Can somebody suggest which linux distribution is best for experimenting with and which brings you closer to the operating system, where you can clearly see the various system processes going and so on. I will not use it for work etc. I just want to learn more about linux in that way.

Also, when it comes to the "messing around" , can somebody suggest any useful software or anything else, like altering specific files to see the effects, to make it more interesting and fun.

Thanks in advance!!

Slackware is probably the best one for "messing around" with. Welcome to LQ

To alter configuration files, simply use a text editor. Linux doesn't use a registry. The config files are found in /etc/ and are usually well documented. Most distro's have a gui front end for configuration changes that end up changing these same files. On SuSE there is a Menu -> System -> Sysconfig Editor program. It has a search function that lets you locate an item and then edit it.

To be "closer to the operating system", I don't think anything can beat Linux from Scratch. You compile everything from source and edit all of the configuration files yourself.

I'd say use Debian - great package manager so you can pull in anything and play. If you find something of interest you can pull in the source code and play.

With Gentoo you can build every piece of software before installing - but personally I think it's no fun because they have packaged, patched and scripted it all.

Any of the main Linux distros would do - they all have the tools.

Close. Any GNU/Linux distribution will do.

OK, OK, GNU/Linux. I have never seen Linux running with anything but the GNU utilities though - although it might be possible to build a system using the Intel C compiler.

Should we nag Jeremy to change the site name to 'gnulinuxquestions' ?

My emphasis is on the "any" part. Thanks.

Oops - sorry. :} I didn't say 'any' because I haven't tried out the niche distros like the audio editing ones - in principle they don't have to provide a package manager or compiler, but I know all the top distros do have those tools.

NP. We're saying different things with essentially the same basis. You point to mainstream distro's because they have the tools, I say "any" because anyone can add any OSS tools: slackware can run PAM, Debian can run SE Linux, and installing say gcc on any distro that doesn't provide on may not be trivial but certainly does not require any scientifical knowledge of rockets...

If you really want to learn Linux, go with an LFS install. But wait, you have to use an existing distribution to build LFS? I'll choose for you since you won't be really messing around with this distro but will be installing LFS to actually learn how Linux works, so go with Slackware. It's minimal, easy to install and will get you started.

If you have no prior knowledge and have no close help of linux I am going with unSpawn and say get a live distro and get all the multimedia and other programs added. I know my first distro almost made me give up on linux. I may have a slower learning curve than most but I can guarantee that I would have quit trying if I had started with LFS. In fact I am not sure if I would have the patience to tackle it yet.

No - it ain't.Some things will be horribly broken if you try.You'd still need a lot of GNU tools anyway.

If you're new to Linux, any distro in the top 10 at www.distrowatch.com will do to start. Try a few, they're all free
Note that although they all come with a GUI, that's optional, not compulsory, and even then you can open up an xterm (cmd line window) and the bare system is there...

If you want to learn about specific processes pick a distro that starts you in a barebones system. Like Archlinux. Using the package manager (pacman) you build your system- install Xorg, DE/WM, configure wireless, etc.. I learned more about gnu/linux from a week of Arch than 6 months of ubuntu.