Hello,

I have used both Gentoo and Debian and I have a a question regarding Gentoo that perhaps other Gentooers (is that a word?) could help me with.

The thing is, I don't really see what the big deal is with portage. Compiling source seemed uber-cool at first, but the magic has worn off. I find myself longing for apt-get where I could have a large program and all dependencies installed within seconds/minutes. Besides apt can compile source too if you want it to so I really don't see any advantage with portage. In fact the advantage seems to go to apt. Is there something I am missing?

well it's primarily a personal choice, but i'd never give up portage now. There are a number of reasons for wanting locally compiled software, primarily quoted as being able to take advantage of cpu extensions etc... here's what i think is a better practical reason.

Using gentoo at any level you should have come across the concept of "use flags". they let you add an remove support for hardware, libraries, functions etc... now a program that is eternally acused of being a git to install is mplayer due to it's may many dependencies (due to it's deliberate flexibility). now while apt is better than rpm in being able to resolve the deps, what if you don't want to add all that stuff to mplayer? it *will* slow it down having EVERYTHING enabled and built, and just just don't need everything. now using portage, you can change your use flags to remove support for... tv, network, xvid, aalib, alsa, dvd and so many other things that you don't want. and so you get an instantly tailored app to suit your needs.

you can't do that when the app comes precompiled... you're stuck with what the package builder decided was best.

anyway... the best things come to those who wait!