I ran Gentoo on my desktop from about 2005 to 2008. The last year of that period I was without Internet access, and when I tried to update the system after bein

I ran Gentoo on my desktop from about 2005 to 2008. The last year of that period I was without Internet access, and when I tried to update the system after being online again, it broke (not surprising, I heard similar stories from users of other rolling release distros since). But it just so happens I set up a virtual machine running Gentoo but a few days ago, with no clear idea of why or what for. What a remarkable coincidence. Gentoo requires the user/admin to put in a lot more work than mainstream distros like Debian, but in return you get such a high degree of control and choice that the system, once it's up and running, feels more like a pet than a piece of software.