[GRLUG] FOR SALE - 16-Cores, 128GB RAM, 3.2TB, RAID, 2xFX4500 Graphics

[john-thomas richards]

On Fri, Jul 24, 2009 at 04:14:24PM -0400, Michael Mol wrote:
> I didn't arrange for any meaningful benchmarks.  I don't really think
> there is such a thing, either.
> 
> My two big reasons for using Gentoo are the incremental upgrade
> philosophy (no apt-get dist-upgrade every six months, no reinstall of
> a new annual release), and that I often need to be on the bleeding
> edge versions when I do thinks like media processing.

The idea of an apt-get dist-upgrade (or aptitude full-upgrade) *is* an
incremental upgrade.  Since you cited a dist-upgrade as opposed to just
an upgrade I assume you were not running stable (since stable doesn't
allow upgrades that could remove apps, hence no need for a
dist-upgrade).  When I ran Testing (and will again soon) I ran
dist-upgrade on a frequent basis (three or four times a week), thus
getting the incremental upgrade.  One could use the same argument
against Gentoo that you are using against Debian, ie, I prefer Debian's
incremental upgrades over rebuilding Gentoo every six months.

Now "bleeding edge" may well be a reason to not run Debian.  Debian
Sid (Unstable) has only had the 2.6.30 kernel for a short while.
Testing is *still* on 2.6.26 (as is Stable).  It would be difficult to
argue that Debian (proper) is anywhere near bleeding edge.  It's
possible to add unofficial Debian repositories but you would lose the
quality control of Debian in doing so.

> I did blog on the subject about a week ago:
> http://mmol-6453.livejournal.com/144877.html

Gentoo is far too much work for my tastes.  Debian Just Works (for me).
-- 
john-thomas
------
Metaphysics means only an unusually obstinate attempt to think clearly
and consistently.
William James