k wrote:

It's analagous, though at a much higher level, to my argument against Linux. It's not that I don't like Linux, it's just that I spent at least half my time preparing to use Linux. For any task I wanted to do, there was always, ALWAYS, some sequence of events that had to be done first. And unlike on my mac, it wasn't "Download file, drop into Applications folder" it was, "read about font engine, move font files, run font compiler, fail to see fonts, realize that your X-server is one minor generation out of sync with your tools and the semantics have changed, download updated everything, recompile X, realize that the video driver now won't work, download and complile video driver, fiddle with settings, build tools, compile fonts, recompile gimp, and MAYBE now fonts will work. Some of them. Sometimes."

There's a simple solution to this. Stop using Gentoo, knucklehead. ...or Debian for that matter. You waive all rights to complain about having to administer the machine yourself when you install a distribution designed to make you administer the machine yourself.

If you don't want the hassle of dealing with the trivia of package upgrades, use one of the distributions that gives you a point-and-grunt upgrader (like Mandriva) and be satisfied with the way they put their binaries together.

RE: The Development Abstraction Layer - Joel on Software