Gentoo supports just as many:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_Linux_distributions#Architecture_...
Yes, but Gentoo isn't supplying binaries. The amount of project time/effort to get all those Debian binaries compiled and out the door is gargantuan compared to the Gentoo source model. My point was that building binaries is one of the reasons it takes Debian so long to get a new release out. AFAIK, Gentoo isn't shackled with this issue.
Hmm, not as much as you think. Actually you can kind of turn Redhat into Gentoo if instead of distributing the actual binaries, instead you distribute the SRPMS and let the user build the software locally... If we just hold that thought for a moment (and kick some holes in the idea...) we can see that we would still need to build the binaries to check that the SRPMS actually build correctly. And more importantly we need to build them all in random permutations to check that other packages work ok in conjunction with them!
Gentoo is somewhat more complicated than this example because a given "package" can usually build more or less functionality by enabling option flags (USE flags) and hence testing a package is stable really involves considering not just whether the whole system will build ok with (say) Dovecot installed, but also whether it will all build correctly with Dovecot installed, but with/without SSL support, with/without POP support, etc, etc
So, I think all of the packaging options all have a good deal of
complexity and all deal with it very well all things considered...
Definitely though Gentoo does not just release a new source package and
mark it stable without quite a number of binaries having been built from
that package...
(Just to cover the flip side of this - people also get over hung up about binaries not being provided by upstream. I have a lot of servers to manage due to excessive use of vservers as a virtualisation option - what I do is use a common set of configurations across servers (or at least a minimal set, say one for web servers, another for mail servers) and then build packages only once and hence most servers simply pull down binaries. This means I can test on a single machine and then once that's verified as ok the other machines pull binaries down, much like a Redhat/Debian machine does)
Debian Stable has been averaging about 2 years between releases. Two years is a _LONG_ damn time to wait for a new rev of say, Dovecot.
Do you not think this is really a function of two main reasons:
Finite developers. Manpower is limited
Preference for correctness over "freshness"
Point 2) means that they tend not to call something stable until there is no reported bug at all filed against it with respect to any other stable package on any architecture? This seems to cause a lot of non trivial packages to wait a long time before being bumped simply due to the number of possible dependencies and the effect of point 1) above?
I'm not sure it's "wrong", it's just not always what YOU want..? I know it doesn't suit me, but then again I'm just one data point...
is fine. They just need to be Johnny on the spot WRT getting the new releases into backports in a timely manner. With Dovecot they're actually not that bad.
Seems to my uneducated eye that a lot of users of these "stability over freshness" distros (ie Debian/Redhat) actually seem to want "freshness" for large chunks of their system and end up patching in a bunch of extra repos which then in a way seem kind of counter to the ethos of the distro they chose in the first place?
It seems like a compromise would be for the likes of Debian/Redhat to have a clear split between "Apps" and "System" and offer the option to stay "fresh but tested" on the apps repo, but "stable and mouldy" on the System repo?
Anyway, Linux is all about choice so it's great all these options exist. I think it would be even better if we could try and get more of the distros to pull in the same direction mind... but it seems to be slowly getting there. Those who have strong unix kung-foo, definitely checkout a source based distro such as Gentoo, it's not really useful to those who just want a point and click system (most of the world), but for those who can dig a little deeper it's an excellent and often overlooked option!
Good luck
Ed W