Are you sure Gentoo is the very best to learn a lot about the installation and configuration, etc.? I haven't been reading for too long, but are Arch and Crux and Slackware all too simple to really learn much? Also, thinking more about it just now, I wanted to add that when I said before that I had a little system administration experience, I didn't mean literally - like a job. Just experience tinkering around and configuring things.