I am looking for the most compatibility in a Gentoo download. When I go to the download page, I am greeted by this:install-x86-minimal-20120306.iso             07-Mar-2012 08:50  135M  install-x86-minimal-20120306.iso.CONTENTS    07-Mar-2012 08:50  3.2K  install-x86-minimal-20120306.iso.DIGESTS     07-Mar-2012 08:50  348   install-x86-minimal-20120306.iso.DIGESTS.asc 07-Mar-2012 13:27  1.2K  stage3-i486-20120306.tar.bz2                 07-Mar-2012 08:50  135M  stage3-i486-20120306.tar.bz2.CONTENTS        07-Mar-2012 08:50  2.9M  stage3-i486-20120306.tar.bz2.DIGESTS         07-Mar-2012 08:50  332   stage3-i486-20120306.tar.bz2.DIGESTS.asc     07-Mar-2012 13:27  1.2K  stage3-i686-20120306.tar.bz2                 07-Mar-2012 08:50  135M  stage3-i686-20120306.tar.bz2.CONTENTS        07-Mar-2012 08:50  2.9M  stage3-i686-20120306.tar.bz2.DIGESTS         07-Mar-2012 08:50  332   stage3-i686-20120306.tar.bz2.DIGESTS.asc     07-Mar-2012 13:27  1.2K  I can narrow it down though. I don't need the contents, or the digests. I want i486 instead of i686, this has the most compatibility. So should I chooseinstall-x86-minimal-20120306.iso 07-Mar-2012 08:50 135Morstage3-i486-20120306.tar.bz2                 07-Mar-2012 08:50  135MWhat does stage3 mean? Which one will get the most compatibility? Which one is easiest? I notice the stage3 one is a tar.bz2 and the other one is an iso.
Which Gentoo should I download?
linux;gentoo;download
You'll probably find the Choosing the Right Installation Medium part of the install guide helpful.install-x86-minimal-timestamp.iso is the LiveCD image. You burn that to a CD and boot off it to get into a minimal Gentoo environment that you can use to install Gentoo on your actual systemstage3-i486-timestamp.tar.bz2 (i686 for pentium 2 or greater) is a tarball of the root filesystem; it has /dev, /bin, etc. One of the first things you'll do after booting the LiveCD and partitioning your disks is to download the stage3 tarball and unpack itThe file is called stage3 because you can technically start installing Gentoo from any of three stages, depending on how much of the build you want to do yourself (e.g., stage2 doesn't include a base system -- you need to compile it yourself). stage3 is the only one officially supported, and almost certainly what you want to use