alt Hacker News> Linux defaults (GCC, automake, system libraries)
Last time I tried Gentoo desktop I ended up with 8 separate autotools versions, and gcc & glibc was not that far behind in count. And just like in https://xkcd.com/927/ every C developer tries to improve the situation by creating another build system.
This is also why I stopped using Gentoo. I used it regularly from 2004-2005 (which I admit was a very long time ago now) on my graphite G4, because support was very good for PowerPC. But then one day emerge suggested I update glibc. I don’t know if I botched the update or if it really was suggested in error, but I was just starting my studies in CS so I did not know what that particular “library” did and said yes. The update must have included an ABI change. Not surprisingly, the machine did not come back up after a reboot.
Gentoo was fun while it lasted (fluxbox user here!). I decided that MacOS X wasn’t so bad after all after that.