Pettenò: Debunking x32 myths

You really should read more of Diego's blog. He could be wrong, but I wouldn't be so quick to just write him off, especially when talking about ABIs and such. He is VERY competent when it comes to C, ABIs, ELF, autotools, and a number of fairly low-level details. By all means feel free to disagree, but you should weigh his arguments carefully.

I never got the whole Gentoo ricers thing. I'd say that Gentoo isn't populated with ricers so much as with people who tend to do unusual things with their linux systems, including obsessing over performance, running Gentoo Prefix, coming up with x32, or designing embedded systems. Gentoo tends to be a very malleable distro, and it tends to appeal to those for whom the typical 99% solution just isn't good enough. If Ubuntu or whatever floats your boat by all means enjoy using it. I wouldn't be so quick to write off those who invest in Gentoo - if you ever run into an oddball problem one of them might be able to help you out...