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I've been a linux user since 1992. Started with slackware and have always enjoyed building my own system, hardware with software. Then Gentoo came out that really piqued my interest. Recently.. A new distro came out based on Gentoo but can be configued in a few ways. Redcore... Redcore+Gentoo (mixed mode) or pure gentoo. Personally i love this distro because if youve ever installed Gentoo.. You know what a pain in the ass it is. Redcore takes a lot of that pain away. Even EFI install is pretty painless. Redcore has its own repo of prebuilt binaries if you dont want to wait.
Redcore is QT and systemd-less focusing on a minimal system And speed. Give this distro a try