XMMS Autopsy: Spoons vs. Self-Sufficiency

Apparently, some people who read my original XMMS post took away from it a conclusion that I had not made. To boot, these people have hung those conclusions around Diego’s neck. Even the fact that the forums thread on the subject has gone on for 14 pages astounds me. I even know of at least one person who has written of the entire Gentoo distribution based on that package removal.

So let’s stop with the nonsense for just a minute and absorb this post, shall we? First of all, it’s a fricken music player. Second of all — Gentoo is about choice. That does not mean that we, the annointed developers, should present you with every single choice. No, it means that you, as a Gentoo user, are on a platform that empowers you to create your own choices. Ladies and gentlemen, the very idea of Gentoo and Portage are to provide the tools to make your own linux distribution. If you don’t like that XMMS was taken away — then create your own overlay! It can be done, you know. In fact, there are tonnes of overlays published at http://overlays.gentoo.org .

So for all you people still inclined to send hate mail to Diego, I say this: get over yourselves. The decision to remove XMMS was never in question. It was going to happen. GTK+-1.2 is also leaving the tree. It is going to happen. I’m sorry, but that’s just how it is. For people who want xmms, and want to be the “portage maintainers” of it, feel free! Take what we had in portage, stick it in your overlay, advertise it, and go! Take on the issues of maintaining it yourselves. In all honesty, that’s what you should be doing instead of feeling all this negativity and projecting it towards people. You’re wasting your time, everyone else’s time and a whole lot of energy on criticising someone who certainly does not deserve it.

Anyway, I just wanted to inject a sense of perspective in the mini-hysteria. Most of all, I think this XMMS issue needs to be put to rest already. The horse be dead. Beating it like a pinata won’t get you anything sweet.