Gentoo is a Linux distribution that succeeds in striking a balance between fine-grained configurability and ongoing manageability.

In contrast to popular Linux distributions such as Red Hat's Red Hat Enterprise Linux or Debian GNU/Linux that are delivered as collections of precompiled binaries, Gentoo Linux users build the software that makes up their Gentoo systems from source. In this way, Gentoo preserves for administrators a broader range of software configuration options, since many choices must be made at compile time.

eWeek Labs tested the latest version of Gentoo Linux, 2006.0, which was released in late February. We were impressed by the steps the Gentoo team has taken toward making the system accessible to a broader group of potential users--principally through the addition of a graphical installer that graces the distribution's new LiveCD installer.

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