Best Unix for a shitty laptop

Not that bad in terms of specs - but most distros (FreeBSD, ReactOS, Gentoo) don't agree with my hardware.
What a Unix OS that's small enough to learn about operating systems while still being likely to work with my shitty laptop?

>>3
minimal

I am ever so tired of hearing this word. Debian is ``minimal'' - you can install only the base system, which has fuck-all in it, and build the system up from there.