I don't want a discussion on whether it is worth it or not... but:

Do you have to have a compiled kernel etc. to gain anything, or does it not matter for the programs you are running?

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compiled kernel means you can just pick the bits you want and compile them in. You will end up with a smaller kernel but more efficient im not really sure about to tell you the truth.

gentoo is the distro where you have to compile every program you use yourself. It seems to have taken a massive nose dive recently so it might not be worth all the effort.

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Bad Software

Ok. thanks.

Any other distro like Gentoo that might be of interest?

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Do you mean other source based distros? If so, Gentoo is probably the best. I've been using Gentoo for a while because of the control you have, but the compiling is definately a downside.

For binary distros, you've probably heard of Ubuntu. I prefer ArchLinux (www.archlinux.org), but it is a little tougher to set up.

Anyway, a custom compiled kernel doesn't really have any advantages, because most distros provide almost all of the possible drivers as modules, which allow you to choose which ones you want to load. It won't give you a noticible speed difference

Going to try Gentoo when my head is clear enough for it

I just want a system that is as clean as possible to run VMWare server. It's just for testing anyway.

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