I've been a long time Slackware user and I've been impressed by its stability and flexibility. However, this comes at an extreme cost of depending on the user for package management (e.g. no dependency handling). Even though I like it and I can do whatever I want without a package manager getting in the way, I tend to stress over dependency tracking and building packages not available by third parties. When I build packages that aren't available anywhere, I have to make my own build script which isn't bad, but if dependencies are missing it becomes stressful. I kinda like it but it can be stressful.

Can anyone recommend an automated distro like Arch linux that is source based and actually handles source building without problems? Was thinking of Gentoo but it's very dependent on its "USE" flags which isn't exactly straightforward, and I've had it break when upgrading python. I'd like something that works out of the box and lets me trim it down and recompile later.

TBH I find it kind of cruddy that there's is no hybrid binary-source distro that is easy to use like Debian. Slackware seems to be the only one but it has no dependency tracking. Gentoo is nice but it doesn't work out of the box, and I've had it break on me without being fixable.

Help would be greatly appreciated!

Any distro using apt-get (Debian and its derivatives) or yum (Red Hat derivates) includes dependency resolution.

My favorite distros, other than Slackware, are Debian, Mint, and Mageia. if you want to stay in SlackWorld, you could take a look at SalixOS, which uses slapt-get, which does resolve dependencies. I used if for a while; it works quite nicely.

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Salix, based on Slackware, is very nice. Dependency resolution via gslapt, and build from source with Sourcery. Also very nice is Sabayon, based on Gentoo, you can do either binary, or emerge from source as Gentoo. It's a rolling release, and I find it quite stable and fast.

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It is entirely possible to build your Arch system from source using the Arch Build System.
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Arch_Build_System

Similarly in Debian you can use `apt-get source` and build them yourself with whatever patches and modifications you want.

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Fedora is also nice. It usually ships with latest software and latest tech.

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I'd say go for Salix. It has about 600 extra programs (including some nice configuration tools), but otherwise is identical to Slackware. When you use slapt-get or gslapt to install a program, if it's available from Slackware, then Salix just has a metapackage which lists the program and its dependencies, and pulls them from the Slackware repository. The extra programs are of the same quality as those in Slackware, as the Salix developers just have to deal with them.

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Have a look at Calculate Linux?

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What software have you had this problem with? I only recall one case where a peice of software i wanted (no longer in development) wasnt immediately available either as part of the default install or at slackbuilds.org.
If it isnt available for slackware you may have the same problem with other distributions.

As far as a recommendation goes, one of the most trouble free distros i have used is vector linux, its based on slackware, probably has about the same software packages available and has dependency resolution, imo, almost as good as slackware.

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Wow many responses! Thanks!

I wouldn't say I've ever had a problem with Slackware or making a software package. It's just sometimes stressful when I have to do things all by myself when things aren't quite exactly how I want (like all the redundant scripts, removing XFCE, etc). It's like I have to make Slackware, not Slackware. Ironically I also think making custom packages is the best part of Slackware. E.g. I can build Mesa-7.11 and delete everything except the dri drivers for old cards like Rage128, and tarball it to a package; this allows me to have both Mesa-10.3 and Mesa-7.11 without conflict and working DRI with these old cards. Nothing's perfect and I guess that's why I don't really want to leave Slackware, but I don't really want to deal with all the other stuff.

I think Debian seems great! It works out of the box and it has apt-build. Lots of support and very polished too. How many other distros are like that?

Thanks!

EDIT:
Seems I can't find any distro better than Slackware. I guess I'll just stay with Slackware!

IMHO Debian is the way to go. I've been a Slackware user for the past 5 years and just recently tried Debian just because. Sometimes I like chocolate, too. I wanted a distro that was out for a very long time (1996), simple package manager (apt-get and synaptic manager), popularity (Top 5 on Distrowatch), some sort of FSF mentality (Debian Social Contract), and knowledge based portability (If my friends are having any problems with Ubuntu or Mint I can help them out).

Yeah, this is it, basically!