When comparing Hardened Gentoo vs antiX, the Slant community recommends antiX for most people. In the question“What are the best Linux distributions for misanthropes?” antiX is ranked 26th while Hardened Gentoo is ranked 36th. The most important reason people chose antiX is:
Has a 70-90MB memory footprint.
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 Extremely lightweight
Has a 70-90MB memory footprint.
Pro Quick installation
The installation procedure for antiX is quick and painless. It installs the OS and grub in no time.
Pro Works well on 32-bit PC
Fewer distros are available to work on 32-bit machines. This works well on old Toshiba. Quick enough on older machines not to notice any lagging.
Pro Stats appear on the desktop
Pro Works very well on ASUS 1005HA netbook
Faster than other distros tested, including many on this list.