As happy as Larry (tech bovine extraordinaire)
I've been a user of Gentoo Linux for about a week now (no, it's not my first foray into Linux - it's just the first one that I've had a blog to write about it in!). The unusual thing about Gentoo is that everything is compiled specifically for the hardware you're using, which should result in better performance once it's installed. The downside of that is that it takes the best part of the weekend to actually install. In Gentoo's defence, there are apparently prebuilt installations available but in my case, I got the disc from Linux Format, who only included from-source installation as an option.
Seems to be worth it though. Portage (the package management system) is wonderful, the online docs are great and the community is outstanding.
Indeed, it's largely the community aspect that makes it special. With Red Hat now using the community to pre-test technology that "may eventually make its way into Red Hat products" (via the Fedora project) and Mandrake charging membership fees for access to their forums, it's quite refreshing that in the Gentoo Store, the t-shirt actually costs more than the OS itself! Sure, it's understandable that companies have to make money but it's still nice to see distros that are aimed at the enthusiast, rather than the corporate dollar.
And then there's Larry, the Gentoo cow, who I'm not going to comment on.
