>> Why not? Gentoo is aimed at more experienced users, Linux novices are >> already amply catered for by other distros. I would never recommend >> Gentoo to a new Linux user, in the same way that I wouldn't recommend >> a Ferrari to a learner driver.
I don't necessarily agree. I've recommended Gentoo to a few first time (or relatively new) Linux users. The key is whether somebody is willing to spend the time, read, and understand what's going on under the hood. For people who are looking for something to "just work", I wouldn't recommend it as Gentoo could turn them off from Linux altogether. However, for people who like to get their hands dirty, and who don't mind reading, and don't mind doing things by hand, I think it's a great learning experience. If you install Ubuntu, you're probably not going to know what xdm/gdm is. You're definitely not going to know how to compile your own kernel. And grub is probably just going to be that screen that shows up for 5 seconds as the computer starts up. Now, when something goes wrong, you're not going to know where to start. After doing a Gentoo install, IMO you get a much better feeling of the inner components. But, again, I wouldn't recommend it to everyone, but I do think there are some first time Linux users who it would be right for.
