Here's the situation, I know everything runs well on my slackware computer, but I've been reading about Gentoo and how it's supposed to run more quickly. However, my computer is only a 586 (P5 w/ MMX, 200mhz), and I'm seeing that for the custom settings, it starts out with i686's, and if I wanted to do my computer, I'd have to do x86. Also, since this is only a 200mhz computer, I'd expect that it would take ages to compile everything, especially getting XFree to work, and probably KDE, since I love KDM(If anyone could figure out how to get KDM to install without having to install KDE, I'd love to know how), so I ask this: is it worth it? How much of a speed boost would I see? How much quickly and how smoothly would it make OpenOffice run on the 200mhz? Like I said, I'm on Slackware right now, so it's not like I'm on a fully-bloated RedHat, Mandrake, or Debian. And I do use XFCE4, not KDE or Gnome, so I'm running more light-weight things there. So, would it be worth it? Or only for an i686 or heigher machine?

I've got a 1.1 GHz Athlon and I didn't notice any difference worth mentioning. If I had to pick, I'd suppose Gentoo was faster, but that's all. And it took quite awhile to compile. If I was getting Gentoo just for speed, no, I wouldn't say it was worth it. However, the differences may be more noticeable at 200 MHz. However, it'll definitely take ages to compile. I believe you can cross-compile if you've got a fast box - then transport the system. But that seems like quite a complicated pain or I'd have tried it for my 586 (P100).

I do 'startx' and use/used primarily Black/Flux-boxes and IceWM and never tried the Office stuff, so I couldn't address the rest.

And I'm not sure what you mean about the custom settings. Gentoo can be compiled for anything that can run Linux, AFAIK.

Anyway - in sum - it's possible you'd notice a speed increase but I'd be surprised if it was much. And KDE and Office will probably be slow no matter what. But Gentoo is a neat system and worth a try aside from just speed. But Slack's still my favorite. YMMV.

This will probably make you stick with Slackware. I installed Gentoo on my 500mhz machine. It took around 15 hours to bootstrap and around 10 hours to emerge and update the entire system. I couldn't imagine how long it would take on a 200mhz machine. If you don't mind your machine being down for quiet some time then give it a shot. Otherwise, stick with Slackware.

you won't see much of a speed boost really, but there are other parts of gentoo that would make you love it compared to slack, i promise!

BUT as far as compilation times etc... you can easily download a fully prebuilt version of gentoo, so won't NEED to compile anything if you don't want to. once installed and running you can slowly upgrade apckages here and there until you eventually have a fully natvely compiled system.

but the idea of running OO on a p200... bit of a joke really.

I've done a stage 1 gentoo install on a P166 MMX. I couldn't get distcc to work correctly so I could piggyback compile off my athlon 2600 and by the time I noticed it wasn't working it was too late to just start over and fix it.

Estimated total bootstrap, emerge system time: 3 days

Thanks for the info, everyone. Since Slack is working for me and everything, I think I'll just stick with it. I'm already used to how it runs, and I understand it more than I used to. I guess this just proves the old saying:
"If it ain't broken, don't fix it."

If you want speed, but don't want to compile, try VectorLinux. I have both slackware 9.1 and Vector running and I have to say, VectorLinux is great. Since it is based on Slackware 9.0, it will be easy to migrate.