Gentoo is so far, the big Linux surprise this year. With its
1.0 release took the Linux world by storm and converted a huge number of power users and developers from the well-known Linux distros they were using, to the lightweight Gentoo Linux. While its installation process is not for the faint of heart, it pays back the user with a highly optimized system. As a result, Gentoo is dubbed the "fastest Linux distro" to date. Read on for an exclusive interview with Gentoo's project leader, Daniel Robbins where he reveals that Gentoo will be further optimized with the
fastest x86 C/C++ compiler (Intel's ICC) in addition to GCC 3.1. Daniel also speaks about the future plans for Portage and the overall system in general.
Ummmm...
ebuilds (portage's package definitions) are overglorified shell scripts using bash functions and an object oriented like approach called eclasses to share code between ebuilds.
ebuilds will be a tad harder to develop then something as simple as sourcer because of the USE settings system and the fact the installation process is sandboxed to prevent unauthorized writes to your real filesystem.