[alfiedotwtf]

Every time I've think about doing LFS, I come to the same conclusion that Arch is probably good enough to get the same hands-on understanding but without having to do the menial work.

[ewzimm]

For a great low-commitment experiment with minimalistic Linix, I'd recommend setting up PRoot with Termux on Android and then adding Arch repositories. You can treat it like a replacement for a mobile game and slowly build up your perfect mobile desktop environment.

https://wiki.termux.com/wiki/PRoot

[Koshkin]

For me it was Slackware.

[alfiedotwtf]

Slackware was my first love, but the reason I say Arch is because there's no package management

... though these days, Nix on top of Slackware may be interesting

[Koshkin]

I find Slackware easier to install.

There is slackpkg for package management, and sbopkg for “ports.” (What is “missing” is dependency management, which often turns out to be a blessing.)

(pkgsrc also supports Slackware.)