Is the Gentoo population aging or getting younger?

[TheLexx]

It is in interesting question to ask, "Is the population of Gentoo users aging, getting younger or staying about the same?".

Gentoo users get upclose and personal with the code like choosing kernel options and many other details. This is in stark contrast to most modern plug-n-play-login-to-facebook-check-4squares users of today. Because of this, it is easy to imagine that all Gentoo users are Gen-X'ers that bought there first modem just after watching War games and Tron in the theater. If people like me are the only ones using Gentoo then that could lead to problems.

I would not suspect that Gentoo would be the first distro that Millennials would try, but I could imagine someone tiring of the offers from Microsoft and Apple deciding to try Linux. After getting hooked on the power/control of Linux migrating from an easy to use distro to an advanced distro such as Gentoo.

I think I should start a poll, but I don't know what the question would be. Did you use computers before 1995?. Did you have to be a geek/nerd to have a computer at home when you first got yours? Did you see the movie 2001 and wonder if computers will talk like that when the year 2001 comes around? Did you see the movie War games and think I need to get one of them MOE-DUM thingies for my Commodore/Atari? Did you ever argue about whether Commodore or Atari made the best home computer. Did you own an "IBM compatible" computer when IBM had any say in what constituted an "IBM compatible" computer. Or are you to young for any of that?

Well, maybe I'm rambling a bit. Bottom line, are there any on the next generation users interested in Gentoo?

[dmpogo]

Did you use computers before 1995?.
Yes, since somewhere 1984. Exclusively Unix since 1986.

Did you have to be a geek/nerd to have a computer at home when you first got yours?
No, the first computer I bought for home was 386SX laptop with Win 3.1 and Word 2 for my wife to write a book in 1992. I had no interest to go into detail
of what it does.

Did you see the movie 2001 and wonder if computers will talk like that when the year 2001 comes around?
No, never was interested in sci-fi, work in theoretical astrophysics was enough .

Did you see the movie War games and think I need to get one of them MOE-DUM thingies for my Commodore/Atari?
No

Did you ever argue about whether Commodore or Atari made the best home computer. Did you own an "IBM compatible" computer when IBM had any say in what constituted an "IBM compatible" computer. Or are you to young for any of that?
On a margin, see above.

Well, maybe I'm rambling a bit. Bottom line, are there any on the next generation users interested in Gentoo?

[NeddySeagoon]

TheLexx,

I would say the users are probably ageing. I know I am. I'm 10 years older now than when I started with Gentoo :)

I've been playing with computers for 50 years now, so to add to your questions ...
do you remember acoustic couplers
do you remember bulletin boards
do you remember the 4004 DRAM chip (4k bits, not bytes)
do you remember the great Prestel hack, or even Prestel at all?

There are many more ...

No, I didn't have a computer at home in 1963 and I was probably the only one in a school of about 1100 that had computer programing as a hobby.

[aCOSwt]

I would say the users are probably ageing. I know I am.

+1!
BTW, as ladies will never acknowledge this, this thread should enable us to count them reliably.

my 2cts :

- Do you get research!dmr in your contact list ?
- Do you get THUERK at DEC-MARLBORO in your blacklist ?
- Did you try to sue Teletype for being responsible for your parkinson's disease ?
...

[Hypnos]

The most important thing is that the users stay young at heart. I.e., regardless of age, keep up with new technologies and judge them on their merits.

All the same, as I've gotten older, I've placed a higher premium on elegance = simplicity + power. I've drifted towards a Plan9-ish view of software, though I still use XFCE, Mozilla and GTK+ GUI apps on a regular basis.

[TheLexx]

Humm, I seamed to have rambled on way toooo much in my first post. I am wondering if there are any young folks that are taking up the mantle of Gentoo. Or, will Linux and Gentoo become the model of geriatric computing.

[Hypnos]

I would start a topic titled "Are there any Gentoo users younger than 25?" and have a poll with various age brackets to choose from.

[shazeal]

My first computer was a ZX spectrum 16k, that makes me young right?

