backwards engineering, hacking games, and best linux that fits me (arch/gentoo/slack)
 

im looking for some information to see if arch, gentoo or slackware is the best distro for me. i know this isnt directly irrelevant to a distro but i looked on slackware and if i ask this question on the slackware forum everyones going to say slackware i chose to stamp it on the arch forum because im also interested in arch but arch seems to be like slackware and gentoo so everyone has their own taste for all 3 distros im interested in.

but the question does involve all 3 distributions a bit. i currently use slackware 10.2 but have been looking at gentoo linux for a long while now. ive installed it a couple times before but failed to run the network/sound configs. I also like how gentoo uses portage, i think portage was a really good idea, and i favor compiling everything from source anyway. A friend pointed me towards arch and said its very bleeding edge and it was customizable. But not everything thats customizable guarentees its flexible i havent read much on arch i plan to later tonight.

Arch seems to be a top distro for people who like customizing their distribution but i don't see much of it and when i do its usually some pretty good news. unlike other distros how they delay 6 times in a row and form a 6 month release into a 7-8 month release - all three of these distributions appear to always be on time. I like the so called *bleeding technology* of linux but slackware doesnt have the bleeding tech. installed right out the box which is okay anyways i'll just get what i want online but i'd just prefer it out of the box.

I'm also really interested for homebrew development and devloping things in general -- seeing things that have said it would never happen, like emulators and maybe someday seeing console games play full speed on a desktop perfectly fine. I actually am really interested with gentoo and arch but i am already addicted for the most part to slackware and i only have 1 box at the moment.

gentoo and arch are the only other distributions i pay much attention to anymore except for slack. but for things like backwards engineering and so called *hacking* things at home FE; dreamcast, game cube, xbox and video game discs or learning about new and different things + newer age distro (slackware probably doesn't count), would i bet better off with arch, slackware or gentoo? and im sorry if this thread made no sense and im just in over my head, thanks

That hurts my eyes. Paragraphs are pretty cool dude, your teachers were right about some things.

Based on these it sounds like your best bet would be Gentoo. If you just want to custom compile a few packages here and there, Arch is great, but if you'd rather compile most or all of your system, Gentoo is the best option.

All three are fairly 'advanced' distros that will eventually require you to get your hands dirty using the command line and poking at configuration files. Slackware is probably the most solid and reliable of the three, and makes a great server, but although it is fairly up-to-date, it isn't quite as bleeding-edge as Arch or Gentoo.

Both Arch and Gentoo have great package managers that make it easy to keep your system up-to-date. Arch's system is designed to use mostly binary packages, with the option to compile the occasional custom package should you so desire, and does this very well. Gentoo's system, on the other hand, is designed to do everything from source, and if that's the route you want to take, will probably suit you better. Be aware, though that major updates (and the initial install) will take a very long time.

That said, the only way to know for sure which you like is to try them. Download the install ISOs and give them a spin. You have nothing to lose but your time.