I thought this would be a good time to point out some of the overlooked distro's. Distro's that nobody seems to give attention to(CD-Based and Floppy Based don't count)

For the record, these are the distro's I consider popular:
Red Hat
Mandrake
SuSe
Slackware
Debian
Gentoo
LFS
Lindows
Xandros
Connectiva

knoppix good cd based dist

www.knoppix.org

Lycoris -- My first distro
Smoothwall -- Firewall/security
TurboLinux -- Asian RPM-based distro
CRUX -- I used this for quite a while, and their packaging system is so bad I wrote my own...

trickykid: Thanks. I never knew there was a plain old Distributions forum. My monitor only shows Connectiva, Slackware, and Linux From Scratch. I had to scroll down to see the posts.

I'd like to add one. Even though I've never used it
Sorcerer - Source based distro. Its got functions similar to apt. Its got that new devfs thing, I think. So a /devices instead of /dev. That's the only thing keeping me from using it. Oh and the fact that they say you need 4Gigs of space.

Libranet is a much overlooked distro. Extreme Tech considers it to be the sleeper. It is Debian based but up to date. Very nicely done. It is one (if not the only one) of the Debian based distros that comes with updated software. You could run unstable, but with Libranet, it was tuned to run right.

Vector is another that is often overlooked. It is Slackware based but even leaner. Very fast distro. Itis Slack for newbies, in a sense, yet it has everything you need.

Phat linux also comes to mind. You can use this linux in a windows partition. It is also very nicely done.

Arch is often overlooked, maybe because quite new (latest version is 0.4). It's slim and has a simple apt-like package manager. It isn't for the absolute newbie since there are no/few gui-widgets for configuration and documentation is quite sparse.... With five months of linux experience I found it quite easy to install (and even easier to run). Install took thirty minutes and I had everything I needed (sound, video, usb) up and running within a few hours (a feat I didn't manage on Red Hat or Mandrake)...

Oh, well. It's overlooked and it's good

/end commercial

I've been a promoter of three Linux distributions, though most of the major distros are pretty good. I've long been high on Mandrake for a couple of reasons. One reason is I love the way that they involve the community in building, testing, and developing their distro. Another reason is that on one hand, the default installation and configuration wizard is extremely easy to use, at the same time the distro is really flexible; you can install only what you need, or you can install a great deal of software. So Mandrake was one of the first distros that I actively endorsed.

Even before I really got into Mandrake, I had really positive experiences with Caldera Open Linux, first in eDesktop 2.4 form, then again in Workstation 3.1 form. Unfortunately, Caldera has not made too many friends with the Open Source community because they promote only business ideals. They have fine stuff and I actually like it, but they tend to alienate people. Now that they've become a part of SCO, this is even more true, and SCO is fighting with IBM over licensing rights issues, a mistake in my opinion. Too bad, they have nice software, but it's getting pretty dated, at least their desktop stuff.

Two distros I really like but for completely different reasons, are Libranet and Lycoris, and I openly endorse each of them. Libranet is one of the best complete system packages I've seen. It lacks in documentation, but it tends to work very well and have a strong Web site and Email forum to back it up. I tend to use it every weekend and any time I'm digging deeply into Linux software or testing something out.

The other distro I really like is Lycoris Desktop/LX. Compared to Libranet, they're quite different. Libranet appeals to someone who wants lots of tools. Lycoris appeals to someone who wants an easy to install, configure, understand, and use desktop system. Lycoris is very simple, yet you'd be surprised at how functional and usable it is. Desktop/LX appeals to the masses, more and more so with each release. A new release is undergoing testing right now and should be out fairly soon. I recommend it, not for the latest and greatest, just for a really nice desktop that works.

I'm about to look into Yoper for the first time; hopefully I'll have some feedback on it later this evening.

Vector

i have tried a lot of distros and really liked using Evil Entity. it is a great end user (desktop only) distro. the only thing i didn't like was the fact that the server side is nil. (they state that this is not something that they are going for though) even though i like this distro for that reason i use MDK 9. reason? well i like to use my linux for desktop and local server purposes. MDK gives me both of these options.

Anybody know where Libranet can be downloaded for free (as long as that's legal)? From what people in this thread have said I would like to get a copy, but I dont want to pay for it when I may not even be able to use it.

You're hijacking my thread... Anyway, right here. Its not the full version, but its something. http://www.linuxiso.org/download.php...-essential.iso

Sorry about that, and thanks for the link.

I havent tried a great many distros, but one I think is overlooked is Phat. When I first became interested in Linux I was pretty nervous about the prospect of partitioning my hard drive and going for something I may not even be able to install, let alone use.

Phat allowed me to experiment with Linux safely and easily without the need to partition my hard drive. When I managed to screw it up (which was often) it was quick and easy to reinstall.

It may not compare to a lot of the major distros out there, but I think it's an excellent tool for converting curious Windows users.

Good points about Phat Linux. I've not actually tried it, so your comments about being able to use it easily with Windows are well taken. There's an option with Slackware in which you can install it inside of a FAT file partition, too. So that's another option to consider.

Since you also mention Mandrake as your listed distribution, I'd also comment that Mandrake is relatively safe to run when you just take all of the Wizard default values. Mandrake's default wizard will resize existing disk partitions, create a new set of partitions, install Mandrake and a swap partition on the newly created partition, and create a boot manager and a boot block containing access to the systems that you have available. So I'd consider Mandrake another option. Though I prefer Mandrake over SuSE, I'd also comment that SuSE Linux is able to do the same thing, too, and there may be many other distros also able to resize partitions, install a boot manager and a boot block, and make reasonably intelligent choices about these things for you, even if you're a novice.

So look around, Mandrake and SuSE might suit your needs, too, but there are probably many other distros that could also do these things.