it is source-based. in my experience this means mainly three things: - if something breaks or doesn't compile I can fix it myself without having to search internet forums and such - I can set compilation flags to adapt programs to my needs and environment - it is easier to create and maintain my own packages for the package manager I use it mostly for Recreational Programming, I often browse github for libraries for my projects and most of the time they aren't popular enough to be in the package repository of any distro. with gentoo I can write an ebuild and have the library installed and maintained by the package manager in less than 5 minutes it fits my use-case well but I don't know if I would recommend it to other people. it isn't hard but you need some experience with c/c++ toolchains, autotools and cmake for it to be anything more than just another distro with less support than debian now that I think about it, one notable thing is that gentoo doesn't do stuff behind your back so to speak, so there aren't as many opportunities for things to break unexpectedly. I guess that can be a plus even for inexperienced users

and yes, I'm too dumb and lazy to learn nix/guix

>>694 Advantages? No. There is none. I've spent one entire year with Gentoo and three months with Funtoo, and, these two are simply distros for enthusiasts. That's it. Don't get me wrong, Portage is a good package manager, but you'll probably spend a lot of time with it, and it's just not worthy.