I think it largely depends on your hardware - if it is Linux friendly then installing Gentoo is not too difficult. It is has problems with Linux, then installing Gentoo might be a challenge, but then that might be true of other distros as well.
However for those who find installation a challenge, I can offer two suggestions:
One, try Vidalinux, which is basically pre-compiled Gentoo, installed with a port of Anaconda. Once up and running, I think it is pretty much the same as Gentoo, so it might be one way of easing the pain of installation.
Two - don't forget Gentoo is not the only source-based distro out there - and some others like for example Lunar, Sorcerer and Source Mage are all easier to install because they do use an installer rather than raw bootstrap process like Gentoo.

The main advantage to Gentoo is the ability (sp?) to tweak the source. The advantage is if you don't want PDA support in Evolution you can choose not to have it by modifying the USE flag(s). Of course this means you can cut features you will not use and have a leanner/faster system. The down side of course is the compiling time.

Which brings to me to a project I have been working on called "Gen3" or "Generation 3" Linux. It is Gentoo with a HUGE library of profiles with different USE flags set and unset in different profiles. You pick your profile or customize one and then you can download all the binary ebuilds (packages) you want that match the settings YOU want instead of having someone like RedHat or Novell selecting them for you.

The other advantage is that all the ebuilds are up to date and have the newest version of what ever app you want like apache, kde, Xorg, etc. which a lot of distros don't have and you don't have to spend 3 days compiling X, KDE and Gnome to get a usable desktop for most users.

That was my shameless plug and 2 cents

If you want more info just visit gen3linux.com in 2 weeks. A site will be there.

BTW incase you are wondering we are going to have lots of CPU power building packages 24/7 for the profiles so you can imagine what kind of options we have (lots!).

Joe

The Official Gentoo Handbook is very intimidating. I remember when I was first looking into installing Gentoo and right away I was very scared. The truth is that its extremly thorough which can be a good or bad thing. For the noob Gentoo installer, its a bad thing. They want to know what to type and when to type it. For the veteran installer its pretty neat. It can show you different tweaks that you didn't know about.

Think about how much you learn installing Gentoo. No GUI that does all the commands behind the scenes for you. Just you and your keyboard. That rocks if you ask me.

All i can say im its freaking drives me up the wall just having to compile some stupid program from source that doesn't have rpms for it and it takes like 5 minutes to do configure and make.

I'd shoot myself it it were compiling for a whole day, let alone a few days.
But its done me good to read all this i think now im switching to slackware from fedora.

if you install from stage 3 it will only take a few hhours... and you only do it once.
but whatever.... slackware is great too... aslong as you recompile the kernel.... the slackware binary kernel sucks pretty hard.

i just installed gentoo for the first time. had to do it twice cause i missed something about where the boot partition was (i put in what the manual said instead of what actually was on my system). all this talk about waiting for the thing to compile is a lot of bunk. i used a stage 3 tarball and while it still took awhile to install, i wasnt waiting days for it to compile. i also use the packages cd with pre-built binaries which makes installing things like kde that much faster. my machine is pretty generic (1gig P3, 512 SDRAM, 20gig drive, onboard sound and nic, nvidia quadro card 64ram) so i really dont need to compile for my system. im not looking for it to be the fastest machine on the planet, i just like learning.

yes there are plenty of distros that are easier and well suited for the desktop. if you want the world to use linux, then yeah, have them get mandrake or fedora or suse. if my dad ever got a computer and he let me build it i would put one of those distros on it because they are easy to maintain for someone who doesnt know much about computers at all

but distros like gentoo, debian, slackware can be just as easy, as easy as you want them to be. the debian installer is awesome. i heard that gentoo is working on an installer as well. i love debian. i can get that installed and running a kde desktop in no time. im sure that when/if gentoo comes out with an installer it could be just as fast. i really dont mind spending the time to install gentoo, it taught me a lot. i am actually not finished yet as i cant seem to get X working and into kde. gentoo is installed and it does boot, just need to do some more reading and research.

anyway, gentoo does not have to be a 5 day install, thats just silly. counting up the hours i have worked on this would probably be about less than 24, but i am in no hurry to setup a file server for my company

good luck to all who are installing/thinking about installing gentoo!

I think the point has to be that if you are setting up a file server for your company, 24 hours is too long. That is three "man days," and at $15.00, $20.00, $30.00, $40.00, $50.00 or what-ever, per hour, that adds up to an unwarranted expense because the company will simply not recoup that cost through performance gains.

Using Slackware as the example, a NFS or Samba file server can be up and running, start to finish, in under an hour if you know ahead of time how you will be configuring it.

Using $40.00 per hour (wages, benefits, training, employer FICA contribution, workman's comp, etc.) that is a labor cost of $40.00 to set up a file server using a binary distribution -- in this case, Slackware. Using the same per hour costs, and even factoring in that you don't spend the entire 24 hours parked in front of the Gentoo box, it is unlikely you can set up a file server with that source distribution for much less than $300.00 in labor cost -- and it is likely to be considerably more if there are users waiting for that new file server, or if there is a mistake in the way it was compiled.

I think, in recommending source distributions like Gentoo, there needs to be a clear differentiation between business use and other uses.

I started this thread with all of these thoughts in mind. While I was reall just looking for a place to vent, it seems I have struck a chord somewhere. Here is what I have summed up:

Gentoo is *probably* one of the better distros. That being said, the best quote I have heard here yet is this : " Linux doesnt have to be a lot of work ". If the other main distros can create an installer that does most of this for you, why doesn't gentoo ? Clearly there is an abundance of people here who WANT to use it, but cant. There are those who say it's not for noobies. They said that about slack, and I had it running in an hour. Which brings me to one of my biggest points yet : not everyone who can't compile his own kernel is a noobie. We all have our own levels of experiance. I have linux, have for some time. I love it. I can't compile a kernel. The good news is I dont have to, and I really dont want to. I'm not a linux noobie, or a linux expert, I am the new class in between, the linux faithful. Accept us for who we are, and realize that we share a common bond. And not to leave the experts out , for the love of God, if you can compile that much code, build a damned installer, P-l-e-a-s-e. Then everyone would use it, or at least give it a fair shake.
-Chase
(I love this place)

there are plenty of third party installers out there, just hit google. i *think* they are even referenced in the docs.

Fair is fair, you have my undivided attention.

How (and which) can a third party installer install gentoo ?
-Chase

i actually found the slackware kernels quite good....(for the half hour is was using them until i recompiled)
but then if u are using a real linux distro like slackware (not mandrake .. uhg) then you should recompile the kernel anyway.
not to mention the fact it is quite hard to get binary kernels for linux 2.6.9-rc1.

Vidalinux has a ported anaconda (redhat) installer. Check distrowatch.com for more information. I've never used it though

This actualy looks promising. I'm going to d/l it today and set it up here on the experiment box and see how it comes out. I'll let you know.

well, gentoo's manual gets a little too detailed, i wrote a stage3 install manual, it may be a little easier to show how to get kde up, etc.

http://f-designs.net/board/index.php?showforum=24

lol..if you find gentoo book to detailed or complicated, then gentoo isnt for you...

besides... its not that hard...

extract stage1
set a few configs
bootstrap.sh
emerge system

(tthen optional stuff)
emerge x11-xorg
xorgconfig
emerge qt kdelibs kdebase kdenetwork kdeartwork kdeadmin kdemultimedia...