Some comments.... Source code is more important than binaries, that we should all agree on.
Fixing bugs that such a project uncovers makes Free software more robusts and is good for the community. Source based distro's are more bandwidth friendly as the source can be reused to produce new revisions of existing packages. As a developer i would _much_ rather have a cache of old source code than a cache of stale binaries. USE settings are the best packaging innovation since apt. Optimised binaries wont run slower than non-optimised binaries. Performance is commonly stated as the number one goal of source distro's, i think its really about control, getting the most out of your system. Its pragmatism vs idealism, pragmatists say its not worth the effort, idealists say it doesnt matter how much effort it takes to achieve perfection. Arguing pragmatism vs idealism is futile unless we agree on common values. Debian does have finite resource so we have to be pragmatic in terms of what binaries we provide, but we can be more idealistic about the build system that we make available for our users. We have the begginings of support for user optimised binaries, but we have a long way to go before catching upto gentoo. We shouldnt be so wrapped up in our own importance that it blinds us to the community. Gentoo is doing something right. Glenn
