From the Gentoo documentation page:

“The Gentoo Installer project aims to create an widely extensible install engine that allows for a diverse set of attended and un-attended install options. All functionality will exist in the backend, exposed through a stable API. Planned front ends include text, gtk2, fully automated, and web-based interfaces.”

I’m a somewhat “seasoned” Gentoo Linux user and have performed the installation (and post installation maintenance, etc) process several times on a few different plataforms. Eventhough the documentation pages do a great job at explaining the steps involved in installing and running Gentoo, I can see how someone with little experience in Linux (specially the command line) would run away from this distro. The installation is painfull and it takes a loooong time. Granted you’ll end up utilizing all the resources your machine has to offer when the smoke clears, but most users won’t really notice any difference. This graphical installer should attract more users and one won’t have to print out (or have a separate console with Lynx browsing the documentation pages) the massive installation manual. I really hope the die-hard command line lover, orthodox Gentoo users will support this new project!

UPDATE: Shortly after I posted this I found out that Gentoo Linux 2005.1 has just been released. No word whether it contains the new installer or not.