[ale] Web server OS

[Jeff Hubbs]

Pat Regan wrote:
>
> The important part about that 5 year support is that I have a pretty
> reasonable guaranty that I'll have the same major revision of each
> packaged piece of software for 5 years.  If I have servers that are
> chugging away happily with the software they have installed, I'd much
> prefer not to mess with it until I have to.
>
> It takes significantly less time to test the small number of packages
> that get security updates than it does to test everything that just
> happens to have incremented its version number.
>   
Who would need to?  I sure don't.  If I care about, say, OpenSSH and 
Apache on a server, I can watch those packages for updates and emerge 
them when ready (or, I can automate that so that it emerges when it 
becomes available even if I'm not aware, although that may be a little 
dangerous)
> I don't have a problem with the idea of a distribution that is just the
> newest working version of every piece of software.  I think it is a
> wonderful idea, and I think it has its place.
>   
That's not quite what happens.  Most of the time, the "current" version 
of a Gentoo package is not the newest one in the Portage tree; if you 
want to go newer, you can, and Portage will sort out the dependencies.  
The package maintainers make the call as to when a given version of a 
given package becomes current.
> Laziness, impatience, and hubris.  I don't know how much impatience you
> have, but we both seem to have enough hubris.  I think you just need to
> learn more laziness :)
>   
I feel like you've read me wrong.  I don't have any more hubris over 
Gentoo than I can really work up over my stove when I'm cooking; I turn 
the knobs and it heats up stuff, just like I tell it to.  I can't say I 
exactly feel burdened by it, either (although things like WiFi and 
accelerated video can be a bit of a chore).