Gentoo on a laptop
 

Soon ill be the 'proud' ;) owner of a Dell Latitude 120L (1.40Hz, 40GB HD, 256mb ram)

I was wondering I will be able to install and run Gentoo 2006 on this thing or should i be using another version. I know the installation takes some time and effort but im already familiar with it.
Only thing idd like to know is if it will be working or should i use an older version. O, wireless support should come in quite nice..

Thanks in advance!

It'll work fine, just make sure you keep it plugged in at a wall during the install as compiling would kick the shit out of your battery otherwise. Obviously it'll take time but if you're okay with that then best of luck to you.

Are laptops really intended for the type of CPU usage that is required to run a source distro like Gentoo? I know people do it all the time but it would seem difficult to imagine that they were designed for that kind of intense and prolonged CPU activity.

It depends on the laptop. Some laptops have got better hardware specs than some desktops.

Using an older version of gentoo would be pointless. All source gets downloaded from the web anyways, and at the most up to date version based on your last rsync. So regardless of your starting point you'd end up with the same system in the end.

Yes, that makes sense. But even so it would seem likely that the hardware usage required would still go beyond the design construction. For example, compiling a modern desktop environment like KDE or Gnome could take half a day or more on even a very nicely equipped lappy, and would any general usage laptop be recommended to consistently handle that type of a brute force workload?

You are right, but some Gentoo and FreeBSD users are doing it.

well thanks for all the responds till now.

Seems like compiling all the stuff will take some time, but again, im fine with that.
I think the CPU can handle it, and otherwise ill learn it the hard way.

But im still curious if it will run fine after installation, btw desktop is going to be XFCE, a light one :) I don't like the heavy desktops...

Make sure you can get plenty of air to it. I put mine on blocks to get air underneath, and point a desk-fan at it.

Too hot, and they just stop for no apparent reason during emerges.

syg00 has a good point, laptops run hotter than desktops because of the confined space and compiling a distro...well...just keep an eye on how hot it's getting.

Thanks for the advice :) Maybe ill just take off the covers so air can do its work better.

Thanks, thanks, thanks!