Really unsure of where to go to next..... Reasonably capable with Linux - id say I was intermediate. no idea wheter I prefer KDE or GNOME, not really foudn either that erm, fast and user friendly. Tried Ubuntu and openSUSE mainly.


So, imtermediate linuxer who wants to learn more, and have a really really fast, but stable...ooo and pretty distro. Kinda prefer the debian style package management to the openSUSE YaST one.

See why Im confused?!

Thanks for any adviec you can give me on my search for my Linux.

Puppy is fast (doesn't use KDE or GNOME) and pretty, but not like Debian or SuSE at all. Perhaps that would be interesting to study next.

First take a look at http://distrowatch.com . My 2 cents.. Ive grown up over the past 10 years with Redhat/Fedora. Like most distors you can run gnome and kde desktops environments, or like me use gnome but also install kde apps K3B. From what i've seen its best to start off with the big distros, but sounds like you have hit 2 out of the top 5 already. So Again read up on distrowatch and see what catches your eye.. Ive seen plenty of them post that they are fast / pretty. and think half of those were deb based. Enjoy..

Having distro-hopped pretty heavily for 3 years, I can share your pain.

You can learn on any distro......the problem I have found is that you often have to waste time figuring out how and why the author set something up a certain way--rather than learning the fundamentals of how to set it up YOUR way.

I am currently trying to set up a new laptop. Every distro I have tried has had some quirk in which setting things in a high-level menu did not result in the right behavior. I am currently focussed on configuring it with ArchLinux. In the process, I have not learned how to configure and start the wireless from the terminal, and I am making progress in power management. Next is the fingerprint reader.

Arch offers a nice combination of simplicity and good performance, and has a very good package repertoire. Slackware has similar attributes but it, to my taste, is a little bit old and dusty. One very nice distro is Zenwalk---based on Slackware, but a bit more user-friendly.

And of course you could also go for LFS.

Just give in and get Slackware.

Great, thanks. I will do investigate Fedora (rpm am i right?) and head back over to distrowatch. PCLinuxOS is top there, any thoughts? Heard that its Ubuntu's new rival - but thast rpm again isnt it. Also heard that aptitude is the best package management app out there - which is debian based right? Debian look like it might be worth a whirl.... along with PCLinuxOS and Fedora

Thanks again, this is such a fantastic assest to the Linux Community - somethign MS will never have - support from people who really want to give it.

Decided to look at 3 alternatives - as Ubuntu kinda of just works, and kinda bored of it, but you never know, will probably end up with it!

Decided, with the help of distrowatch, to check out Mandriva, PCLinuxOS and Fedora.

So far, completely ruled out PCLOS as, booting now on the Live CD - it just sucks! I know its a live CD, but its slow - Ubuntu is really actually quite fast. And, its implementation of KDE really isnt that nice.

Initial looks at both Fedora and Mandriva both look like they would be really worth a proper look.....booting into Mandriva now. Will update when I decide which distro I eventually get the courage to install along with my XP partition.

Try sidux, its Debian based and 100% compatible with debians repos. Which means a simple aptitude install packagename for over 20k packages.

Sounds like Debian would suit you. It's stable and it doesn't really overcomplicate things while still letting the user look under the hood. If you're looking for a bit more challenge (i.e. steeper learning curve), there's also Arch Linux or maybe even Gentoo (compiling the software is quite a difference to Apt, though). Or just check out my Distro chooser (link in my sig), it's suits well for people with some Linux experience.

Haha - tried your Distro Chooser, and it came with interesting results ----- (Everything!)
1. Ubuntu
1. Kubuntu
3. Debian
4. openSUSE
5. PCLOS
6. Fedora
7. Mandriva
8. Slackware
9. Cent OS

Well, I seem to prefer GNOME over KDE - just nice and plain, and seems intuitive. I hate a sloooow system, and KDE always seems to go slow for me at any rate. Debian just doesn't looks pretty enough for me - but I think a debian based distro would be best. Hated PCLOS as soon as I had to manually startx when i log in using the live cd! Love the apt-get command as it is just so simple to use and understand if I have to insall anything. I am just put off Debian by the lack of wizz-pop, something that makes Ubuntu a much better desktop experiance - which is also fast. I want something user friendly, easy, pretty and fast --- hard I know!
openSUSE bloooooaaaats, so thats a no.

