Arch is based on binaries so you don't have to spend hours compiling. Surely Ctrl-C is going to "win" after the 4th hour of just watching X compile! :)
Does X really build for so long? It takes about half an hour on my OpenBSD install, with all the base utilities and libraries.
I hope I don't have to explain it depends on the machine.
Yeah, sorry. I forget I'm on an i7 now, albeit a laptop one. It could easily take 8 times that long on something like an Atom or some sort of ARM. Though I wonder how long it takes on a desktop i7 with an SSD.