Help finding a linux distro
 

I have been using mandrake for a few years now, but it just isnt doing it for me any more. I love the control center, but asides from that I dont really mess with anything. I do the most basic install possible and then install the latest version of what I want. Can anyone suggest another distrobution that is less bloated when it comes to other apps? Gentoo sounds interesting, but it looks like a bigger step then I may be ready for. I really do like the installation process and control center on mandrake and how easy it keeps things, any suggestions on something else that would provide that or should I just keep doing a basic install for the time being?

It's been awhile since I've installed or used it, but I like SUSE. http://www.suse.com/us/ Easy to install and you can instal only what you want.

most distro's let you only install what you want. if you dont like the control center in mandrake, suse and fedora probably wouldnt excite you much either.

check out debian. it has a control center of sorts, but is at least best run from command line. good distro for managing a remote box too.

I've heard good things about Ubuntu. I'm a newbie currently running Arch Linux: you can install as much or as little as you want, but the killer feature is that installing and updating stuff is incredibly easy due to pacman.

Yoper has worked fairly well for me, although I have only used it for a week or so.

Just to add to the mix, Feather Linux works nice for me. The nice hardware detection of Knoppix minus the bloat. Even includes my favourite GUI, fluxbox :)

Don't want bloated? Go for DSL!

But honestly though, Gentoo and Debian are probably your best bets. Both have an amazing packaging system, emerge and apt-get respectively. Both come with minimal packages installed on the server and let you then add only what you need. I'd recommend Gentoo over Debian, but that is just based on my personal experiences with Gentoo. If you don't think you are ready for the work involved in a Gentoo install, start with a Stage 3 install for your system architecture, then later on down the road, wipe it and start with a Stage 2, then after you have more experience with it, take that big step and go with a Stage 1 install for Gentoo and bootstrap your own system. Its fun once you've done it a few times and it doesn't overwhelm you any longer.

Debian www.debian.org

Ill echo the Gentoo or Debian. You may want to try installing Debian from Knoppix--knoppix is nothing more than Debian on a CD and has a nice autoinstaller that is much easier than the CLI based Debian one.

The gentoo install really isnt *that* bad and will teach you a lot. The documentation on their site is exceptional--read through it, if it looks like you can do it based on reading the docs, you probably can.

I'm a huge Gentoo fanboy... so I'd suggest them.

I also echo what sailor says.

Awesome doco.. it's hard to mess up the install hehe. You could do a stage 2 install (or even stage 3) and not have to worry about a lot of the multi-day compiling stuff.

Guess I will give gentoo a shot. And I am not stranger to CLI, but I would not consider myself an expert either. Thanks for the input. :)

I think youll like Gentoo--most people do, and you already have Linux experience, so thats a plus. Again, the docs are absolutely incredible, as are the support forums there. If something isnt working, chances are there is something about it in either the docs or the forums.

echo "gentoo or debian" >> /etc/suggestion

maybe you could try redhat.

SlackWare (slackware.com) is my choice. Gentoo, is a bad idea unless you have a nice connection (it downloads and compiles itself which takes a LONG time).

I've been using SlackWare for years and it's great. It works for servers and for personal use. Just my 2¢.

Agreed, you dont want to try compiling gentoo from a stage one install on a pentium 800 and a dialup connection. But any decently fast machine and cable/dsl connection will be just fine. And if you dont want to wait for it to compile, do a stage two or three install.

pentium 800? Sounds fast to me :)

I have used redhat a fair amount too. I used to use redhat for my old CS and DoD server. As a desktop distro, I never did like it.

Slackware has been something I am considering. The compile time on gentoo is a bit of a turn off, but then again it is also what makes it appealing. And it will be running on a celeron 900 with 256 mb memory. Nothing super fast, but decent enough for what I plan to do.

I'm currently working on a stage 1 install of Gentoo on a PIII 665 laptop. We'll see how it goes...

stage 1 of PIII 665? I reckon 2 days.

3 if you install X/Gnome (or KDE)

4 if you install openoffice hehe

I'd suggest Gentoo or Slackware. Although Gentoo's install seems a bit daunting at first, it's not too difficult if you follow the install docs carefully.

I just posted tihs in another thread, but here goes again...

I found that mandrake, up to 9.2, installed really well, but I got tired of not being able to access the mandrake rpm's because of the whole mandrakje club thing. I have just downloaded a new distro based on Debian called Ubuntu, and I'm hoping for good things from that. Slimmed down, no stuff you don't need, and access to the entire Debian library of software, I'm thoinking you can't go wrong. Just need to add a couple things to a econd-hand Dell GX1 500 mhz pIII and I'l ltest it, probably this weekend.