Fedora looks stunning - what you all rekon of that?
Mandriva looks like it could be good - got a LiveDVD of PowerPack 2008 free with a magazine the other month so will have a play with that. Any thoughts?
But, really, cos I like GNOME - I thinks its going to be Ubuntu (again) or Fedora. Does the Debian/Red Hat difference really make that much of a difference, and also how different are APT and RPM?

Last questiosn for this post any way! Can anyone show my how to make Debian sparkle?!

Thank you for all your help --- such a fantastic helpful community!

How did you manage that? lol...
Remember you can install any desk environment on any distro. Its not like the default is "last chance".

Debian is a lot more versatile than fedora or ubuntu any day. Hundreds of repositories are out there for it. Just go to the "Debian" subforum of "Linux-Distributions". There is a sticky there with lots of posts about getting more sources.

Think of it like this, Debian is the root of Ubuntu. Debian has been around longer. Debian has a lighter install. It is also more stable.

Tried Fedora. Its...okay. If you want to know the distros that are really bloated, I would say Mandriva, Ubuntu, Linux Mint, Ubuntu Ultimate (for obvious reasons), Vixta, PCLinuxOS and some would say openSUSE. Never used Suse myself though...

This is NOT a plug, But if you subscribe to the Linux Pro magazine they drop in dvd of new / fresh distors. If you get the subscription that offers it.. PLUS they do a small write up on the distro in the mag.. VERY useful.
dont think anyone would be very disappointed in the mag..

Debian with a bit of sparkle you say ? take a look at elive.. http://www.elivecd.org/

Debian with the enlightenment desktop, Lighter and faster than Gnome or KDE..

UPDATE: Ahh elive looks pretty cool and I've been meaning to check it out.. didn't realise they are asking for a 'donation' in order to download. Looks like it's time to send a request to LinuxPro magazine for an elive Cover disk.. Hmm wonder if it was on any of the older issues I have..
elive was include with Linux Format # 92 May 2007..

APT is not the same level of package manager as RPM. RPM is the basic package format, and the tool that Fedora uses to handle it is YUM. PCLinuxOS actually uses APT to handle the RPM packages, and in turn Synaptic to graphically handle APT.

Getting into anything debian-based, dkpg handles the lowest level of package management, then APT, then aptitude/synaptic/adept etc...

RPM used to be known for dependency hell, which is when you attempt to install a package only to receive errors that you don't have X package in version Y installed. Lately maintainers have done an excellent job in preventing this on all the major RPM based distros.

That being said, I believe that package management is faster when dealing with .deb than .rpm, at least on my slower machines.

Some points:

-OpenSUSE will feel a LOT less bloated if you switch off Kerry Beagle.
-Fedora is a lot of fun to use. It's very secure by default, but setting up some services is more difficult than Ubuntu or OpenSUSE, which have many things enabled by default.
-To Jazz up your default debian install, you gotta customize it yourself. Most people who install debian install a core system, and customize their installation. If you want to tailor your system, go for it.
-KDE is much easier to customize than Gnome, and you can get it to run much faster by disabling some of the visual effects.

Just managed to get a copy of Linux Format - which has 10 Different Distros on its cover disk:

Debian
Ubuntu (live)
Fedora (live)
openSUSE (live)
Mandriva (live)
Mepis
PCLOS (live)
Knoppix (live - obviously!)
ZenWalk
DSL

So, quite a few! Not all are live cds which is a bummer because I dont want to install them all just to test.

Thanks SilentSam for the info on package management - very helpfull.
Well, I want a computer to be fun to use - so Fedora sounds good! But, Ubuntu also is similar in that regard, and as you say is easier to set up some services - but i am just a regular user at the end of the day - dont really want to enable lots of server services at this stage.

I could tailor my system - but I dont have endless hours to spend setting it up, plus I really wouldnt know where to start - but would be interessted in learning on a non-production box - any help/how-tos/advice/recommendations would be much appreciated everyone.

And about teh visual effects - they are nice! And thast what draws me to Ubuntu more and mroe, the more I investigate other distros. I really do think its a toss up at the moment between Ubuntu and Fedora - with seeing if I can customise Debian in a VM on my Windows partition.

Thanks again everyone.