When comparing Hardened Gentoo vs CloverOS, the Slant community recommends Hardened Gentoo for most people. In the question“What are the best Linux distributions for misanthropes?” Hardened Gentoo is ranked 36th while CloverOS is ranked 68th. The most important reason people chose Hardened Gentoo is:
Your only real options for a widely supported hardened distro are the Red Had distros (Red Hat, CentOS, Fedora) of which Fedora is your best bet for a desktop , or Gentoo. You can make a hardened kernel in Gentoo while stripping unnecessary features, creating a much smaller attack surface, and using in-kernel mitigations others don’t.
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Supports custom hardened kernels
Your only real options for a widely supported hardened distro are the Red Had distros (Red Hat, CentOS, Fedora) of which Fedora is your best bet for a desktop , or Gentoo. You can make a hardened kernel in Gentoo while stripping unnecessary features, creating a much smaller attack surface, and using in-kernel mitigations others don’t.
Pro Comprehensive hardened guide in wiki
From SELinux to PaX to AppArmor to.... The wiki has got you covered.
Pro Fully customized kernel that prevents server-side malwares with SSO mechanisms
Out of CentOS /RedHat/Fedora a hardened kernel is very easy to make.
Pro Best defense against NOP-sled malwares, even with ROP/COP mechanisms
Out of CentOS/RedHat/Fedora/OpenSUSE/Slackware/FreeBSD/Mandriva and Arch, only Gentoo can best protect you against NOP-sled malwares, even with ROP/COP mechanisms.
Pro Minimal
Minimal install to build upon.
Pro Fully Gentoo compatible
It is fully compatible to Gentoo.
Pro No UEFI support
If you use older computers and want neither UEFI nor systemd.
Cons
Con No UEFI support
If you have a system that can only boot EFI you are fu**ed!