Gentoo 2008.0

So it's no secret that I use Gentoo. If you've been following the rumours lately you would think that Gentoo is in strife. Daniel Robbins made lots of people believe that there were project, legal, developer, and direction issues. Most of his facts appear to be correct, however I cannot agree with his conclusions.

The State of New Mexico NFP status is not a big deal - sure it's a little embarrassing, but papers got lost, people got preoccupied, and now the papers have been re-filed[1]. Sure the council has had a few resignations, but a new council will be instated, followed by elections, followed by a better process for ensuring it doesn't happen again.

Sure there wasn't a release in 2007 - but there were various security concerns and a breakdown in communication. What you may not realise is that Gentoo doesn't need regular releases, because the entire system of packages goes through a constant upgrade cycle anyway. For example, when I used to install Redhat and then Fedora, major releases would usually introduce a new major Gnome or KDE version. Without the new release CD, you wouldn't be able to get a lot of new packages. Even with the new release CD, Fedora would often blow away my filesystem anyway. With Gentoo, KDE 4.0 is currently in the tree, and people are successfully installing and using it.

Nevertheless, a new release is on the way[2]. Pencilled in for final release in mid-march, there are a lot of new features and processes. Including linux kernel 2.6.24[3], if testing goes well. A new security discussion has been set up, so that Release Engineering knows what the issues are directly.

The final issue, IMHO is the communication between devs and users. They will never completely agree on everything, but that's a fundamental difference that shouldn't be changed. At the least there should be some communication - and the releng looks to be addressing that too. There is a new mailing lists to help new developers (gentoo-dev-help), a user survey planned, and a call for comment on the new release[4].

So Gentoo is not perfect, nor is any distribution. At least from what I've seen over the last few days is they continue to learn from mistakes, which means the will continue to improve and grow.

[1] http://archives.gentoo.org/gentoo-nfp/msg_01347.xml
[2] http://www.gentoo.org/news/20080123_releng_beta.xml
[3] http://www.gentoo.org/news/20080125-2.6.24-kernel.xml
[4] http://www.gentoo.org/news/20080124_releng-feature-request.xml

A new office

Along the lines of my other workplace stories:

I work for a software, electrical and mechanical style company. My part has always been software related, so where I work is not always important. With the exception of the occasional PLC to program, or switchboard to test, I can work from home, work, plane etc. We've suggested before that the software "arm" of 3 - 4 people move closer to the city, freeing up some space for other employees that need to be near our workshop. This has always been knocked back straight away though.

Recently things have been looking up for the company in general, which is good news. However, I hear rumblings that the MD / GM type people want to open a new office close to the city - coincidentally in the same suburb that these people live... I wonder if there will be enough room for me, but then do I want to work there (given who will be in the same office...)?!

Dear Mum

Here's a poem that I wrote (I think - I found it on my computer) for Mother's Day last year. One of the problems of having a bad memory is that I can't even remember my own blunderings... Anyway, I'll retain copyright on it until someone finds the original. I seem to recall putting it in a Mother's Day card. Feel free to use it (for non-commercial use :)

Dear Mum,
Today's a special day for you,
A day we tell you how much we care
For all the things you've done for use
From clean clothes to brushed hair!

So today let us look out for you
We'll clean up, wash up, smile
But it's not just Mother's Day that counts,
We'll do this every while!

Geek Code

It's been around for a long time, but is it dead?  Well, maybe.  Anyway here's mine updated:

-----BEGIN GEEK CODE BLOCK-----
Version: 3.1
GCS/MU d? s++: a- C+(++++) UL++++ P+++>+++++$ L+++$ E+ W++ N !w t@ tv++ b++
DI++++ G h r+++ y++++
------END GEEK CODE BLOCK------

Final Destination for Gnome?

The Gnome 2.22 (and 2.24 - 2.x) roadmap has been released [1].

I wrote in July about the anti climactic release of gnome 2.18 [2] and I was hoping that Gnome would release some exciting features for the user and for the developer in the next few major releases. Well, I am once again disappointed. 2.20 seems add instability, and the outlook for 2.22 is grim.

According to the Gnome Footnotes RSS feed:

The roadmap is based on feedback from current GNOME developers and other community members.

We hope this roadmap increases the awereness about the future steps of the project inside and outside the community and helps us to look forward and plan where we want to go.

I find it hard that community member feedback has not included better gnome-screensaver management (Gnome still ships with only 4 basic screensavers, among other issues); or better evolution stability and usability (evolution 2.12 locks up for longer and more frequently than previous versions on simple actions like changing folders; it still does not show the correct account when sending mail, and so on).

Gnome, I still use you, but the reasons are becoming fewer and fewer. When the only remaining reason is "because kde takes too long to compile" then perhaps you will fall into the application graveyard, where we sometimes visit to pay our respect, wondering "whatever happened to ..." or "they were good once".

[1] http://live.gnome.org/RoadMap
[2] http://nthrbldyblg.blogspot.com/2007/07/gnome-218-prepare-to-be-underwhelmed.html
[3] http://www.gnomedesktop.org/node/feed