Years ago when I was a linux noob, I loved to install software from source code instead of lame vendor packages. It was cool. And it followed naturally from using Slackware as my linux distro of choice as Slackware still has more of an old school Unix feel to it instead of easy to use Ubuntu lameness. It was also encouraged by Slackware, which probably has the smallest repository of all linux distros, because it is still limited to what fits on 6 CDs or 1 DVD, but there are Slackbuilds for extra packages. What I loved most was getting to choose how the program was configured. Figuring it out was usually a simple ./configure --help away.