SCREEEEEWWWWWEEEEEWWWSSHHHHHH

[aCOSwt]

Humm, I seamed to have rambled on way toooo much in my first post. I am wondering if there are any young folks that are taking up the mantle of Gentoo. Or, will Linux and Gentoo become the model of geriatric computing.

geriatric computing
Hey folks, shouldn't we report that one ?

OK then, I would start a topic titled "What sort of Quiche Eater are you?" and have a poll with various prog^H^H^H^Hfancy languages to choose from.

Then you would'nt get any of us, Real Men, contributing.

[666threesixes666]

i am a time traveler from the 12th dimension. i travel forward in time at the rate of a second per second. technically the citizen is aging as is the gentoo citizen, and your question is irrelevant.

[Goverp]

Surely a poll is in order.

FWIW I remember paper tape and the days before the integrated circuit.

[Aiken]

Did you use computers before 1995?

Does a vic-20 early 80's count? Pascal on cpm machines and cobol on hp3000 1st year uni in 1984. Minix on the pc at uni plus whatever unix the pyramid ran. Did not take much for me to try linux when a friend showed it to me. I remember buying redhat 4.1 when it was still available in stores in 97. As that cd set had x86 + sparc + alpha in the 1 box it was quite handy at the time.

I know my father inlaw was making something with discrete ic and wire wrap but that was before I got my hands on his daughter and met him.

Oh well, back to my rug in front of the fireplace, a book, my hot chocolate and thoughts of children should get off my lawn.

[creaker]

...I've been playing with computers for 50 years now...

You're just a mammoth!
I've messed around computers since 1983, and I thought it is a very long period of time, but your 50 years experience - it is something unbelievable...
I feel like a little boy

[depontius]

I think I should start a poll, but I don't know what the question would be. Did you use computers before 1995?. Did you have to be a geek/nerd to have a computer at home when you first got yours? Did you see the movie 2001 and wonder if computers will talk like that when the year 2001 comes around? Did you see the movie War games and think I need to get one of them MOE-DUM thingies for my Commodore/Atari? Did you ever argue about whether Commodore or Atari made the best home computer. Did ou own an "IBM compatible" computer when IBM had any say in what constituted an "IBM compatible" computer. Or are you to young for any of that?

I went to the theater with my dad to see "2001" when it first came out - I'm not sure if on release day, but within a week or two after.
I was 13, and sat glued to the TV all day and into the wee hours on July 20/21 1969.
I was more disappointed at the lack of Pan-Am shuttles, wheeled stations, and Clavius Base than I was the lack of HAL-9000.
I was also disappointed that for the year 2001 NOBODY restored the footage and brought it to theaters for re-release in full 70mm glory.
Saw "War Games", as mentioned later, managed to skip an accoustic-coupler modem for a 300 baud direct.

Forget Commodore/Atari... I remember the RISC wars starting up and the whole RISC/CISC debate. I was at either ISSCC or CICC during the debate era when some CISC designer got quite upset, emphasizing how he could make his microcode engine SCREAM! Then I read the Byte article on the architecture and design of the Motorola 6809. I felt I'd found the "sensible middle", and my first computer was a Radio Shack Coco. I upgraded that bugger to the hilt, from 4k to 16k, to solder-stacked 32k, to bend-one-lead-up, solder a spare wire through a resistor to a formerly unused pin on the SAM chip 64k. Then I ran OS9 (Unix clone) on my humble little CoCo.
That computer was sprawlingly unreliable by the time I'd upgraded things that far. It was also a bunch of clutter, so when the opportunity came along for a good buy on the "IBM XT-286", my wife was all in favor. That machine saw every single piece upgraded except the keyboard, which is still in use today.

I still have at least one modem in the basement, either 28.8k or 33.6k. Not Win-modems, either.

do you remember acoustic couplers
do you remember bulletin boards
do you remember the 4004 DRAM chip (4k bits, not bytes)
do you remember the great Prestel hack, or even Prestel at all?

