warning: opinions abound
i use gentoo on all my linux boxes at home, including my home servers. I like it because of portage and emerge, which, IMO is the only reason to use gentoo. compiled performance enhancements are normally imagined.
a gentoo based *image* for a zaurus is a great thought and portage/emerge can also handle binary packages. maybe a zaurus model specific, binary (read arm pre-compiled), portage overlay would work well enough. portage / emerge would then have the same concept as feeds / ipkg. if someone were to try and emerge an app that wasn't in the binary ovelay, then it could dl the src and compile it. emerge -a would be your friend.
i'm not a developer by any means, but i would think that most of the already arm compiled apps for pdax/oz would be compatable, although making the ebuilds for them might be a pain. file destinations and paths might be an issue; alot of ebuilds currently in portage "gentoo-ify" file destinations when installing the finished app/lib.
however, i do agree with the gentoo dev on the last post of ArchiMark's link. doing a source based distro for a z is just plain asinine. i even curse it on my pc's at times.
if gentoo's biggest pains (install and source compiling) could be removed / limited from the general z user, then it might be worth while. leaving the arm compiling to people with more than one z and people who like punishment
another distro choice for the z isn't necessarily a bad thing.
Just my $.02
--webslngr
edit: i found a portage pda overlay in the gentoo forums, looks like it is for an ipaq.
[link:
forums.gentoo.org]
