"Arttu V." <arttu...@gmail.com> posted fecdbac60906160512p588c72c3ma0e7a38d6b48c...@mail.gmail.com, excerpted below, on Tue, 16 Jun 2009 15:12:16 +0300:
> For example, IIRC the > default emerge printouts don't give you any indication that there are > actual later versions available (even just in the portage tree, let > alone in overlays which might not even be added locally). > > Thus, especially new users are bound to be vulnerable into going into > this OP's wondering-mode of "wtf, I thought Gentoo was supposed to be > bleeding edge, yet now I have the equivalent of Debian stable". :) > > Maybe some kind of small indication or hint of "later versions' ebuilds > present but using this older one" could be added to emerge's printouts? > Or has that been tried and found out to be bad? "Patches welcome?" FWIW, I think that's just part of the whole, "We document stuff, then expect our users to be big boys and girls and do their own adminning. We've never claimed to be there to hold your hand the whole way thru, particularly if you can't read the documentation" thing. Gentoo does try to provide sane defaults for stable users, and does actually quite well documenting how to customize things and the advanced tools and what they do, for those who prefer something more than the stable defaults. But it's really a shame how many users never read beyond the installation section (Part 1) in the Gentoo Handbook. I know from personal experience, because before I had Gentoo installed, I had read the entire handbook and had actually been following the dev, amd64, and user lists for weeks, how much more effective actually reading that extra documentation made me, to the point I was posting directions to people running Gentoo, about how to do stuff in Gentoo, before I was even up and running it myself! So if people aren't aware of all that's available to them, it's not because Gentoo hasn't made it available, or doesn't document it. It's there. But we aren't there to hold people's hands who can't read the documentation, and who equally can't ask in the forums or on the lists. If at that point they don't see the advanced stuff, it's probably for the best, because they'd only hurt themselves with it anyway, given they obviously can't see what's as close to right in front of their faces as we can manage, with every urge to read it Gentoo can provide. And, if at that point they decide Gentoo's not for them, it's probably because it's NOT for them. After all, we actually expect that people can actually "RTFM", and they're demonstrably incapable of doing so on either their own volition or the most urging we can do. So indeed, probably better they go elsewhere at that point. -- Duncan - List replies preferred. No HTML msgs. "Every nonfree program has a lord, a master -- and if you use the program, he is your master." Richard Stallman
