Gentoo for Business?

[Tony E - Jaraeth]

> I have learned a great deal from Gentoo all the way from using chroot
> to to properly setting my locale. Whereas with Ubuntu and other sorts
> I keep feeling like I'm being told "its okay that you're an idiot, we'll
> take care of things". Now with it being in the corporate environment 
> I believe that Gentoo's place is slightly different, personally I think
> is more behind the scenes like a print server or log server where you
> can have time to get things all lined up and you don't need those extra
> cpu cycles for say.. handing out web pages. Just what I believe. You
> also have a great deal of control with Gentoo's USE flags, you don't
> need to compile support for something if you're not going to use it
> (why chance a possible security risk if you don't need to?)
>   
My company recently hired a few individuals, and we looked for a wide 
array of criteria.  People knowing Gentoo, weighed in somewhere near 
mid-range. Not heavily, but it wasn't taken lightly.  Myself, I run 
Gentoo on my personal home fileserver, and on my colo-box at work.  
However, I run CentOS at the workplace.  Gentoo's use of USE flags 
indeed gives people an edge, almost near the type of experience for 
running the standard autoconfig/automake "./configure 
--prefix=/usr/local --with-ipv6 --include-imap ..." spiel that one would 
expect in doing regular compiling.  While my job surrounds CentOS, which 
makes heavy use of "yum install pkgname pkgname-devel pkgname-libs", we 
do encounter an semi-occasional need to hand compile programs.  Knowing 
Gentoo helps prepare some folks for such tasks, as long as they aren't 
the type to "install and see how long it runs as is".

>>   ahhh... just go with the 20 year old!  He'll work for peanuts and
>> learn just about anything you tell him as long as you maintain the
>> 'startup' image around the office (bean bag chairs, wacky clothing and
>> eyeglass frames, etc.).  He will build feature-rich systems with his
>>     
>
> Ahhh yes.... I think this point of view is horribly misguided. Being
> 23 a lot of times people will look at me and see that I'm young, and
> therefore will not take my recommendations seriously, which is really
> starting to bother me. I can personally say that I don't make
> recommendations blindly. When I'm incorrect, I'll be the first to admit
> so. I hate people who automatically discredit me purely because of
> how old I appear. Working for peanuts, yeah perhaps, but that's usually
> because you need to grab a hold of the best opportunity you can get.
>   
Ok, so a tad bit off the course here... but... I'm not young, nor old 
either... I've helped my company interview new candidates for positions 
in my department by giving everyone a fair chance.  We have Systems 
Administrators who are or have been 19-21 years old, and we have those 
that are 40's & 50's.  We interview in stages...

1. Do we like your experience and notes you provide on your resume?   
College is good, and certainly weighs in. Have you provided your skills 
in a quick & easy readout? Novels will land your resume in the rejected 
pile.  Do your past jobs show your dedication to an employer, even if 
they're not in the same field... or if in the same field, how does it 
relate to this field?  Some resumes have included hobbies... which is a 
cool idea, providing those also relate to the position being applied for.

2. During the in-person interview, how well do you respond to 
troubleshooting role-play situations? How many operating systems have 
you tinkered with and used? How well do you know each?  We may not be 
looking for someone with CentOS experience, but perhaps we could utilize 
someone with another distro, like Debian, SuSe, *BSD, or even Windows.  
Do you know how to use ./configure, make, & make install?

3. Take our post-interview, 20 question Linux test.  It contains real 
life questions regarding troubleshooting and/or using Linux.  Even our 
Windows Admin's take that test... It's open book, and we don't really 
grade someone on how well they do, but how well they have researched the 
answer on the web.  Let's face it, Gentoo, CentOS or Ubuntu... if you 
can't search the information superhighway for answers to your tech 
questions, that someone else has most likely experienced, you may not 
cut it in a position that requires quick answers, or at least the know 
how on where to find them.

So, my point is, age *shouldn't* matter... your experience speaks 
volumes though.  Experienced "administrators" of any operating system, 
tend to pay attention to where to find answers they frequently use... 
and in some case, they keep a personal repository, or wiki webpage with 
just such information "just in case".

>> brazen can-do attitude and somewhat disconcerting and totally
>> irrational self-confidence.  Of course the rest of the people who work
>> for you and actually have a function will stay clear away from him,
>> but hey its a /startup/!  -jmz
>>     
> Based on what I know, a good sense of self confidence is not a bad
> thing, but when elitism develops is when the self confidence should be
> reviewed. 
> Granted you may have been trying to be funny but I believe you just
> reinforced this nasty stereotype. Unfortunately its because of this 
> that I honestly wish I was older. I'm not trying to be rude, just
> direct and to the point. Please excuse me if it seems that way.
>
> --Kevin K. Faulkner
>   
"elitism" *snicker* That reminds me of the following:

http://www.openfree.org/forums/showthread.php?t=14875

Many of us, myself included can all be guilty of elitism now and then.  
I am very familiar with Slackware, and many people call me an elitist 
due to my like of the Linux distro.  *shrug*

~ Tony E