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Graphical Gentoo Installer In The Works
JonLatane writes "Without a doubt, Gentoo has set itself apart from every other distro out there. Because it's source-based, it's notorious for its speed. Because of emerge, it's notorious for being simple to maintain. And because of its "install system" (if it can be called that), it's notorious for scaring off potential users before they even get to try it. Well, that's all going to change, because there is a graphical Gentoo installer in the works. It can run with a dialog frontend that bears a striking similarity to Ubuntu, or for faster systems a GTK+ frontend is available."
Must be a slow news day if this is all they can compile.
Do you have to compile this thing first?
Seems so. After all, my LFS CLI is wicked-fast.
You can never go home again... but I guess you can shop there.
I just spent all weekend compiling my Gentoo system and it is WAY faster. Next I plan on adding one of those cool neon lights and a clear side panel. Man this thing is going to be smoking fast!
The time has come for a serious discussion on whether or
not to continue using C for serious programming projects. As I will
explain, I feel that C needs to be retired, much the same way that
Fortran, Cobol and Perl have been. Furthermore, allow me to be so bold
as to suggest a superior replacement to this outdated language.
To give you a little background on this subject, I was recently asked
to develop a client/server project on a Unix platform for a Fortune
500 company. While I've never coded in C before I have coded in VB for
fifteen years, and in Java for over ten, I was stunned to see how
poorly C fared compared to these two, more low-level languages.
C's biggest difficulty, as we all know, is the fact that it is by far
one of the slowest languages in existance, especially when compared to
more modern languages such as Java and C#. Although the reasons for
this are varied, the main reasons seems to be the way C requires a
programmer to laboriously work with chunks of memory.
Requiring a programmer to manipulate blocks of memory is a tedious way
to program. This was satisfactory back in the early days of coding,
but then again, so were punchcards. By using what are called
"pointers" a C programmer is basically requiring the computer to do
three sets of work rather than one. The first time requires the
computer to duplicate whatever is stored in the memory space "pointed
to" by the pointer. The second time requires it to perform the needed
operation on this space. Finally the computer must delete the
duplicate set and set the values of the original accordingly.
Clearly this is a horrendous use of resources and the chief reason why
C is so slow. When one looks at a more modern (and a more serious)
programming language like Java, C# or - even better - Visual Basic
that lacks such archaic coding styles, one will also note a serious
speed increase over C.
So what does this mean for the programming community? I think clearly
that C needs to be abandonded. There are two candidates that would be
a suitable replacement for it. Those are Java and Visual Basic.
Having programmed in both for many years, I believe that VB has the
edge. Not only is it slightly faster than Java its also much easier to
code in. I found C to be confusing, frightening and intimidating with
its non-GUI-based coding style. Furthermore, I like to see the source
code of the projects I work with. Java's source seems to be under the
monopolistic thumb of Sun much the way that GCC is obscured from us by
the marketing people at the FSF. Microsoft's "shared source" under
which Visual Basic is released definately seems to be the most fair
and reasonable of all the licenses in existance, with none of the
harsh restrictions of the BSD license. It also lacks the GPLs
requirement that anything coded with its tools becomes property of the
FSF.
I hope to see a switch from C to VB very soon. I've already spoken
with various luminaries in the C coding world and most are eager to
begin to transition. Having just gotten off the phone with Mr. Alan
Cox, I can say that he is quite thrilled with the speed increases that
will occur when the Linux kernel is completely rewritten in Visual
Basic. Richard Stallman plans to support this, and hopes that the
great Swede himself, Linux Torvaldis, won't object to renaming Linux
to VB/Linux. Although not a C coder himself, I'm told that Slashdot's
very own Admiral Taco will support this on his web site. Finally,
Dennis Ritchie is excited about the switch!
Thank you for your time. Happy coding.
Can women block pops up for you?
Yes, they can. Believe me. It depends on "uglyness", and I do not mean it only from the physiological point of view .
CC.
...gentoo users are notorious for failing to comprehend the implications of their system philosophy.
REM Old programmers don't die. They just GOSUB without RETURN.
So how's she doing now anyway? I haven't seen her since we were at school together. Michelle, her name is right?
Get your own free personal location tracker
You forgot -Wall (makes my system run so much faster)
"Without a doubt, Gentoo has set itself apart from every other distro out there. Because it's source-based, it's notorious for its speed. Because of emerge, it's notorious for being simple to maintain. And because of its "install system" (if it can be called that), it's notorious for scaring off potential users before they even get to try it. Well, that's all going to change, because there is a graphical Gentoo installer in the works. It can run with a dialog frontend that bears a striking similarity to Ubuntu, or for faster systems a GTK+ frontend is available."
How long until this quote appears verbatim on http://www.funroll-loops.org/?
I'm laughing very hard. Beautiful.
-Aaron
My name is Aaron Landry, and I approve this message.
Hmmm -- from the POV of a college-aged daugher, I'm not sure that this would be a Good Thing.
As it is, when DD tells guys that she runs Linux, they're impressed. When she tells them that she runs Gentoo, they're in awe. When she tells them that she did a Stage One install, those who aren't running away in terror fall on their faces and worship her.
As a father, I like it that way: most of them running away in terror, the rest face-down on the ground. I sleep better.
Lacking <sarcasm> tags,
I don't know whether to give you points for trying or to just point at you and laugh.
Yes I do -- I need a good laugh right now, and you'll do nicely.
Lacking <sarcasm> tags,
Because of emerge, it's notorious for being simple to maintain.
Notorious
You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.
I don't consider my machine to be a beast, 1.4 tbird with .5gig ram (pc133) it only took me two days to get up and running. That includes Xorg with accelerated drivers, Gnome and all the trimmings from stage 1, everything from source except the closed video drivers. Most of the time I wasn't even home. I'd just ssh home from time to time to make sure it was still bussy. I think your post is a bit more trollish than the orignal. More to the point, I think this whole busness of the gentoo install procedure being difficult is a misnomer. The gentoo handbook is an extremly thurough walkthrough, I'm no *nix expert and I managed to configure my kernal. Granted I can read at almost a grade 2 level so I have that over the common masses.
codohundo
I prefer to do my own pimping, dad just helps with the networking.
I am a linux woman, a combination of the two things in life you will never understand.
"because you told gcc to unroll some loop (-funroll loops)"
Wow... I just realized it was "Unroll Loops" and not "Fun Roll Loops"
Maybe they can come over my place to install gentoo for me.
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