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The Gentoo Linux Operating System ( Pronounced ) is a Linux Distribution named after the Gentoo Penguin . It is designed to be Modular , Portable , easy to maintain, flexible, and Optimized for the user's machine. All tools and utilities are built from Source Code . For convenience, however, several large software packages are also available as precompiled binaries for various Architectures via the Portage system. HISTORY Gentoo was initially created by Daniel Robbins as the ''Enoch Linux'' distribution. The goal was to create a distribution that was built from source code, tuned to the hardware, only included required programs, and decreased maintainer workload through scripting.http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/articles/making-the-distro-p1.xml At least one version of Enoch was distributed: version 0.75, in December 1999.http://public.planetmirror.com/pub/enoch/enoch-0.75 Compilation issues revealed problems with the GNU Compiler Collection (gcc), used to build from source code. Daniel Robbins and the other contributors experimented with "forked" versions of gcc, finding a version that gave a 10% to 200% speed increase over the "official" gcc. At this point, Enoch gained a reputation for its speed, prompting the name change to Gentoo Linux (the Gentoo Species is the fastest swimming penguin). The modifications eventually became part of the official gcc (version 2.95), and other Linux distributions experienced similar speed increases.http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/articles/making-the-distro-p2.xml After problems with a bug on his own system Robbins halted Gentoo Linux development and switched to FreeBSD for several months, later saying "I decided to add several FreeBSD features to make our autobuild system (now called Portage) a true next-generation ports system."http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/articles/making-the-distro-p3.xml Gentoo Linux 1.0 was released 2002 - 03-31 .http://linux.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=02/03/31/2123251 Robbins had wanted Gentoo Linux to become a commercially successful project, but found an appropriate business model difficult to achieve. In 2004 he set up the non-profit Gentoo Foundation and transferred all copyrights and trademarks to it and stepped down as Chief Architect of the project; he later worked at Microsoft's Linux Lab for almost two years.http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/04/26/2259211http://linux.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/06/13/2137239 The current board of 5 trustees was elected on October 21 , 2006 . There is also a subsidiary 7 member Gentoo Council whose members "decide on global issues and policies". The current Council members were elected September 11 , 2006 by 121 active Gentoo developers. PORTABILITY
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