That is why I use Slackware. Installing new software by hand from tarballs is a bit tedious compared to package managers, but it is transparent, and when I am done I can be pretty sure it is going to work. I have tried other distros, even Debian once (for some reason the Debian wouldn't let me sign in as root, I never did figure out why), but I keep coming back to Slackware - for its transparency.