Yes, used them a little at work, barely managed to skip them for home, did start at 300 baud.
Yes, used them, too.
No, not specifically, though I did get samples of 2107 4k chips. My first job out of college was working test support for a 4k chip. Come to think of it, are you sure about that "4004" number being a DRAM? I thought the 4004 was Intel's first microprocessor. That and the 8008 both needed GOBS of TTL glue in order to work. The 4040 and 8080 were both much more integrated solutions than the 4004 and 8008, though both still needed glue. At least the 8080 also had the higher-integration clock chip (8224) and some support chips, as well. Here's a link - I had this: http://www.computerhistory.org/collecti ... /102673353 I also had a bunch of TMS-9900-series chips that they gave me when I was interviewing TI. Somewhere along the line I also picked up some AMD 2901 bit slices. (All of those gone now, unfortunately.)
No, however I was on Usenet the day GREEN CARD! hit.

[ppurka]

umm... where's the poll?

[nix213]

I started BBS'ing around 1993/94, back in the days of the 386, MS-DOS 4.01, thedraw, telix, and the 2400 baud modem. Anyone else remember the zmodem download protocol? Or Thunderbyte AV?

[John R. Graham]

... technically the citizen is aging as is the gentoo citizen, and your question is irrelevant.

I'm pretty sure he meant, "Is the Gentoo population as a whole, on average aging or getting younger?"

- John

[aCOSwt]

... technically the citizen is aging as is the gentoo citizen, and your question is irrelevant.

I'm pretty sure he meant, "Is the Gentoo population as a whole, on average aging or getting younger?"

Don't dodge the real issue John!

Have you ever used a Pascaline ?

[hadrons123]

Where is the poll?

I started on Linux 3 years ago and a Gentoo user very recently.
I have to find anyone younger than me in my area who would be even remotely interested in Linux let alone Gentoo.

[John R. Graham]

Don't dodge the real issue John!

Have you ever used a Pascaline ?

Well, no, but I have used IBM 026 and 029 card punch machines, which was over 30 years ago. Does Hollerith and EBCDIC get me into old fart territory?

- John

[NeddySeagoon]

The youngest Gentoo user I'm aware of announced his/her 13th birthday on the forums.

There was a survey of Gentoo dev ages a few years ago. I was in a group of one :)
The results were published on a closed list so I won't say too much more about the survey.

From my own observations, devs get interested in Gentoo late in high school or early uni and continue until they discover girls (almost all devs are male) in a serious way. A few devs keep going though those years too. Then there is a bunch of devs who have grown up children, so they have more time.

I suspect our user base follows a similar pattern for similar reasons.

[NeddySeagoon]

John R. Graham,

If you can still read EBCDIC punched paper tape by eye - yes, you qualify for an old farts badge.

[djdunn]

I was gonna say no im a youngin and im not part of generation X, but then i went and looked it up and yeah im a generation Xer...

[depontius]

Don't dodge the real issue John!

Have you ever used a Pascaline ?

Well, no, but I have used IBM 026 and 029 card punch machines, which was over 30 years ago. Does Hollerith and EBCDIC get me into old fart territory?

- John

I ran software *today* that deals with EBCDIC. There is a proprietary mask layout file type called "GL1" that originates in the old mainframe days, and has been carried over unchanged into workstations. Any text expressed in that format is in EBCDIC, and requires conversion both reading and writing.

[eyoung100]

I started messing with Linux around RedHat 5.3/6.2. I then tried SuSe 9, finding both to be bloatware, and not configurable enough. Mind you, I could configure the crap out of Windows 9x/ME. I never was comfortable using Linux as a full fledged desktop, but then I found Gentoo 2004.0, and configured Wine for EvE Online and now can comfortably say that the only thing I use Windows for is .NET Development --- I'm on the mono boat, but it isn't polished yet, and I hate to say that programmers must program for the 85% of uninformed computer users.

Now if I could only get Defiance and Rift to run stable without breaking after every patch, I'd be stuck to Windows for ASP.NET only....