Re: Are we losing users to Gentoo?
Hi
If debian is losing users to gentoo because of speed issues, just get users
from gentoo because of user-friendlyness.
I mean that it's not really user-friendly to have to spend a week-end to
install an OS... If debian can be the distro for normal computer users, it
will have more and more users. Believe me. And I think the "desktop project"
is a great idea in this sense.
Le Mercredi 20 Novembre 2002 10:50, Andrew Lau a écrit :
> Dear everyone in the Debian community,
> The question I want to pose today is "Are we losing users to
> Gentoo?" I hate to sound like a marketing departmen drone, but I'm
> becoming more and more disturbed since I'm noticing more and more
> 'random' outbursts on message boards about how 'cool' Gentoo
> is. Whatever happened to all the Debian evangelists?
>
> Whenever someone rants about Gentoo's processor optimisations
> and states some overinflated performance boost such as 10%-20%, all I
> can do is make a a feeble rebuttal stating that it's more like (insert
> low figure without much solid evidence - e.g.. 5%) with exceptions
> such as glibc, X, multimedia applications, mozilla and OpenOffice. So
> then they counter that it's still an increase. Ok, so what strengths
> does Debian have to make a comeback with? Unlike Gentoo, Debian has
> quality assurance and security teams. We have a strict policy and bug
> resolution procedures. But they won't listen and still say Gentoo.
>
> Yes, it's a waste of time more often than not supporting your
> favourite distribution in web forums, but shouldn't Debian just be
> good enough on its own that it speaks for itself? Perhaps this is what
> is making Gentoo so popular of a sudden:
>
> /me now points to Gentoo's About page prologue:
> <http://www.gentoo.org/main/en/about.xml>
>
> > He discovered lots of up-to-date packages that could be auto-built
> > using the optimizations settings and build-time functionality that
> > he wanted, rather than what some distro creator thought would be
> > best for him. All of the sudden, Larry the Cow was in control. And
> > he liked it.
>
> Silly, perhaps, but it still conveys the message that the
> Gentoo user is in control. Do the cutting edge enthusiasts in Debian
> have the same amount of control? Have we become so complacent at
> believing that since we have the some of the strictest policies and
> heaviest bug resolution/testing procedures around that we're the best
> distribution around that we no longer need to seek improvements?
>
>
> I know that there's plenty of logistical/mirroring reasons as
> to why we shouldn't duplicate a lot of the i386 tree by creating a
> i686 tree, but could we seriously not consider a partial i686
> optimised tree as a compromise to attract some of the Gentoo users
> back with our strengths in policy and testing? If not, then we need to
> find something else to offer to attract the cutting-edge
> enthusiast. The worst thing we could do is dismiss this
> completely. Remember the days when Slackware and Yggdrasil were the
> 'elitist's choice'? I certainly don't ever want to see Debian even
> come close to sinking.
>
> /me throws in obligatory social contract quote to finish off:
> <http://www.debian.org/social_contract>
>
> > Our Priorities are Our Users and Free Software
> >
> > We will be guided by the needs of our users and the free-software
> > community. We will place their interests first in our priorities. We
> > will support the needs of our users for operation in many different
> > kinds of computing environment.
>
> Yours sincerely,
> Andrew "Netsnipe" Lau
>
> PS: Apologies if my rant here is a bit disconcerted, but I've got
> exams right now and typed this up fast since I was starting to loose
> sleep over it = P
--
Julien Olivier
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