[plug] Dropped Mandrake RPMs for Gentoo package management

[Bob Linus]

I got tired of RPM failures and packages that weren't on the bleeding
edge of computing.  As I can just now access gmail with a javascript
capable browser with firefox compiled, I am just posting to the group
after a successful but long 12hours to 2 days gentoo install.  Gentoo
was a lot of work just to get basic parts installed from scratch. :)

Hardware specs: Pentium 3 450mhz, 128mb ram, 20gb hdd, adsl
Happy to get X windows, fluxbox, xterm with scrollbars, and Dillo
browser going?  Weird huh?  I was happy when editing /etc/fstab by
hand brought back old memories of days gone by, without messing it up
seriously.

I was stuck between wanting to play with Gentoo, FreeBSD, and Debian. 
Each has their strong points for the job you're looking for: Gentoo
seems development and bleeding edge tech oriented, FreeBSD seems
security and stability minded, Debian seems practical for the global
populace. :)  I wasn't sure about Arch Linux, which seemed practical
also.

http://distrowatch.com/dwres.php?resource=article-rpm
This article is what I was referring to.  It's exactly what I've
experienced through time.
I've used RPM management exclusively since playing with linux
distributions, but really haven't seen RPMs manage entire system upgrades
or last longer than 6 months before desiring to grab the latest
distribution of so-and-so rpm system, which hopefully fixed the
remaining problems while upgrading all at once.  Incremental upgrades
seemed always talked about in *nix, but never experienced it while using
RPM based distributions (RedHat/Mandrake).  Of course, it's still easier
to backup and upgrade than Microsoft, even this way. :)  Microsoft still
has no such animal that lets you upgrade _all_ your software (including
non-OS software) on the system _all_ at once without paying for your
car and your children first. :)

Article quotes: 
--------
Opinion
What are your experiences with the RPM package format? Do you
install/uninstall RPM packages frequently? Do you upgrade every time a
new release comes out? If so, does it go smoothly? Have you ever
switched to an RPM-based distribution form Debian or Slackware? Have you
tried other packaging formats? Have you tried source-based
distributions?

3. What's wrong with RPM?
Four things. Upgrading an RPM-based distribution is risky at best, it
has created enormous fragmentation between distributions, the developers
are forced to take this fragmentation into account when creating binary
packages and it is directly responsible for bumps our foreheads. There
is at least one distribution (ESware) that has moved from RPMs do DEBs,
but I don't know of any movement in the opposite direction. Similarly,
there are many users who have moved from RPMs to DEBs, but very few who
have chosen the opposite path.
--------
That's all I will quote.  

Distro rankings from http://distrowatch.planetmirror.com/
Rank  	Distribution  	H.P.D*
1 	Mandrakelinux 	1417<
2 	Fedora 	1284=
3 	SUSE 	962<
4 	MEPIS 	921<
5 	Debian 	867=
6 	KNOPPIX 	823=
7 	Gentoo 	646=
8 	Ubuntu 	639<
9 	Slackware 	637>
10 	Damn Small 	508=
11 	FreeBSD 	407<
12 	Yoper 	378<
13 	Xandros 	372=
14 	PCLinuxOS 	350>