Gentoo has continued to be one of my favorite GNU/Linux flavors because it makes me feel like I'm fully in control of my system, across package feature flags, compiler flags, init process, disk management, and window systems. It leaves you with a blank slate to truly make your own. Make no mistake--it does take significant work and understanding to do so, but for me the satisfaction is immense. On a cold winter's night, compiling dev-qt/qtwebkit can even keep you warm.

One of my favorite tongue in cheek sites from Gentoo's earlier era:

https://www.shlomifish.org/humour/by-others/funroll-loops/Ge...