An opinion from a newbie to linux.
I got SUSE Mandrake and gentoo I did the graphic install using SUSE and Mandrake and learned NADA. I didn't know what the ..... was going on. I had non-functional systems that I knew NOTHING about I was just like a common windows user that comes to me for help.
I went looking found gentoo. The handbook had all the info I needed.
I installed a stage 1 install:
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1st time BOOM screwed up wrong partition number in GRUB,
2nd time screwed up again SATA drives rename,
3rd times the charm got it
Yes it took three times. Were the three times aggrivating? yep.
Would I have been happier with an installer HELL NO.
I'd never have learned
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how GRUB counts partitions(1st is 0 not 1)
SATA can be named different under different kernels (HDE=>SDA)
The aggrivation just made the memory sink in better. I did some emerges and blew up pieces of the system, I learned about the masking and keywords. I reinstalled the system 5-10 times trying different things when I ran into trouble I searched the forums & google(dogpile,etc), posted in the forums Files like
fstab, grub.conf, or commands like
ls -al suddenly had meaning.
As a sys admin + programmer + open source (was project data manager), I can see the reprecusions of adding all the eye candy. SUSE and Mandrake do it to become the mainstream OS as they NEED to make that sale to stay in business that is their market the people switching from windows that want a free OS without having to know anything about it. Gentoo has never billed itself that way, its always billed itself as for people wanting to
do things yourself NOT
the do it for me crowd, or at least thats what all the articles I read and all the attitudes in the forums have been.
The installer and genkernel are both nice thoughts but for what purpose?? What is the main benefit?? Bring more of the
do it for me crowd in?? There is a diference in someone not knowing how to do things and a someone not caring nor wanting to learn. Is the best utilization of project resources eye candy??
make menuconfig is extremely simple to use. I knew nearly nothing about linux and 4 months ago I followed the handbook, and did a successful stage1. Add anything and you increase your maintenance overhead and complicate the issue. What worked 4 months ago will not work now!! WHY?? Stage 1&2 by the handbook are no longer doable on my amd64 which is sad. Looking inside my .config file there are options that I can not get to in menuconfig or that are --- out (agpgart for one).
Why are the limited resources that could be utilized to make gentoo better being used on things, that are not near as important?? Look at the issue with the reiserprogs a while back that blew up things all over for a lot of people(me included) did that happen because people where working on a installer and therefore stretching other areas thin??
I have gcc3.4x nptl,udev,hal,ivman on an amd64 box, last install was forced to be stage3 (muttering under breath).
My vote is for gcc3.4x,nptl, udev, hal, ivman, 2.6 kernel headers by default, and rather than an installer or genkernel, how about a menuconfig that lists
ALL of the variables in the .config and allows them to be set. Mark them in red, do an "are you really sure?" but don't not put them in or make them unalterable.
agpgart not being able to be set right now means that my nvidia card is fubar that means a lot more to me than a purty installer. Of course if some people being able to use their harware isn't as important as eye candy I guess I can understand.....(frills are soooo impoortant)
Of course I can try manually editing the .config but everyone says not to as it may cause other reprecusions, but if every time I need to set some var in menuconfig it not alterable then editing by hand wll be the norm rather than do in dire need only.
Trust me on that one 
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