Here's another $.02 for Slackware from a relative newcomer to Linux. I first started with Linux last March, starting with Mandrake, and I've played with a half-dozen or so distros. I switched to Slackware for my main machine this year. I find Slackware to be simple, uncluttered, clean, fast and very stable. (I dual-boot it with WinXP). It think it's a good distro to use if you want to really get to know how Linux works. If you do try Slack, the Slackware forum on linuxquestions.org is worth checking out. As one of the people on that list said - Slack's not hard, it just makes you learn faster. (For that matter, I think it's reputation for difficulty is greatly overstated.) I think it's obvious from this list that your task is not to find the one good distro. From what I can see you have a plethora of really good choices. You might find it amusing to nose around distrowatch.com, both to compare distros and to see what a wide choice you have. Cheers, Charles Null Obert (I have no middle name, and yes, I did get mail addressed to me like that.) On Wed, 20 Oct 2004 12:49:45 -0500, Josh Trutwin <josh at trutwins.homeip.net> wrote: > On Wed, 20 Oct 2004 10:29:07 -0500 > Thomas Johnson <tommyj27 at gmail.com> wrote: > > > rob, > > > > when i finally learned linux for real i wiped windows, loaded > > slackware (www.slackware.com), gave my windows discs to a buddy with > > the instruction to not let me have them back for at least a year. > > talk about trial by fire. obviously your mileage may vary and mine > > might not have been the wisest choice, but i think slackware is a > > good distro if you really want to learn about how things work rather > > than just use linux. other's here will vehemently disagree with me, > > but that's my two cents. > > I vehemently agree with your recommendation. If you are ok with a > little trial by fire I think you'd be hard pressed to find a better > distro than slackware. If you're looking for pretty Windows-esque > GUI's to configure your sound card best to stay with Redhat, SuSE or > Mandrake. After years of frustration I personally refuse to install a > distro that's based on RPMs for packages (Redhat, SuSE and others). > Debian is also a nice choice that's in the middle-ground if you don't > need bleeding edge stuff. > > None of the above mentioned distros are evil, I just developed by > preferences over time. My recomendation, find an old pc you can play > with and not worry about, try a distro for a while, if you don't like > it try another, or setup a dual/triple-boot. Stick around on the list > long enough and someone will eventually be selling cheap hardware if > you don't have a spare PC. > > My $0.02. > > P.S. I don't think this question will generate nearly as many flames > as my personal favorites: > > PostgreSQL or MySQL? > PhP, Perl or Python? > What's the best MTA? > > :) > > Josh > > > > _______________________________________________ > TCLUG Mailing List - Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota > Help beta test TCLUG's potential new home: http://plone.mn-linux.org > Got pictures for TCLUG? Beta test http://plone.mn-linux.org/gallery > tclug-list at mn-linux.org > https://mailman.real-time.com/mailman/listinfo/tclug-list > _______________________________________________ TCLUG Mailing List - Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota Help beta test TCLUG's potential new home: http://plone.mn-linux.org Got pictures for TCLUG? Beta test http://plone.mn-linux.org/gallery tclug-list at mn-linux.org https://mailman.real-time.com/mailman/listinfo/tclug-list