I've just installed Gentoo on my laptop (thanks to broadband!) and I have to say that I am really impressed. At the moment it is a skeleton system, with Gnome2 and that's about it, but I noted down some times for applications to run (i.e. Mozilla, which always takes ages to run, and Nautilus).
In a way, it's an unfair test, since Gentoo uses far more up to date progs than the other distro (Redhat 7.3 in this case), so bear that in mind... (also, gnome may not have many of the components that slowed it down from logging in at gdm to the desktop being available yet). However; gnome is DEFINITELY running much faster. It used to take 10 seconds from gdm to a desktop, it now takes 6. (approx). Again, the diff is so massive, I guess there's some gnome components I'm missing.
I'll post the details of the Mozilla test once it's installed.
The downside; it takes ages, even with a 600kbps connection (generally 40-60kbps download speeds) and a 1ghz celeron processor and 256MB RAM. But then you'd expect that, compiling X and gnome2 from source! Erm, other than that, there really isn't a downside!
I've only been using Linux for a year, so I feel like a not-quite-newbie, and there have been moments where it has stretched my knowledge (even at this point!). compiling a ridiculously patched 2.4.19 kernel, for example, produced some surprises. However the docs on the gentoo website are AMAZING. The best I've read so far. I'm still a little unsure that may USE variables are set correctly, but I guess I can always make world if I have to.
I intend to do a wee review on the Wiki, comparing times for various apps, and also I know that I've yet to install any of the apps that are *really* tricky. I'm also a total emerge newbie, so comparing it with apt would be unfair at this point.
Anyhoo, I'll post the link to the Wiki when it is done (but that may be a couple of weeks). I'll post the mozilla findings later today, when I should hopefully have it installed.
Weeeeeeeeeeee!
Ricardo
PS. *DISCLAIMER* I still use debian on my other box, and any comparison is not to knock any distro at all (different strokes etc, different horses etc & other such sayings), merely to review the new one I'm trying out.