ka9hyd (Canine),
Have you ever used LFS? Extremely cumbersome to set up. It's very time consuming, as well. And, there's no update manager/dependency checker. The best that it offers is:
(1) You learn Linux from the ground up, inside/out.
(2) It gives you a full appreciation for those whole build a distro from scratch. There are still a few of those, but not many.
Word, dog.