Custom kernel config questions for Linux user

[Garrett Cooper]

Hello,
    I was wondering if anyone could provide me an answer to the 
following questions. Please keep in mind that by default I learned Unix 
on a Linux system, so... please no flames :(.
    1) Is there any sort of configuration interface (ncurses, X, etc), 
or am I 'stuck' with 'manually configuring' a textfile?
    2) Is there a complete list of features which can be enabled for the 
kernel, other what was in the GENERIC configuration file?
    3) What is needed for the FreeBSD kernel and what modules need to be 
compiled in order to use IDE CD-burning. In linux previous to kernel 
version 2.6.8 I know that SCSI was required, but now they are doing 
proper IDE emulation.
    Thanks, I'll most likely have more questions later.
-Garrett