[gentoo-user] Basic queries regarding installation from an outsider looking in

[AG]

Hi all

Thanks for the responses to my earlier query regarding co-location of 
Debian and Gentoo on the same HDD.

I still have a few questions regarding an installation before I take the 
plunge:

(1)  Looking through the background docs, it occurs to me that if I 
wanted to install Gentoo on my system, I would need access to a second 
machine that is running all of the on-line docs that guide one through 
the installation process.  Is this correct?  If not, how does one refer 
to the (seemingly quite comprehensive) guidelines whilst in the middle 
of an installation?

(2)  When Gentoo installs its libraries, does this duplicate the 
libraries already on my machine?  For instance - if I have OOo and KDE 
and Xfce4 loaded as part of my Debian Squeeze system, will Gentoo also 
install its own version of OOo, KDE and Xfce4 alongside the Deb files?  
I was thinking that this would have a number of implications in terms of 
space and (potentially) in how the drive is partitioned for the Gentoo 
installation ... unless I'm missing the point?

(3)  What differences would I likely experience between running my 
Debian installation and the Gentoo installation?  After all, up to a 
certain point GNU/Linux is GNU/Linux, and if I configured all the bells 
and whistles the same way as I have currently got them set up (i.e. 
preferred WM, desktop settings, applications, email and Net preferences, 
etc.), I'm not sure there would be any ostensible distinction between 
the two.  Hence, my question refers really to the more subtle 
differences between the two systems which one only picks up on after a 
while of using it.  For example, the last time I used Mandriva (when it 
was still called Mandrake), it was chunky and locked down, a FOSS 
version of Windows really, but the same applications were in use as were 
on my ol' trusty workhorse Slackware 8.1 through 10.1.  It was just in 
the latter that nothing would happen in Slack without my having been 
involved directly or indirectly in making it happen.  I appreciate that 
many distros tend to not have the bare bones approach that Slack does, 
but this is really just to try to illustrate what I am getting at: the 
subtleties experienced by a user of the system.

Any installation commitment will have to wait for a couple of weeks yet 
though: I'm in the process of completing my MSc thesis and need to keep 
a stable environment for the time being, so will look at taking this on 
in a few weeks.  This is thus background research - a bit of a 
reconnaissance mission, so to speak.  Any thoughts/ shared experiences 
would be welcome ... unless there is another, more appropriate forum for 
these kinds of experiences to be shared/ discussed.

Many thanks all.

Best wishes

AG