g-gentoo being hard to install is actually a meme since you can just do the chroot from any running GNU+Linux distro and if you skip all the meme-ricing steps like compiling your own kernel y-you can get a r-running installation in under 30 m-minutes. The documentation is wholesome and c-complete and the best you'll find in a-any distro (save for Arch, maybe.).
y-y-y-you're welcome user-sama
w-what are you talking about a-user-sama was n-nice
gentoo is nice, i just always worry that i forgot to check something in the kernel menuconfig, or checked something that i have no need for. but i it's comfy knowing that every single software on my computer is compiled for my machine specifically, even if that means waiting 24 hours on an old thinkpad.
install gentoo
The opposite of this is true. If you use --no-install-recommends (or configure APT not to install recommended packages) you only get what's strictly necessary, while Arch is less afraid of bullshit dependencies - for instance, most filemanagers depend on systemd somehow.
Debian also splits up its packages to a much greater extent than Arch, so you won't get debug symbols and development headers unless you need them or request them.
what temperature does your CPU reach during compiling?
slackware
cat > /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/01norecommend
Nice. All it needs is a 'sudo apt autoremove --purge" and it's done.
You'd do it every five minutes if you read the security mailing list.
Windows ;^)