I like Open Source as much as the next geek, but I also like it when I’m shielded from the pain the way I am in Gentoo. Check this `configure` command out from a recent Solaris PHP compile:

$ ./configure \
–with-gd=/usr/local \
–with-jpeg-dir=/usr/local \
–with-freetype-dir=/usr/local \
–with-png-dir=/usr/local \
–with-xpm-dir=/usr/local \
–with-iconv-dir=/usr/local \
–enable-freetype \
–enable-jpeg \
–with-zip \
–enable-memory-limit \
–disable-debug \
–with-regex=php \
–with-pic \
–enable-exif \
–enable-filepro \
–enable-ftp \
–with-gettext \
–enable-mbstring \
–enable-sockets \
–enable-sysvsem \
–enable-sysvshm \
–with-mysql=/opt/private/path/mysql \
–with-apxs2=/opt/private/path/apache/bin/apxs \
–with-zlib \
–with-openssl=/usr/local/ssl \
–enable-ftp \
–enable-shared \
–enable-libgcc \
–prefix=/opt/private/path/php

Isn’t that just sick? Sure, I would have had to use lots of USE flags in Gentoo to make that work, but it’s still a lot less typing/headaches, not to mention the fact that it would have gone out and compiled GD and everything else for me.