Josh Saddler

I just found some old reviews I wrote up on Ubuntu 4.10, Gnoppix .8.2.2, and Gentoo 2004.3. On a journal I don't use much, even. I know I tried Gnoppix first, a few months after I played with Knoppix. The latter didn't seem to warrant a review, even though it was better than all but Gentoo.

Notice the terrible time I had with Ubuntu Warty. The LiveCD worked; the install CD didn't. I tried to install it literally 16 times in a row before giving up. Now that I recall those days, there were several aborted install attempts before that final crazy string of attempted installs. Man, their installer sucked. You think Gentoo's installer has had some rough edges...

Anyway, reading all that old stuff is interesting. After using Linux for more than 2 years, I can pretty much figure out the sound and font issues (load ymfpci and install corefonts, then turn off antialiasing). Now, of course, I know why OpenOffice takes so long to compile...because it's OpenOffice! I shoulda gone with the -bin version.

It's nice to see that Gentoo is still just as good as I remembered it. It's one thing to have in my mind a golden, fuzzy picture of "the good old days", and another to read the review I wrote during those days confirming my experiences. And hey, it's still good now. I switched to Gentoo from Windows shortly before the review, and haven't gone back.

I am writing a Compiler Optimization Guide.

Fear me.

I'm writing this down to keep myself accountable. Even though it's maybe 1/3 complete and I feel uncomfortable doing so. I just spontaneously decided to tackle bug 68282 head on. I don't know why. Maybe I saw that it was sitting as RESO LATER for 3 years that caused me to snap. Maybe I just want there to be a more obvious place as to what the "official word" is from Gentoo. We do touch on recommended flags in the FAQs and in the handbooks already. Maybe those really aren't enough?

It will cover the basic recommended flags, a few corner cases, common misconceptions, discuss optimization theory in general, and touch on how Portage does a few things. There might be a quick FAQ at the end too. I'm remembering all the usual "what about this" or "zomg foo is so l33t" questions and statements that abound in the forums. A short FAQ might cover that.

If worst comes to worst and the rest of my GDP members don't want to touch it or maintain it, it will be prominently featured in my devspace.

I'm having fun so far; I just don't think I can get it all done in one day. I do still need to sleep before work later today (currently about 2AM).

I am writing a Compiler Optimization Guide.

Fear me!

Been awhile since the last update. As you may know, 2007.0 was released recently. Now that I've finished up the handbooks and some of the other related documentation, I can take a breather for Planet entries.

I just discovered this rather honest review of our new release at TechGage, so I followed up with a comment in this thread. A nice review, indeed, though the author didn't cover the ncurses-based installer (gli-dialog).

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In the coming days I'll be writing up a huge, possibly multi-part entry. I'd like it to be helpful and informative to all *nix users, even though it's being written from the perspective of a Gentoo developer, one with an aging laptop at that.

Hold on to your hats and other (possibly) decorative but functional apparel...

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Also: Perspective.