RSS 
So, I took the plunge and upgraded to gcc 4.1 and glibc 2.4.
So, I took the plunge and upgraded to hardmasked Gnome 2.16
Ok, so I took the plunge and did them at the same time. I emerged gcc 4.1 and glibc 2.4. The instructions say a full re-emerge of everything is recommended to avoid any problems. So I figured since Gnome 2.16 is out and I have to recompile Gnome among other things any way, why not upgrade it.
Well, after 3 or 4 days I had my freshly compiled system and Gnome 2.16 which I must say is their shiniest release ever. It's really shiny. I do like it.
Anyways, then unfortunately the problems started showing through the cracks. Tomboy wouldn't load. Sticky notes crashed if you clicked on it. Gedit crashed why trying to delete anything or possibly just move the cursor up. That was all very well and problematic so I figured I'd re-emerge a few things again and some with the DEBUG use flag to see if I could make things better.
Then the show stopper showed up. My laptop now powers down. Kind of often under load. I can't for the life of me figure out why. It really really shouldn't be doing this since it made it fine through about 4 days of straight compiling so I'm really hoping it isn't some hardware problem or I'm hooped. Of course if it's not hardware then my system is now so unstable it powers down. Especially under load. Which is bad. And probably points towards a full and fresh reinstall. And some hoping it's software and not hardware...
Anyways, it's times like this after I've unsuccessfully spent days compiling and gibbled my system that my thoughts invariably turn towards Ubuntu. It's the grass is greener on the other side syndrome. I forget the problems of Ubuntu and just get seduced by it. With it's reasonably guaranteed stability, ease of upgrades, it's fairly cutting edge desktop, and tight integration. (Problems I forget are things like what a pain it is to set up a dev environment and how it's nearly impossible to compile a kernel modules which a gentoo system can do before it can boot itself.) Still, the current line up of software for Edgy (due out in like less than 2 weeks) is pretty impressive and maybe everything I want from my desktop. And since I need to do a reinstall anyway what better time to flirt again with Ubuntu and see if it can woo my laptop away from Gentoo. We shall see in a few weeks. So stay tuned for a reasonably hardcore Gentoo user's impressions of Ubuntu.
Fear not though, my desktop and server will remain with Gentoo, although I suspect I will manually hardmask gcc 4.1 and glibc 2.4 on both of them after the troubles I've had on my laptop with them. Especially the server. I can't afford any down time really and especially the downtime it would take to do a full reinstall. Maybe I'll upgrade my desktop or maybe I'll wait till 500GB harddrive prices drop some more and do a full reinstall on it in the new year with Gentoo and new glibc and gcc then. Now more upgrades of those for me now though.
