Re: project status

On Sat, 2005-01-15 at 13:49 -0500, Michael Miller wrote:
> I personally think that in order for gentoo to reach the mainstream,

Wait a minute.  Who has *ever* said that Gentoo is trying to reach the
mainstream? or gain market share? or any of that bogus bullshit that
matters when you have money invested and are trying to make a return on
that investment?

> it needs, in addition to a graphical installer, great configuration
> tools. I know everyone always says RTFM. Look at it this way. Is the
> average joe gonna read a 100 page manual on how to use gentoo, or use
> something more simple like red hat or mandrake? Gentoo needs good
> tools for keeping itself up to date.

Those people can go use Mandrake.  I don't care.  I don't mean this to
be mean or anything, but allow me to explain.

I use Gentoo because I love it.  I develop for Gentoo for myself.  I
could care less if others like what I do, as my primary goal is to
please myself.  At the same time, I see a very large value in the work
others have done to please themselves, and most of that work pleases me,
too.  Since they were all kind enough to license it in such a way as I
can use it, I do the same as a courtesy to them.  This is how a
community-based distribution works.  We all scratch our own little
individual itches, and put the fixes into one big pot that is Gentoo.

Gentoo is not trying to take over the world or become Red Hat.  Gentoo
is trying to do *exactly* one thing, and that is to make Gentoo better.
All other things are just people trying to influence us into doing the
work they want done but have neither the desire, the skills, or the
patience to accomplish.

Maybe one day Gentoo will take over the world.  Maybe one day Gentoo
will be only me, holding on for dear life to something that I hold dear.
Either way, Gentoo will live on and I'll be happy with it.  Gentoo
doesn't *need* to do anything.  As you can see, we seem to be gaining
enough momentum on our own doing things our way.  There are many cases
where growth too fast causes a quick downfall (think pretty much
any .com company).  Specifically targeting your development solely to
ensure quick short-term gains is short-sighted and destined to fail.

"If you build it, they will come."

We don't need to hurry people along to join Gentoo.  We only need to
work at a pace that is comfortable to us and add the features that are
required to improve the distribution.  Dumbing things down does not need
to be a part of the equation, especially when the intended goal is only
to bring out "Joe User".

-- 
Chris Gianelloni
Release Engineering - Operations/QA Manager
Games - Developer
Gentoo Linux

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