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[flux <flux AT sourcemage.org>]

Juan Carlos Torres (jucato AT sourcemage.org) wrote [09.09.29 22:13]:
> Greetings mages,
> 
> Sorry if I dropped off from the face of Freenode so suddenly. Had a bit of
> mixed problems the past weeks: academic, personal, and SMGL-related as well.
> I'm going on a sort of self-imposed vacation for a while. Just at home, but
> mostly offline. I will still read emails, so if something important needs my
> attention, let me know.
> 
> But less importantly, I'm considering at the moment temporarily switching
> distros, hopefully just for a while. The main reasons are convenience and
> skill. Convenience because a lot of the times, I need stuff now, and not an
> hour later after compilation. These aren't the regular updates that I can do
> while sleeping. But even those usually take a day to finish (since I don't
> do them everyday). Of course, the logical solution would be to upgrade,
> which I'm planning to do and accomplish hopefully by the end of the year or
> Q1 2010. By then, this "convenience" factor will be moot. (Sometimes though,
> I wish we had split KDE builds, but that would go against the spirit of
> SMGL. And I don't really mind. I just need a faster box :P)
> 
> And skill, because I really don't have the time or know-how to track down
> everything to make things work. My experience with CUPS, X, udev/hal, and
> recently even KDE gave me a really painful slap in the face that most of the
> times, I'm as clueless as "average Joe". When I started in SMGL, I hoped
> that I would learn more about GNU/Linux, sort of like a guided LFS.
> Unfortunately, I have had very little time to do so. In time, I will of
> course improve. But on my own time and pace, not forced into a corner
> because something broke or isn't working.
> 
> The good news is that I find nothing wrong or broken about Source Mage (yes,
> not even the "environmental" factor). The expectations I had when I chose
> SMGL were all met and still hold true. Which is why I'm sort of looking at
> Arch Linux as it seems to be the binary distro that's somewhat closest to
> what I loved in SMGL, sans the fantasy theme (recommendations welcome as
> long as it's a binary distro and not Ubuntu :P). Hopefully I can get a new
> box soon and I'll be back.
> 
> P.S. Sorry for not having been able to faithfully perform my duties as a
> scribe and for leaving Tome in a state where almost all its members are..
> um... missing.
> 
> 
> Regards,
> 
> Jucato.

I'm sorry to hear that you've been having troubles, but don't feel bad
about taking vacation. You've earned it, and if it's needed anyway, then
it's better for you to take one even if you haven't earned it. ;)

I'm actually glad to hear that your reason for switching distros is not
because SMGL didn't meet your expectations, but rather because you don't
have the hardware resources available to dedicate to it. Thankfully I
don't need to update my own packages all that often, and I don't have
any large suites to update (like KDE, GNOME, etc.), so when I do update
it isn't quite so painful. However, I loathe updating gcc on my systems.
My solution is just to not update. I'm definitely not recommending this
as a solution to others, but I just wanted to share how I cope with the
same problem. I'm hoping that when llvm matures enough to be able to
self-compile that it will still be as fast as it is now, and maybe (just
maybe) compiling a tool chain won't take hours/days.

I wish you the best of luck and a speedy recovery. Enjoy every moment of
your vacation. Although we will miss having you around (well, I can
speak for myself at least), SMGL will still be here waiting to welcome
you back (hoping you do manage to find your way back). If you do decide
that another distro is really better for you though, don't be a
stranger. Come in and say hi once in a while. :)

-- 
Justin "flux_control" Boffemmyer
Cauldron wizard and general mage
Source Mage GNU/Linux
http://www.sourcemage.org

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