Hello !

I was surprised that 4M Linux didn't have any package manager. If you want to use a software that's not already offered by the distro, you have to compile it yourself.

Are there other distros like this ? any drawbacks ? any advanatages ?

gentoo Linux, and any Linux actually, if it is not in there system can be build from source, just like they did before it got packaged system is actually just them compiling it so you don't have to.

it can be in there system, yet that still doesn't prevent someone from taking the source and building it themselves, then installing it instead of using what is in the system.

benefit,
modifying the software to ones linking and or needs.

Building from source curtails the software to your system (not applicable to all software).

pitfalls,
locating deps.

Sure, it takes longer to install it, because you have to compile it first, and if you update whatever libraries said software uses, you will likely have to re-compile whatever it is to use newer versions of said libraries.

Sure, for one; you built it yourself. For seconds, you'll be able to be the first kid on block to have the very latest version of whatever it is. Gotta be happy with that

You asked

Slackware.

But Slackware comes with a rich library of applications and with all the tools needed to compile from sources--kernel headers, compilers, etc.--and Slackbuilds.org and Alien Bob's Slackbuilds are marvelous resources which make the process as painless as it can be.

Slackware does have a package manager: https://docs.slackware.com/slackbookackage_management

In the general case, if you want to use software not available from the distribution's official repositories then you will need to either compile it from source or, if you're a trusting soul, find an unofficial repo that has the software you want.

The main thing that differs is the variety and quantity of software a distribution may have in its official repos.

That's not necessarily true. If there's a major update of the library (new soname), you will need to recompile programs that depend on it, but that's not necessary for minor updates. However if you build a program independently of the package management system, you won't get warned that you need to rebuild it when there is a major update of a library it uses.

Another advantage of building it yourself is that you get to choose your own ./configure options rather than having to use the ones the package maintainer chose. ffmpeg being a good example of where one might want to enable additional features.

I think one has to draw a distinction between the like of Gentoo or CRUX: which are "compile everything", and something like Slackware: which is "compile extra stuff". They're very different approaches.

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GOOD POINT!

It also makes sense to distinguish semi-official contributions with prewritten compilation scripts from the kind of ad-hoc building from source that many of us resort to when we want something that isn't in the repos. As far as I know, only Arch and Slackware among the binary distributions have such collections. Slackware has slackbuilds.org and Arch has AUR. Crux also has contributor repos that provide source plus automated build scripts for software that doesn't satisfy Crux's KISS philosophy.