Re: [MiNT] Gentoo FreeMiNT

[Alan Hourihane <alanh@fairlite.co.uk>]

On Tue, 2010-02-02 at 11:57 +0000, p.slegg@scubadivers.co.uk wrote:
> I am puzzled by this. I am not having a go Alan, I just have
> no idea what this project is. Can you enlighten me ?

Gentoo is a package manager really. You can see more here....

http://www.gentoo.org/proj/en/gentoo-alt/prefix/index.xml

> The gentoo website hints that it is just Linux, although like most
> linux things it's as clear as mud http://www.gentoo.org/

Gentoo's package manager runs on a variety of OS's just that it
originated on Linux.

> Is Gentoo Mint just another distro ? Do we really need one ?

For me, yes we do.

> It sounds like it is just a tarball at the moment, what's
> wrong with Easymint ?
> 
> I am not a fan of automated installers but RPM has worked well
> for me, no major issues to report although some installs and
> updates have been a bit awkward. I use a GEM-ish tool and
> it doesn't always work and I have to resort to the cli.

Well, I actually loathe RPM's. The language used to describe them is
horrible and cumbersome in my opinion (and it's just that). Gentoo's
ebuild strategy is easy to understand and flexible to update. Plus you
pretty much get a bunch of ebuilds for free to build lots of packages. A
few minor updates and they'll work on our FreeMiNT system without a
problem.

> The Sparemint website is looking a bit stale with no package
> updates in years and years.

Right.

Alan.