar with Gentoo’s.
Really glad you’ve come back to Gentoo; from looking at the mail archives last year, you’re one of the old-skool greats.
Wow, it is nice to see Gentoo guys returning. I just finally made the move back to Gentoo. Portage 2.0 is much better too and wow, the compile times have sure improved since I left a couple years ago