What is Gentoo Linux
What is Gentoo Linux?
The following image simply couldn't put it better.
Gentoo Linux arguably is, and this is always a matter of debate for Linux advocates, the most configurable distribution of the Linux operating system. Gentoo uses a command-line driven software package called Portage to manage and configure the software installed on the system (also known in the Linux community as a package manager). Portage utilizes "USE flags" to enable or disable various components within each package. USE flags can be set globally or per package. For more information on Portage and USE flags, check out the Using Portage section.
Many Linux distributions, such as Ubuntu, use as many binary packages as possible. Some of the advantages of binary packages include quick installation, minimal testing requirements which speeds up the availability of packages from developers, commonality, and simple configuration. Binary packages are available in Gentoo, but most of the packages are built from source. Using specific compilation options in your make.conf file along with package specific USE flags allow you to build custom binaries for every package based on your system's architecture. In a nutshell, this means that using Gentoo, you can configure the software on your system to run as fast as it possibly can based on your architecture.
Gentoo's configurability doesn't come without a cost however. Compiling code takes time, so a source-based Gentoo installation, even with someone versed in portage and Linux systems, can take 3-4 times as long as installing Windows or a binary based Linux distribution such as Ubuntu. Another consequence is because of the high level of configurability, most of the installation, configuration and package management all need to be done using command line tools. This is a huge deterrent for many users. Developers have tried for years to build a graphical based installer for Gentoo, but this almost defeats the purpose of Gentoo, and as a result most of the documentation you'll find for installing Gentoo follows a minimal command line based approach.
At the end of the day, the single most apparent trait Gentoo has pertains to the image above. After performing a Gentoo installation and building a working system, you will know every single thing about the architecture and configuration for you computer. You will, in turn, build your own excitement: brick by brick. Most importantly, you need to decide, "Is Gentoo right for me"?