fedora linux
 

i just switched from mandrake to fedora. i'm looking for something that is fairly easy to use, but still DEMANDS that you be familiar with the various unix-based commands. fedora and mandrake are a little too easy to use, and a little too difficult to change to exactly what i want. i'm an amateur developer, and i'm looking for an os that will force me to become more command-line reliant. i don't know enough linux to run slackware, and, seeing the title of "linux for developers" tried gentoo also, but it basically kicked my ass. any suggestions?

What Stage of Gentoo did you try? I recommend to everyone using Gentoo to start with Stage3, then figure out what you actually want out of your machine and get a set of USE flags that you want to use. Then step back and start from scratch with a Stage2 setup, and get that working how you want. This will be a lot easier to pick up at this point and you will have more control over how the system is setup. After a few weeks of this, I'd suggest then stepping back and going with Stage1 where you have full control of setting up the machine from start to finish. I've recommended this method to a number of my friends who wished to get familiar with Linux and they all said how well it worked for them.

Maybe Debian will suit your fancy?

http://www.debian.org/

Gentoo 2004.0 is supposed to be released by Feb 28, and it should have a new updated install method. Perhaps that will make it easier for you. The documentation, in my experience, for installation is excellent. Of course, your mileage may vary and, perhaps, Gentoo maybe isn't best for what you want anyways. Although, I can't think of a much more effective - and frustrating - method of forcing yourself to learn to use the CLI.

Id go for Debian. apt-get owns all, and Debian is a great OS.

And yeah, Gentoo can be a pain in the ass. Its a bit faster because it is so optimized, but its a pain having to compile *everything*.

Gentoo definitely makes you learn...

Have you considered SuSE? I know you don't hear much about it on here.. but I use it at work and it's not too bad. Some command line stuff, some graphical.

I've been using slackware linux lately and have been finding it great.

It requires you to do alot of things yourself, yet it's not as intimidating as you may think it would be from what people say about it, seeing as it's considered one of the most basic linux distros. Basic as in no frills. Everythings command prompt oriented when it comes to setting up stuff.

It's hard to explain why, but I'm finding it easier to use and manage than fedora. I feel like I have more control.

You'll learn alot about linux using it, which is why i'm using it, and with some handy tutorials that can easily be found with google it isn't that bad.

If you decide to give it a shot and have trouble post a message, you just might run into a problem i've already had.

For installing and setting up slackware, follow this walkthrough. It's long, but it's very easy to follow.
Slackware walkthrough