[mythtv] Packages from source ? (Was: ANNOUNCEMENT: MythTV is moving to Github)

[Stuart Morgan]

On Tuesday 07 Dec 2010 00:41:35 Ed W wrote:
> > People WALK up Everest so they can boast about it afterwards. It might be
> > dangerous but very few climbers consider it to be a challenge any more,
> > just a tourist attraction for the rich and stupid.
> 
> I think your analogy is unfair.

I was making a point about Mt. Everest, I was not extending the analogy or 
making any comment about Gentoo.

> - Why use a knife (gentoo) when there are potato peelers and safety
> razors available?
>
> Personally I peel my spuds with a knife because I have spent years doing
> it and got good at it (all fingers still intact).  However, I give my
> kids a potato peeler so that they don't loose too many fingers (before
> they finish needing them to do the maths homework...) However, the
> potato peeler is limited when it comes to digging out the blemishes in
> the potato, slicing the spud up, etc, etc.

(Check out the lancashire peeler, held and used like a knife, has a point to 
pick out blemishes, very little chance of cutting yourself with it.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Faringdon-Collection-17840809-Lancashire-
Peeler/dp/B0000BVEY7)

Unfortunately a lot of people do cut themselves with Gentoo, they mess with 
things they only think they understand. A fair number of bugs we see in the 
mythtv-users irc channel, mailing lists and in Trac are a direct result of 
people (largely but not always Gentoo users) playing around with configure 
args and build flags. They break their builds which is fine, but then they 
blame us and expect us to fix it.

What's more, it's very difficult to persuade a Gentoo user to stop playing 
with the build. Even when you've pointed out the problem they will usually 
fight back - "What can't I build with <some option>? It'll be faster and more 
efficient! I should be able to build with/without that stuff!" - which is 
normally complete rubbish.

If 99% of users ran configure with --enable-proc-opt and nothing more then 
they'd get a working build and it would be just as fast. There is just no good 
reason for them to mess with the other options, or to play with gcc args, the 
defaults work well.
-- 
Stuart Morgan
MythTV