Gentoo Linux 2006.0 has been released; sounds like a very interesting new release.
Major highlights in the release include KDE 3.4.3, GNOME 2.12.2, XFCE 4.2.2, GCC 3.4.4 and a 2.6.15 kernel. This is also the first release with the Gentoo Linux Installer officially debuting on the x86 LiveCD, which will fully replace the Universal and PackageCD set. The LiveCD also features a fully-fledged Gnome environment.
The most interesting feature to me is the mention of the debut of the Gentoo Linux Installer — I am assuming that this is the graphical installer that we first heard about almost two years ago, or so. It was a fairly controversial decision, since the standard Gentoo method was a complex walkthrough of what amounts to a highly scripted “from scratch” Linux install. This might sound difficult or intimidating (and it could be), but it was made to work by the exceedingly high quality of both the packages, the scripts (portage, etc), and the documentation. If you try to find the discussions from the times this first came up, you’ll see a lot of “you’ll pry my Gentoo Installation handbook from my cold dead hands” type of posts.
Really, though, there’s no reason that the Gentoo installation couldn’t be hidden behind a graphical layer. I expect you can still opt for the normal install, but it’s nice to have a choice.
