Gentoo Linux Cancels Distribution

“For some Linux distribution projects, new releases come twice a
year. That had been the plan for Gentoo Linux this year, until it
canceled its current planned release — the second time it’s done
so in the past 12 months.

“But the news doesn’t necessarily mean a setback for the
project.

“Instead, Gentoo developers said they are pushing a new model
for their distribution — one that eschews the conventional release
wisdom used by Red Hat, Novell, Debian and others. Instead of fixed
releases, Gentoo is promoting its vision of a live, continuously
updating distribution. In practice, that effort revolves around its
weekly minimal images, which are then supplemented with customized
installed packages.

“‘We need to work harder to communicate the relative irrelevance
of releases in a live distribution like Gentoo,’ Gentoo developer
Donnie Berkholz explained to InternetNews.com. Releases ‘have an
overly large impact on what non-Gentoo users think of the health of
the distribution, so problems with a small team within Gentoo are
magnified in their effect on public opinion.’

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