Recently I have ventured back into Linux. While I personally am quite happy with Mac OS X on the Desktop and (Free)BSD (and Mac OS X) on the Server, I do realize that there are valid reasons for sticking with PC Hardware for the Desktop.

Having tried SuSE, RedHat and Debian over the years I was left underwhelmed and in appreciation of the ports concept of BSD and the elegance (in form and function!) of OS X.

So when I switched my father-in-law away from Windows XP a couple of weeks ago, I decided to try something new and went for Gentoo. And while I've had a rough and disapointing start, I now can safely say, that that is simply because Gentoo (like many good things in life!) is an aquired taste.

Meanwhile I am installing my third Gentoo-based system (already using the Quickinstaller instructions instead of following the Handbook;-)

The general concept of Gentoo could (perhaps) be summarized this way: instead of booting into a colorful installation wizard, the Gentoo CDs drop the user into a fully functional shell (great for debugging or recovering systems). There are no install scripts or anything the like. All steps are executed manually at the shell propmpt. That sounds worse than it is. I.e. while you actually must issue a mkdir /mnt/gentoo/boot followed by (later, much later) chroot /mnt/gentoo /bin/bash to create the systems boot folder... on the other hand you got such goodies like being able to simply issue a /etc/init.d/sshd start followed by passwd and screen and can now log into the machine (still booted from the CD!), issue a screen -x and can continue the rest of the installation from the comfort of your WLAN equipped living room and powerbook ;-)

And just like the BSD ports system, Gentoo's portage way let's you a) get software you need and want compiled and optimized specifically for the machine you're installing it onto and b) that and only that. Once I've installed my first Gentoo system I really felt "at home" on it. I know what's running and where it is. I've been there when it happened, after all!

In the end I think it comes down to a compromise between power, control and ease-of-use. Distributions such as SuSE (let alone lindows!) emphasize the latter but leave the user with little control and thus little power. Approaches such as Linux from Scratch give you much control and power but little ease of use. For me, Gentoo is the perfect compromise. Do an emerge system -UD and you'll know what I mean ;-)