I am looking for a distro that I can recompile with optimized CFLAGS. I really like Ubuntu, but everything is compiled with "-g -O" and that isn't very speedy. It doesn't have an /etc/make.conf, and GCC wrappers don't work. I wanted an optimized build of Firefox, and it took me forever to figure out how to bypass the dpkg-buildpackage's default CFLAGs. I had to add them to the configure line of the debian/rules file in the SRC package. I don't want to use Gentoo though, I don't want to mess with the USE flags, I'm too scared I will set the wrong one, or I'll forget one when installing GNOME or something huge like OO.o, and have to recompile that whole thing. I really liked FreeBSD, but all the desktop software was like it was messily hacked together and everything kept crashing + no flash9, and I think it ignored my CFLAGS. I notice a huge speed increase with the CFLAGS on my 2.93 GHz Prescott. Any suggestions are greatly appreciated.

Sounds like you need Gentoo. There's a very easy to follow handbook which will walk you through the initial install and other guidance on the site to install X and a DE, etc. Gentoo makes use of USE flags and everything is compiled for your PC.

I was afraid you'd say that.
I guess I could give it another go...

Basically "set and forget" - you can override for particular products, but I found it rarely necessary.
Some ebuilds will ignore what you set anyway - again, I never found it necessary to fight the devs on this.

Gentoo, if you want to do it in one shot, or Slackware, if you like doing it in pieces.

There is also SourceMage. I think it a little easier to setup then gentoo.

double post.