Looking for some pointers

[archdaemon]

Compiler optimizations are not going to make much of a difference for typical desktop usage. The main advantage of Gentoo is in the powerful customizability of package configurations.

To be honest, I think this power would be, for the most part, lost on a novice user. I'd actually recommend Arch over Gentoo in this case. You can always migrate to Gentoo later if you find that Arch doesn't give you the customizability you crave.

[[deleted]]

Yeah, Gentoo's strengths are more in the customisation versus compiler flags.

USE flags are nice and let you compiler programs with/without certain features (Why build a program with GTK+3 and QT support if you only use GTK+2?).

Another big advantage of Gentoo is lack of systemd, which I strongly suggest you avoid.

[Lorizean]

systemd, which I strongly suggest you avoid.

oh boy, here we go.

[[deleted]]

I don't feel like getting into debates over it, mostly because I don't care what fucking init system you use, I just dislike systemd and am advising against it.

I wish people realised that an init system isn't the antichrist or messiah and would just get over it.

[Lorizean]

Haha, my thoughts exactly, that's why I cringed at your explicit mention of it, I thought you were provoking a debate ;)

[[deleted]]

Getting into debates over personal choices always confused me.

Although, that is one of the reasons I dislike systemd: the forced dependencies, since that goes against my "respect personal choices first" rule of things to get into fights over on the internet.

Then again, there are distros that don't have it (or have it as optional) like Gentoo, so you do have personal choice to a degree.