The thing is that Debian still automates much of the (most of the) install process, whereas with Gentoo, it's all done manually.
Yes exactly. That's why Debian is much better.
Watching the text scroll by doesn't do squat, but learning how to optimize make flags for your architecture
Uh what? Figuring out what optimization flags to use with your specific CPU? Are you for real? This is direct out of
http://funroll-loops.info/#second, how to manually set up block devices, networking, etc, ends up being quite a good lesson in computing.
Unfortunately it doesn't actually teach you much. I'd argue that most Gentoo users don't have a clue what they're actually doing and why.
It's not a system where you click install and things "just work"
That sounds bad indeed.
- it takes some time and ingenuity.
No, it takes following instructions and googling a lot. I'm not sure if that teaches anyone much.
The "control" factor is because with Gentoo, you manually select everything that you need
Not different to Debian at all. You
can select stuff manually if you wish. If you don't you can just select "a desktop installation" or "a web server installation" and adjust those to your liking.
and you compile it fresh for your install with your compile flags.
What does this have to do with control? Elaborate please. Some example that explains how this would give any advantage over Debian would be desirable.
Ubuntu and Debian package management is still binary based; if you want to compile things with Debian, you still need to download the package, configure, and make && make install...which most people can't really be bothered to do.
Why would you want to build your own packages?
If you do, you do NOT have to download the package, configure and make && make install.
Rather you do: apt-get build-dep package, apt-get source package && dpkg-buildpackage. You can do this for any package if you wish.. but I really fail to see why would you want to.
However, having to figure out every last detail of a Gentoo install to make it work has made me more intimately familiar with my computer hardware and the way it interfaces with software, and a lot of the voodoo magic behind why an operating system works makes a lot more sense to me.
I've heard this argument numerous times, but even more I've heard cursing when something doesn't build or work as expected. Today I know of no-one using Gentoo anymore, it just isn't worth the trouble.
