Let's see how complicated we can make installing our operating system.
"to provide functionality that would be hard to achieve with a binary-based system."
— Benefits of Gentoo
GNU/Linux-based operating systems are increasingly popular among some groups, notably for reasons of control, security and privacy. Over the years, it's become much more accessible, to the point that it can be installed and used by almost anyone with an inkling of how a computer works. It's largely come out of the geek closet and whilst we are still a long way from "The Year of the Linux Desktop", we are much closer than before. I have recently set two of my friends up with Linux, neither of whom fall into the "geek" group (one is a 70-year-old grandmother, the other a 23-year-old English major). Both are very happy with their systems.
That said there are those who've ben using Linux as a daily driver for a while, and have exhausted their distro-hopping around the mainstream Linux distros and are looking for new challenges (leading to learning more and a better understanding of their OS). I shall outline a few of the less common distros, although I do admit to not having used all of them.
For the most part, these distros differ primarily in their initial installation and setup, but can be configured to use almost any software and become a daily driver for the user. So in order of complexity and reverse ease of installation:
One does not simply walk onto the desktop
Arch Linux
Arch Linux does not have a user-friendly installation process, instead relying on the user creating a bootable USB drive, booting from that and then setting the system up a piece at a time, beginning with the Linux kernel, GRUB bootloader and ending up with a usable GUI. It's deemed complicated because the user has to be (or quickly become) familiar with the command line and the ability to follow instructions. It relies on following the excellent Arch Wiki (available here and extremely valuable even to non-Arch users.
Arch users are very proud of their accomplishment, and there's a common "BTW, I use Arch" geek pride meme, which you'll see quite a bit in discussions around Linux (most especially on Reddit.
I've never seen the need to use it, despite some temptation (it's a "rolling release", which means that new versions of software are continually made available in the event that you want or need the newest, bleeding-edge versions of software. There's good community support in general, although the community has sometimes been accused of hostility and toxicity. A good deal of the heavy lifting for new versions of things comes from the users themselves, in the "Arch User Repository", which often has some of the less commonly-used utilities and programs. There is another upside to this–because the user has complete choice and control everything that is installed, it's possible to set up a very lightweight system requiring less in the way of hardware resources.
Gentoo Linux
Next in line is Gentoo Linux, in which you don't simply install a program's binary files, you create a usable base system, install the tools needed to create other software, you then download the program source for eveything else you need and then compile the things yourself. This fills many people with dread, but once you have the base system set up, the built-in installation and upgrade tools make this easier than it sounds. The major downside is that compilation can take some time, especially for the more complex software. You also need a relatively powerful computer (more cores and mo' memory help here!) As with ARch, the user has more choice over what and how software is installed, enabling a much more customised system. Nonetheless, Gentoo users are often seen as being 'peek geek" in Linux circles. We had one such user in our Linux Users Group, and he took some gentle ribbing as a geek amongst geeks.
linux From Scratch
Finally, and possibly Ultimately Geek is the Linux From Scratch brigade. In this case, the user creates everything from the bootable media files themselves. It began with a book of the same name, with the goal of enabling people to build out their own OS, and along the way, to gain a better understanding of How Linux Works. This is seen as A Good Thing, although it does require a good deal of attention to detail and a lot of patience.
Additionally, according to the book Cross Linux From Scratch
"Cross Linux From Scratch (CLFS) focuses on cross compiling, including compiling for headless or embedded systems that can run Linux, but lack the resources needed to compile Linux. CLFS supports a broad range of processors and addresses advanced techniques not included in the LFS book such as cross-build toolchains, multilibrary support (32 & 64-bit libraries side-by-side), and alternative instruction set architectures such as Itanium, SPARC, MIPS, and Alpha.
This "distro" is unsurprisingly, not at all common–I have certainly never met anyone who has undertaken the project; it is not for the faint of heart.
The one thing all these have in common is their users' desire to learn more, to better understand how their computer and operating system work. They provide the ultimate ability to customise one's system, and I admit to being a little in awe of anyone who undertakes any of these projects.
It has to be said that many others both look up to these users (although Arch is certainly easier to install these days, requiring mainly an ability to read and follow instructions; the others require an additional level of commitment). I know of one brave middle-schooler who undertook the Linux From Scratch project at the age of about fourteen. The Linux community is occasionally held to appear somewhat superior and aloof, and demonstrate some toxicity on social media sites (and even in their own communities), but I have to say that it's relatively rare–Linux users on the whole are generally quite supportive and helpful. We reserve most of our spleen for hose who will never [RTFM}, the Cupertino Cult of Apple, and the Whiners Who Won't Leave Windows.
My 2¢ is spent. I will pat myself on the back for keeping my rants to a minumum.
$ xclip -o | wc -w