About Gentoo 1.4...

[klieber]

[fmalabre]

[klieber]

[Ulot]

This is a suggestion to lower the number of complaints:

Like klieber said, most users don't understand what it takes to make a release. All the moaning and groaning from the masses is from lack of information. Best bet would be to let people in on this info via a chart like the open-beos one. A vague look at the release cycle would be nice.

On the other hand, solid release dates are not that hard to setup. People/companies all over the world do it everyday and meet those dates. Most project management of software is sloppy. Even in this case saying "x number of weeks after the release of gcc 3.2" would be more than enough.

It wouldn't hurt to have a non-release date. If you tell everyone that it will not be released in a week, it doesn't hurt anything. Best case is that it is released within the week and everyone gets a suprise (yippie kay ya!). Worst case would be that it is not released, you were true to your word, and no one has any reason to be upset.

My guess is that no matter how much (or little) correct info, there will still be a complaint or two...

I'll take the "when its done" for now, but I'll be the first to complain once I start shelling out bucks for Gentoo.

[ErikT]

I agree. It's not that Gentoo 1.4 is not here yet, it's the total lack of information. It's actually quite annoying.

The soon-after-linuxworld-release-date, the weird .1.4-directory, the lack of real info and telling people to look at these speculation threads in the forum. How hard is it to write one or two sentences saying "Sorry, 1.4 is going to take a couple of more weeks at least"?


/Erik

[masseya]

Sorry, 1.4 is going to take a couple of more weeks at least.

If you believe me you can't lose, just like Ulot said.
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[klieber]

[splooge]

Well since the install disc is pretty much a seperate entity than portage, and the only thing really different about the install disc is a few extra options to connect to the internet to get the install started (ppp, isdn) .. I see no reason to get so antsy over the 'official' release.

Simply, get the 1.2 install disc (If it works, you won't need the 1.4 disc I will *assume*) and instead of extracting the stage1 1.2 tarball, wget the stage1 1.4 tarball and extract it instead, then continue with the install as normal. Either way, whether you use the 1.1, 1.2, or 1.3a install iso, you can still get a fully functional system with a complete up to date portage tree. At that point, the install disc doesn't matter.

They also just released a new kernel patch for testing, release 9 of the gentoo-sources (Which works great for me), I imagine they're now trying to work that into the new iso's they're making. I assume that should take quite a bit of time, so be patient =)

I've found that they're (the developers) quite busy and constantly updating everything they can. Check out their changelog and watch that and see hwo they're coming along instead of asking "whenwhenwhen"

http://www.gentoo.org/index-changelog.html

[hubick]

I myself never said anything about wanting a date. status != data

And klieber, I realize your system for figuring out the release was mostly tongue in cheek, but if the gentoo developers did follow that, it would never get released. I am a programmer, and I have been running Linux for a few months short of 10 years now, and I have a half decent notion that creating a distribution is a monumental undertaking. You could fix bugs forever, and never release. When you do decide to make a release though...you usually have some idea of what functionality you want it to have - once you have made your major architectural changes then it's just a matter of making that functionality mostly work for most people.

Now, in an ideal world, Gentoo would have status reports like this. Failing that, I would gladly settle for something like this.
See, other projects manage to do it.

[klieber]

[markyd]

So if I maybe so bold as to ask, what exactly is the difference between 1.2 and 1.4?

Does gentoo 1.2 + gcc 3.2 = gentoo 1.4? Or is there something else in the mix?

I guess what I'm asking is:
If I install gentoo 1.4beta on my system will there be any difference between it and a system 1.4 final system. "emerge world" pending..

In other words are the remaining features/bugs related to an easier install cd? Or do they have a more system design nature to them. eg the way emerge works.....

Most experienced gentoo users would be happy to install the 1.4beta tarball if all that the final cd offers is an easier install. In this way we'd all keep quiet.

PS I can relate to the pressures that the developers are facing with the release of gentoo. Managing an open source project myself, I understand how hard it is to get everyone to commit to a date. All we are asking is for a little info.. (well more than 1.4 is coming...)

[konstk]

Why are people waiting for 1.4?

Just use the 1.4 tarballs in the hidden /1.4 directory.

What's the difference between that and 1.4 anyway.

[fmalabre]

[markyd]

I guess that is as they say the million dollar question......?

Could one of the developers answer this? I'm sure we'd all appreciate it.

[TuxFriend]

[yokem55]

I think it is important to emphasize that this is Gentoo's biggest and most important update since the 1.0 release. As Gentoo's popularity has grown over the past months, the importance of making sure that the 1.4 release goes smoothly and without any bumps or bruises has also grown. You can bet that come the announcement there will be a big Slashdot thread and this place will be flooded with people trying Gentoo for the first time, not to mention that the package and rsync mirrors are going to be loaded. All this means that even though the software may be 99.999% ready to roll, everything else that is necessary to make the release a successful one (mirrors, updated docs, updated iso's and tarballs, etc) still take a lot of time to get put together and debug.

[konstk]

[fmalabre]

[Milez]

[pjp]

[markyd]

So from what I understand then.. All that the final iso has to offer us is a nicer install (vi etc)...

So we can all (the impatient ones) install gentoo 1.4 now. Providing that the hidden directory is the current build that the above link refers to.

[klieber]

[phong]

For the record, .1.4 is running on my main system and has given me fewer troubles (none) than other gcc 3.x versions. Also, has anyone else noticed the very new 1.4_rc1 version on ibiblio? I'm guinea pigging a system at work with it right at this moment...
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[kyron]

I really don't get what all the fuss is about... I installed Gentoo a few weeks ago with the 1.2 package (never looked back at Mandrake since!! ) I followed Spyder's recommendations to go from GCC 2.95.3 to 3.2, success (though I wouldn't have snobbed the scripts that came later on).

As far as I can tell, with all the regular "emerge -u world" and "qpkg -ui -l| xargs emerge -u" that I have been performing, I figure my system is pretty much up to date with the latest gizmos out there....

Hell! I even had to change my /etc/make.prefs so that it would now point to the 1.4 profile (2.0 dissapeared...figured it out after 3-4 emerge rsync ).

And having read the above mentionned post, I see that all the new "bells and whistles" are in the installation process...woopdy doo...I am already running Gentoo so why such a fuss!? Is there something I missed... will I be missing some super-duper-incredible features if I don't go through the tarball installation (I think not...)

N e wayz, I'm just hapy they put vi in the install CD , somehow prefer this to nano....don't know about pppoe support though...
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