The easiest way to get a Linux system running is to choose a popular distribution. Most popular distributions come with flexible installers and a good choice of applications and utilities.
Up until now I have only tried SuSE and RedHat, but on standard desktop machines rather than tiny laptops. Both of these were fine for my uses and did the job.
However for the Flybook install, I decided to try Gentoo out, for the following reasons:

• I fancied learning properly how everything fits together in Linux: the Gentoo FAQ and web forums seemed very clear and detailed to the lowest level;
• Gentoo seemed to encourage you to do everything yourself rather than rely on pre-built configurations. This would normally be a pain but I want to tailor the install perfectly for the Flybook;
• The build-from-source issue is fine since I have adequate internet bandwidth;
• Big distros like RedHat and SuSE install loads of applications that I may not need, and I don't have unlimited disk space;
• I fancied trying something new.

Please don't mail me about the choice of distro - I've been shown the lame distro-war nonsense on fan sites like Slashdot and I'm not interested.

Due to the newness of the Flybook, I downloaded the latest bootable Live CD from the Gentoo site. At the time of writing this, the 2004.3-r1 was the latest release for the x86 architecture.
The ISO was downloaded and a worm burned using my Mac. This would hopefully give me a bootable CD to start the install.