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Meh, I used Gentoo in its literal first release off a DVD with only printed instructions for a stage one build on an old Pentium II. No internet or anything to fall back on. Learnt a hell of a lot (like don’t select Firefox and Open Office and do an emerge world
as your first package step after the initial boot because it took literally a week to compile with no indication when it would be done). Definitely have a soft spot for Larry the Cow but after running that setup for a couple of years I feel I’ve taken what I needed from Gentoo.
Would recommend it to anyone who wants to dig in and really learn what makes their system tick, but not as a daily driver. I feel for me Arch hits the sweet spot, but was happy with Debian/Ubuntu too (at least until Ubuntu went to shit with snaps).
It used to be a (potential) issue with sponging hard drives, though was debated back then even. I can’t think of anything that would be an issue for it nowadays though.