On Fri, Aug 14, 2009 at 2:32 PM, Daniel Hill<[email protected]> wrote: > Robert Fisher wrote: >> but if you want to learn more about Linux as you go and are really >> prepared to get your hands dirty, go for Gentoo. > getting my hands dirty is exactly what I want to do just don't know if I > can be bothered with the 8h compile time, wondering if there is another > distro that'll let me do that but isn't source based >
Take a look at arch linux. You can get your hands dirty, but use precompiled packages. You can also compile your own packages if you like. It is also the base for LinHES, the successor to knoppmyth[1]. If its good enough for Cecil of knoppmyth to get down and dirty with its good enough for me! It has a "rolling release" so you should never have to say "oh hell this update from 8.10 to 9.04 borked my system, I'll have to do a fresh install and restore my data." So it has the benefits of gentoo in flexibility and dirty hands, but not necessarily endless compilation. [1] both specialist mythtv distros.
