Good Reviews, and here is mine:
Gentoo Linux is one of the most configurable and extensible Linux systems. It lets the user decide about each part of the system. And thanks to the Portage (a BSD-like software management tool) the whole system or only some of its packages may be automatically optimized for custom hardware which increases the robustness of the OS.
Installation:
Gentoo has a "slightly" different approach to the installation process than usual Linux distributions. It's all about the choice. You can choose your kernel, cron and event-logging program and all the low-level features of the operating systems during the manual installation. It takes time and it not "clickable", but the benefit is that you have full control over your OS. You have to be warned however, that installing Gentoo might be a tough venture. If you don't like to read long manuals and Google is not one of your best friends, better choose another distribution or try the latest GUI Gentoo installer (which is not so stable, yet but proves usable to many).
Portage:
One of the strengths of Gentoo is its Portage system - a software management tool similar in design to the BSD ports concept. It allows for easy and coherent software installation directly from the sources. The dependencies of applications are automatically downloaded, compiled and installed on demand. The nice bonus resulting from this approach is that the applications are available at the same time when the original sources are published (no need for packaging). Another extra feature is that the user can choose a version (stable, development, experimental...) of each program he or she is installing.
All about the choice:
Gentoo is known for its configurability. Every aspect of system can be configured by the user. It's the user who decides whether the programs are compiled with safe options or some bold optimizations should be tried. The drawback of this approach is that the user needs to get to know his system very well before he can reasonably configure his OS. Gentoo is not for everyone - you have to love it, otherwise you're going to hate it.
http://www.gentoo.org/http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gentoo_Linuxhttp://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=gentoo