KISS Linux was a source-based Linux distribution with a philosophy baked into its name: Keep It Simple, Stupid.

Every package was a shell script. The package manager was under 1000 lines. There was no systemd. It was beautiful in its austerity.

I ran it for about a year. It taught me more about how Linux actually works than any other distribution I have used. Compiling everything from source forces you to understand dependencies, flags, and the assumptions that more user-friendly distributions quietly make on your behalf.