Configure output isn't compiler output, so I guess we've got to the bottom of this mystery.
> With Gentoo, you could configure the system exactly as you wanted, down to the compiler flags.
This doesn't give you the control you think it does. Most of the customization you refer to is basically adding a USE flag to make.conf and running "emerge whatever" again, which I maintain isn't much of a teaching tool.
You end up learning about Gentoo, not software, compilers, operating systems, or computers.
> Instead of targeting a well-known arch (ex: i686), Gentoo let you set your compiler flags for the entire system to match your exact CPU.
This is a good example. So many people ended up thinking (incorrectly!) that this benefited them in some meaningful way, and thought that they were learning and customizing, when they still don't know, even a decade on, that '-O2' and '-O3 -march=native' are for almost all
tasks indistinguishable from a performance standpoint or how to even go about measuring the difference.
Gentoo is like a show on the History Channel: it sure feels like you're learning!
> With Gentoo, you could configure the system exactly as you wanted, down to the compiler flags.
This doesn't give you the control you think it does. Most of the customization you refer to is basically adding a USE flag to make.conf and running "emerge whatever" again, which I maintain isn't much of a teaching tool.
You end up learning about Gentoo, not software, compilers, operating systems, or computers.
> Instead of targeting a well-known arch (ex: i686), Gentoo let you set your compiler flags for the entire system to match your exact CPU.
This is a good example. So many people ended up thinking (incorrectly!) that this benefited them in some meaningful way, and thought that they were learning and customizing, when they still don't know, even a decade on, that '-O2' and '-O3 -march=native' are for almost all tasks indistinguishable from a performance standpoint or how to even go about measuring the difference.
Gentoo is like a show on the History Channel: it sure feels like you're learning!