[gerdesj]

I used to keep using the boxes whilst steam billowed out the sides until things started crashing.

I recall gcc3 -> 4. The prevailing "wisdom" was emerge --deep (etc) world ... twice! My laptop was left for around a week trundling through 1500 odd packages. I think I did system first, twice too. I left it running on a glass table in an unheated study, propped up to allow some better airflow.

One of the great things about Gentoo is that a completely fragged system doesn't faze you anymore. Screwed glibc? Never mind. Broken python? lol! Scrambled portage? Hold my beer.

I have a VM running in the attic that got a bit behind. OK it was around eight? years out of date. I ended up putting in a new portage tree under git and reverting it into the past and then winding it forwards after getting the thing up to date at that point in time. It took quite a while. I could have started again but it was fun to do as an exercise.