Kevin, It occurs to me that you keep saying that compile time is irrelevent. Yet this discussion is based on your comparison of the time it takes to install Linux vs. Windows. If you are talking about install times, then how is compile time not relevent when you need to compile Gentoo in order to install it? Also, how can you sit there and say that comparing the time it takes to install a binary OS vs. a source OS is a good comparison? That is a completely rediculous comparison. I'm not trying to bash Gentoo by saying that Red Hat is better or anything (I've never even used Gentoo), I'm just saying that comparing Red Hat/SuSE/Debian/Mandrake, or any binary OS install to Windows is a fair comparison, unless you are building Windows from source.
Jesse
