Originally posted by Galen@Jul 25 2003, 10:11 PM
I'm just contemplating installing Gentoo Linux and I wanted some feedback from firsthand users. I have Red Hat 9 installed, but I'm looking to test out a few more OS's. 
I think Gentoo is easily the best distro I have ever used. The package management system is excellent. It calculates all dependancies for you, so no more RPM hell. The
http://forums.gentoo.org is the best Linux support forum I have ever used. The IRC channels are also pretty lively. The system itself feels a lot smoother and faster than others. It is also customised to suit your needs, since you are the one building the system. In addition there is a lot to learn from Gentoo. There are no wizards to guide you through configuration, therefore you get the configuration that you want.
A few bad points are that the system takes bloody ages to install. Although to be fair the Gentoo Reference Platform may cure this since binaries are provided. However, I still feel that installing from scratch is the best method. The fact that there are no wizards may make the system a little difficult to use for people new to Linux.
If you are a completely new Linux user I suggest that you go for a distro like Mandrake, Lycoris, Red Hat etc. The learning curve is steep with Gentoo but in the end when you fix a problem you feel that you accomplished something.