Gentoo is often ridiculed for trying to squeeze more performance by using platform-specific compiler settings, but this misses the point. It is the only distri

Gentoo is often ridiculed for trying to squeeze more performance by using platform-specific compiler settings, but this misses the point. It is the only distribution that can deal with the rapidly-changing nature of open-source software. Most open-source libraries are not designed with long-term viability in mind, and are not ready for binary distribution. Distribution makers put a lot of effort into actually making things work in the long term. Gentoo takes a different approach: just assume that you will be recompiling pretty much everything, regularly. The result is a surprisingly maintainable system. As long as you update it regularly, it won't tell you to perform this monstrous cliffhanger upgrade, or reinstall using a newer version. Sure, there is always breakage, but Gentoo has a different tradeoff: minor breakage happening more often vs major breakage happening when major releases are done.