Post B24EU3IXiEpFWEvS52 by mid_kid@fosstodon.org
 (DIR) More posts by mid_kid@fosstodon.org
 (DIR) Post #B24EKsp9HlokQanxPE by mid_kid@fosstodon.org
       2026-01-06T16:37:33Z
       
       0 likes, 0 repeats
       
       In case anyone still believes #gentoo makes your computer run faster, I just spent a while noticing that my personal #firefox build functions way slower than the upstream builds, running benchmarks in a blank profile, recompiling with USE=pgo (w/ clang/rust LTO), and while it now gets closer, my own build is still consistently slower.I disabled USE=pgo on firefox in 2021 because it made the build time go x2 (4 hours, which isn't as terrible nowadays considering GCC/LLVM/Clang/qtwebengine).
       
 (DIR) Post #B24EKtvDCiGHpgeJUm by mid_kid@fosstodon.org
       2026-01-06T16:42:38Z
       
       1 likes, 0 repeats
       
       Of course saying something like this will get me people wondering "ok but what's the point of #gentoo then".The package manager and ebuild ecosystem is extremely flexible, extensible and hackable. Although I tend to show a bit of a love/hate relationship with them, I've yet to use a different distribution that is this simple to maintain while modifying from the inside out (USE flags and CFLAGS *really* barely scratch the surface). To me, it really embodies the open source hacker spirit.
       
 (DIR) Post #B24EU1cfwPk2K6KVBQ by xgqt@functional.cafe
       2026-01-07T10:16:46Z
       
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       @mid_kid I really do love the Gentoo ebuild "language" and eclasses, the only one downside I ever saw was turning on and off network sandboxing on demand (Exherbo's Paludis can do this) but that enables bad practice on relying on the net services that can change what they serve. Does any non-portage-based pkg builder has a concept of (e)classes - do DPKG, RPM, Void, Alpine, Arch have something like that?In fact I think the whole idea of eclasses is such a breakthrough that it is the whole point that somebody would decide to use Portage or... BitBake for example. BTW for a quick showcase: https://github.com/openembedded/bitbake/blob/master/classes/base.bbclass#L67
       
 (DIR) Post #B24EU3IXiEpFWEvS52 by mid_kid@fosstodon.org
       2026-01-07T23:07:13Z
       
       1 likes, 0 repeats
       
       @xgqt Void's xbps-src and Debian's build tools have the concept of a "build system", which defines the default build steps, each of which are overridable. Guix allows you to derive an entire package and modify phases or insert new ones after/before existing ones.The core concept of ebuilds works great, but I think it could use at least a variable redesign, as I wouldn't be able to tell you the difference between $ROOT, $BROOT and $EROOT off the top of my head.I also have a wishlist for it :P