[tlrobinson]

Oh god I remember trying to install Gentoo on a PowerBook once about 5 years ago on the advice of a friend. Spent a couple days trying, never did get it working but I did learn a bit about Linux...

Of course the skills you learn are more sys admin / OS concepts than fundamental CS concepts though.

[polynomial]

Tried to get Gentoo running on my Compaq T1000 Transmeta tablet quite a few years ago, to no avail. However Ubuntu jumped on that like Sheen on a, um, well suffice to say the architecture was well supported.