bipper, what is in your opinion overly automated about Gentoo, compared to Slackware?

[qq=kyuzo]EDIT: Please note, i'll be going to Uni in a year or so (hopefully studying Computer Networking) so if you know what the uni's use most would also be helpful [/qq]

I'm uncertain there is one distro that can be said to be ahead of the others at colleges, and it doesn't really matter anyways. Linux is Linux, and if you learn one distro your skills should give you a good level of understanding in the others. All distros can use Gnome or KDE or fluxbox/openbox. bash on one distro is the same as bash on another. All of them can run mysql or apache or whatever you want. There are sometimes minor differences if a distro patches a program to customize it for the distro, but usually not many significant differences.

There are really very few things that set one distro apart from another. The package management system (how you install programs) is the main one. And then the directory structure and init script structure, and not much else.

What are your goals in using Linux? Do you want to learn it for the sake of knowing it (knowing how the OS itself works)? If so, http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/ is a great learning tool. You will likely NOT end up having a system you're happy using every day. You'll have something that works but is a nightmare to maintain. But it's an outstanding learning tool.

Do you want to have a working Linux install and then learn how to USE it to do things (become familiar with the programs that exist in Linux)? If so I say use Gentoo or Ubuntu. Gentoo if you have lots of time to devote, but want to learn a good deal about the inner-workings of your OS. Ubuntu if you want something that works quickly and easily, but which is user-friendly to the point where you miss out on really knowing what the heck is going on. If you want to use your OS for programming, I'd stay away from Ubuntu. I didn't have much fun trying to get it set up as a development box.

Gentoo does take literally days to install (depending on how fast your computer is, and how skilled you are). But it's fun! And most of that time is waiting for things to compile, so it's not like you have to sit there and watch it. I can install Gentoo without using the handbook in about a day, but that's only after using it for years.

Understand that you are unlikely to get an unbiased answer to the question "Which Linux distro should I use?" The best way to know is to try a bunch until you find one that you like.

[qq=ShunNakamura]I don't know if Gentoo still does it, but(if they still work) I got some old Gentoo CD's where you compile the kernel up in order to get it most optimized to your system. At the time people told me it could be a multiday process(which to put it simply freaked me out(and made me think they were bulling me at the same time), but I really did enjoy playing with it back a while ago).[/qq]

Gentoo still forces you to compile a kernel. There's a tool called genkernel which will will automate the build process (basically compile everything as a module, and include all modules possible). I don't think a lot of Gentoo users use it.