New Linux Distribution — Exherbo, Announced

An anonymous reader writes "Former Gentoo developer Bryan Østergaard recently announced a new linux distribution aptly named Exherbo. The distribution, which has been underway for a couple of months and is based on ideas and experiences from his long work with Gentoo, features a new packaging format and several subprojects, such as a redesigned init system. Currently no installation medium is available but their package tree is public for the daring ones who want to play with the upcoming distribution. The developers strongly discourage any serious use though, as it's still highly experimental."

Comments

NETCRAFT CONFIRMS IT!!

[Anonymous Coward]

Exherbo is dead..

So... many... emotions

[hansraj]

Exherbo is not, at the moment, a user-targeted distribution. It supports packages that the people involved find interesting or useful; it probably does not support your favourite desktop environment or applications. That kind of thing will come later -- there are plenty of other options for users who want a distribution that does everything badly rather than a few things well. I think they already achieved that milestone. Why not call it Release 1.0 already? Or maybe Release Candidate 1.0 in keeping up with the fashion these days?

Now really, why do they need to fork (yeah, yeah! They say it's not a fork) Gentoo? I think I just figured it out. It's so obvious:

Newer and faster processors are catching up with the Gentoo way of doing things. I can't describe what is the Gentoo way of doing things but I can somewhat describe what is not. A package completing its install, before a new release, is not the Gentoo way. So we clearly need a new distribution to show those new processors who is the boss and to keep the level of pain^W Gentoo Experience (TM) that we masochists^W Gentoo users enjoy.

Since I have already spent so much of my precious time enlightening the Slashdot population about this new distribution, I think I will go ahead and summarize parts of the announcement too. In particular the "Why the Need?" section.

It's not that we think that Gentoo is bad. ... yada yada

Aspects we find particularly problematic include:
* Gentoo (packaging) sucks
* Gentoo (management) sucks
* Gentoo (developers) suck
* Gentoo (users) suck
* Gentoo (developers) suck
* Why Am I Here? What's the purpose? TFA is a comedy gold!

PS: All the best to the developers. Can't wait to try it out!
PPS: The PS was made in all sincerity and its spirit should not be confused with that of the rest of the post ;-)

Re:Rationale for new packaging system?

[morgan_greywolf]

And what's wrong with RPM or DEB packages for handling source-based installs? Both handle the building and installation of source-based packages just fine.