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And unlike in other rolling release distros (or at least unlike in ArchLinux; [citation needed]), emerge is smart enough to keep older versions of .so files so

And unlike in other rolling release distros (or at least unlike in ArchLinux; [citation needed]), emerge is smart enough to keep older versions of .so files so you're less likely to get unusable system/programs due to partial upgrades: [0]. I really cannot use Arch on personal computers simply because sometimes I need to keep various packages at older versions for various reasons (bugs, coredumps still in TODO, sensitive processes still running, whatever), so I inevitably end up choosing between bar+libfoo.so.X, baz+libfoo.so.Y, and rebuilding everything from scratch. (Edit: and I also cannot install older version of baz 'cause it's already gone from the mirrors.) [0] https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Preserved-rebuild https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Preserved-rebuild

Jach 9y ago
Yeah. Plus things like quickpkg (make a backup of your older installed package whose version may no longer be in the tree), demerge (record states of installed packages and configs over time), slots (conflicting pkg versions like gtk2 and gtk3 being installed at the same time) all make for more niceness. It's definitely possible to go overboard and get into trouble. But there's a lot to help. And with gentoo I was able to weather the gnome3/systemd madness and keep that stuff off my system despite having to keep around old gnome2 and udev packages until mate, eudev, etc. were ready. I don't know too much about Arch except the pain stories friends have relayed as they eventually gave up and switched to something else. Back when Arch decided to make Python 3 the default python well before it was ready someone on IRC quipped "<dash> well that confirms my impression that arch was invented by a bunch of guys who thought gentoo was too stable and easy to use".
- bandrami 9y ago
  I haven't used Gentoo in about 10 years, but maybe I should give it a look again. I remember seeing it allows musl as a system C library, which is cool. I think mostly I just prefer the pace of Slackware though.

Jach 9y ago

Yeah. Plus things like quickpkg (make a backup of your older installed package whose version may no longer be in the tree), demerge (record states of installed packages and configs over time), slots (conflicting pkg versions like gtk2 and gtk3 being installed at the same time) all make for more niceness. It's definitely possible to go overboard and get into trouble. But there's a lot to help. And with gentoo I was able to weather the gnome3/systemd madness and keep that stuff off my system despite having to keep around old gnome2 and udev packages until mate, eudev, etc. were ready. I don't know too much about Arch except the pain stories friends have relayed as they eventually gave up and switched to something else. Back when Arch decided to make Python 3 the default python well before it was ready someone on IRC quipped "<dash> well that confirms my impression that arch was invented by a bunch of guys who thought gentoo was too stable and easy to use".

bandrami 9y ago
I haven't used Gentoo in about 10 years, but maybe I should give it a look again. I remember seeing it allows musl as a system C library, which is cool. I think mostly I just prefer the pace of Slackware though.