A change or two

It's been a while since I last updated this, with good reason - too much has been changing.

So far, I've ditched Arch Linux because of issues with KDE and power management, ditched KDE in general (again) because as usual, I just can't seem to get on with it, and picked up both Sabayon and Gnome (again).

And now I'm headed from Sabayon to Gentoo.
Normally when I've tried Gentoo, I end up giving up before I even see a usable X session or desktop.
Over time, the reasons for this have been anything from a failed kernel config (I don't care what they say, it most definitely is NOT easy) to missing drivers or a lack of patience.
However, I'm putting all that aside and giving it another go.
And I'm using genkernel because I'm not going to muck about trying to build my own kernel.

Gentoo is often reported as having the most flexibility of all, quite probably because everything gets compiled (unless you opt for the -bin packages) with your choice of compiler and USE flags.

In deciding to use genkernel instead of tinkering, I've already taken one part of that flexibility and high-optimisation out of my soon-to-be (hopefully) install. In deciding not to alter any USE flags, I've removed another.
Why? Because my desktop, window manager and default apps change so much, that there isn't much point in tailoring everything for a GNOME session, then deciding I want to try KDE again and having to recompile many packages to give them KDE/QT support again. So I'm opting for wide-scale compatibility and as few rebuilds as I need.

So far, I have my typically vague plan of what I intend to end up with out of it.
In this case, it'll be a GNOME session, with GDM to login, Chromium as the browser, LibreOffice and Dropbox around, and WICD for the network management. And that's all. The rest will come as and when I get to it.
In theory, this shouldn't give me any trouble.
However, such theories generally don't translate to practice very well when dealing with me and Gentoo.
So with any luck, the next post here will come from a working Gentoo system, or be complaining about whatever put me off it this time.

Incidentally, has anyone ever managed to get the blogtk application to work with Blogger? It'd be nice to have a desktop app for posting these things - one that works, for a change.

Rock on, people.