Another stupid distro question
 

OK, I know there are a thousand of these around the forum, but nobody wants EXACTLY what I want. Here's what I need in a distro:

GNOME, it has to have GNOME
Kernel 2.6.6
X.org, this has drivers for my ATI
One CD, i hate multiple CDs
SPEED, this is extremely important

Here are my specs:
Pentium II 450 MhZ(I'm gonna upgrade soon)
ATI Radeon 9200(I swear, this card is a death sentance)
120 GB Maxtor 10,000 RPM(No shortage of hd space)
384 MB SDRAM

So my processor sux, but everything else is fine.
NOTES: I don't need handholding, in fact, that's why I hate KDE, "Kandalf's Tips"? That's the first thing to go. Here's what I've tried too:
Redhat(it was good, no ATI tho)
SuSE(KDE, hate it, YaST, hate it)
Ark(KDE again, still alpha)
Fedora(good, but so damn slow, had some bugs with my ATI)
Lycoris(Too much handholding, NO KERNEL SOURCE WTF R U TALKIN ABOUT!!! :eek: )
Cobind(same as Fedora with XFce)
Slackware(Hates my ATI, but it was fun while it lasted)

I don't want to do Slack again, because my CDs are scratched so no GNOME for me(damn)
I'm looking at LFS(Linux From Scratch), Gentoo, Debian, and even >GASP< FreeBSD. Anyone got any ideas?

why don't you grab arch linux's minimal disc, which gives you basically just the tools you need to boot your machine? then with pacman download & install only those you want or need, like X and Gnome. I did this and I'm more than happy...one small disc, apps that I want and nothing more, quick distro and - the best - it works.

i've heard a LOT about arch, minimal huh, IT SOUNDS PERFECT, thanks for the tip, i'll get back to u with my arch review asap:D

OMFG, I LOVE ARCH, ITS EXACTLY WHAT I WANT!!!!! :), sorry for the caps, but this is perfect! took a little while to set up, but it's PERFECT thanks again for the tip ;)

Before you sign your sole away to ark....

Check out Gentoo..

It will take forever to install on your system (think 3 days) but your system is useable while it is compiling. (think installing window maker to use while you install gnome)

After installation you will have the fastest distro possible for your system (given that you set the compile flags right (done bye the USE settings))

well, i looked up gentoo :study: , and i can say, i'm impressed, but i'm not as good with linux as some. I like semi advanced distros, but I SWEAR, when i get the chance, and the time, i will install gentoo, for now arch is perfect. so what if i'm still a little bit of a :newbie: . thanx tho, and i WILL get around to everything i can. I'm not signing my sole away just yet.

I know I'm intruding int this thread but here goes, the timing seems right:

What the hell is the story with compile flags?

I've been scared of the damn things ever since I started linux and since Mandrake holds my hand.
I've been thinking of going Slack for a while but before 10.0 is out so Gentoo is gonna get it this summer.

Sorry about my irrelevance here but I'd really appreeciate a good tutorial or link to a good resource.

Thanks.

ummmm :scratch:, lol, i kinda wanted to know that too. maybe i can get a resource somewhere. I'm gonna go google around. if i figure that out, maybe it's gentoo time!

You can also use a command called "man"

You never know, you might find some useful information in there.
man make
will get you started.

you know, i've never been fond of compiling. i just think it's a boring waste of time ;) . it's good for optimization but it's a biatch when your program fails to compile at the end, AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH :cry: . Then you want to kill you computer :mad: . but, that's why they invented packages, right? :D

Packages are great...

But what if you need GTK support or AEC support when the package does not have it? You gotta compile it in.

well, with arch, everything is custom compiled and ready to go with pacman, and since i have an i686, it's made for me :D yum and apt don't even compare to pacman(ok, so maybe they do, but i've got a bad case of distro blindness). it may not be as advanced as gentoo, but arch can still be customized from the ground up(that's what i did). as long as you read the manual :study: any distro is fine.

Good luck then.