Distro Watch -- Why Is Gentoo Declining?

Xywa · Posted: Thu Oct 01, 2015 10:17 am Post subject:

In my opinion - Gentoo is NOT declining.

I think it is a so stable distro now (even my ~amd64), so it just running. I have another laptop with Mint (for kids), and (with 10 years Gentoo experience) I had many problem just to install it (!) just because of nvidia & nouveau mess. I never had such problem with Gentoo, even 10 years ago when was installing Gentoo for the first time. I could not find any good Wiki for Mint (like in Gentoo), so I have to spent a time on a forum, and... wait, for an answer. Try imagine those similar people like me, have to ask why X doesn't start, had a problemem (to fix it) run a tetxt mode (etc.). Those people make a traffic, so the distrowatch show the traffic as a popularity of such distro. Gentoo (stable) just work - no questions, very good wiki -> so low traffic and low position in distro watch.

The only reason I moved from Gentoo to Mintp in that laptop for kids, was (as I did not use it for over a year) - so plenty packages to updates. Maybe a I saved that time 24-48 hours for not recompiling it, but installing Mint took me 7 days, and I am wasting my time now, to fix something too automated Mint broke...

luiztux · Posted: Thu Oct 01, 2015 5:15 pm Post subject:

dalek · Posted: Thu Oct 01, 2015 11:37 pm Post subject:

Xywa · Posted: Fri Oct 02, 2015 1:38 pm Post subject:

Belive me or not, Yesterday, when noveau driver from Linux Mint Live CD frozed my laptop again, when I had NO options to run it in just TEXT mode, after FEW hours of trying I craied: I hate Mint!!!!!! The same like a guy here when volcano form Iceland frozen all flights in Europe - must wtach

))))))))
https://youtu.be/_-DAaWu3gTk

I wanted to destroy my laptop :twisted:

, but Today, I have spent just 60 minutes, I installed old fashion Gentoo in text mode - and believe me or not - it works!!!!

I am working now on other Gentoo laptop, watching this instalation, and its nearly 97 of 262 kde & X packages. No stress, no needs to sit next to system...

NeddySeagoon · Posted: Fri Oct 02, 2015 6:52 pm Post subject:

Xywa,

I use old fashion Gentoo with noveau and Xfce4.
I know it works :)
_________________
Regards,

NeddySeagoon

Computer users fall into two groups:-
those that do backups
those that have never had a hard drive fail.

ExecutorElassus · Posted: Fri Oct 02, 2015 7:18 pm Post subject:

Protip: When NeddySeagoon shows up in your thread, you know it's legit. Dude is OG.

PS- thanks for helping me fix a børked system back in, like, 2012, Neddy!

Xywa · Posted: Sat Oct 03, 2015 8:47 am Post subject:

dalek · Posted: Sat Oct 03, 2015 9:03 am Post subject:

NeddySeagoon · Posted: Sat Oct 03, 2015 9:12 am Post subject:

Xywa,

I would suspect a hardware issue in your case.
If it were a software issue it would happen to almost everyone, then there would be lots of posts here.

Thermal paste failure is popular in laptops. This causes overheating of the CPU/GPU even at idle.
The problem being that the heat is not transferred to the heat sink, so nothing on the outside feels hot.
lm-sensors will show that your CPU is running hot if it has on die thermal sensors.

Next, is clogged airways.

Electrical failure, RAM if you are lucky, is not ruled out.
I say RAM if you are lucky because its the only plug in part you can fix yourself.

Battery failure is a remote possibility. Lithium batteries have a failure mode where they go short circuit for an instant, then 'heal'.
Normally, your laptop just powers off suddenly, even if on mains power. However, any odd behavior is possible. This can be tested by operating the laptop from the mains with the battery removed. I have only seen this in batteries that stopped being usuful for powering the laptop a long time ago.
_________________
Regards,

NeddySeagoon

Computer users fall into two groups:-
those that do backups
those that have never had a hard drive fail.

Xywa · Posted: Sat Oct 03, 2015 9:21 am Post subject:

P.Kosunen · Guru Joined: 21 Nov 2005 Posts: 309 Location: Finland

Xywa · Posted: Sun Oct 04, 2015 4:02 pm Post subject:

atemv · n00b Joined: 09 Aug 2014 Posts: 63

russK · l33t Joined: 27 Jun 2006 Posts: 665

steveL · Posted: Fri Oct 09, 2015 4:00 pm Post subject:

1clue · Advocate Joined: 05 Feb 2006 Posts: 2569

While I've browsed distrowatch a number of times, their ranking of a distro has never affected my decision on what to install in any way. I never browse distrowatch to choose a distro.

I click on a distrowatch link when somebody on a forum mentions it and I wander around like I'm looking at critters in a zoo, with pretty much the same attitude: This is neat, but it will never affect my life personally.

Then I forget about it until somebody else posts a link in a forum.

Frankly I use a few different search engines to get interesting entries on what I'm after (e.g. 'linux distro source-based' or 'linux distro firewall') and then browse the main web pages for the distro, and maybe if I'm really interested in installing one I'll browse the forum to see what sort of community they have.

GFCCAE6xF · Apprentice Joined: 06 Aug 2012 Posts: 295

NeddySeagoon · Posted: Fri Oct 09, 2015 8:44 pm Post subject:

GFCCAE6xF,

Maybe its the CVS to Git changeover?
_________________
Regards,

NeddySeagoon

Computer users fall into two groups:-
those that do backups
those that have never had a hard drive fail.

GFCCAE6xF · Apprentice Joined: 06 Aug 2012 Posts: 295

steveL · Posted: Sun Oct 11, 2015 12:06 pm Post subject:

Well, whatever the technicalities, when it comes to distrowatch the answer is a simple:

Who cares?

Gentoo users don't distro-hop, because once you've experienced Gentoo properly, nothing else will do.