The Speed Factor -- Kubuntu vs. Gentoo

[Robert Tilley]

What are the major obstacles to running a lightning-fast Linux workstation 
with easy package management?

Kubuntu is a dream for ease of installation and application management.  This 
comes at a price.  Kubuntu must run on a generic PC with as many drivers as 
possible.  If it can't run on a person's generic machine, they might dump it 
for another distro.  A friend from the local computer store calls 
Kubuntu/Ubuntu "Windows for the Linux World".  It's big and slow but works.  
His in-store machine runs Gentoo with KDE and is faster than any Linux box 
I've seen.  He has almost all of the eye candy for Compiz installed.  If you 
didn't know for what to look, you'd think it a Macintosh.

What are things I can do to optimize Kubuntu?  I'm hesitant about taking my 
box offline for three days to compile a base Gentoo system.  There should be 
simple things (kernel recompile is a first one) to increase the speed of 
Kubuntu.

Hesitant to leave the flock,
Thanks,
  Bob
-- 
Chicken Little was right.