Well, the title is a bit self explanatory, which bootloader do you like most, and why?
I currently only know of three, lilo, grub legacy, and grub2; and have tried all three.

I personally like Grub legacy most, simply because it doesn't need a command to update it's menus; which by the way is why i use it in my boot partition.

I don't bother much with bootloaders since I prefer single-OS PC. Currently i use the one that comes with Linux mint. And more: I don't know what is it as I use big DUAL-LINK DVI monitor that won't show anything below 1280x800 resolution

There was a similar LQ thread last month.

I have only used GRUB legacy and will have to say that based on it's merits of being an interpreter makes it the best. If you can boot manually you know that your menu.lst file must not be correct. If you post a million threads and read every guide on Grub Legacy you can just scrape by on how to use it though. All of the problems I have had with Legacy are because the Kernel was not able to do it's part and had nothing to do with GRUB. It was time intensive to decipher how to manually boot Fedora/CentOS with the guides available which coerces people to abandon it.I must have spent 30 accumulative hours on it. Deciphering the difference between GRUB and Bash commands while installing grub to it's own partition is confusing to a novice as well.

Does anyone know why GRUB changed their Ideals so drastically. Why didn't they just adapt their initial concepts?

It depends on the circumstances which bootloader I use. For starting a system from CD I use Isolinux, for starting from USB it is Syslinux/Extlinux (depending on which filesystem I have to use). On my personal systems it is LILO, it comes with Slackware and is very easy to configure. I don't mind running a command after changing the configuration, come on, it is typing four letters in the terminal that is already open because vim is my favorite text editor and therefore used for editing configuration files.
I have used Grub legacy for some time, it is comparable in ease of use to LILO.
I try to avoid Grub2 wherever possible, I simply can't stand it's confuse system of configuration. I mean, why should I have to write a script that will generate the needed entry in the configuration file instead of simply editing the configuration file myself? What should be the purpose of that?

I don't pay much attention to bootloaders. I generally use whatever is available.
I used to use Grub (legacy) when I was distrohopping. For some time I've been using Lilo (as it comes with Slackware). As much as I like Slackware (and whatever comes with it) I'd say that generally I prefer Grub legacy. The reason being that you could still edit/modify it at the boot time and you don't have to load the system to modify it. Having said that, this functionally was useful when I ran multiboot setup and regularly installed new distros.

The only BL that I haven't used much is Grub2 - which I didn't like anyway.

Are you having a dig at me? As said previously, i have a boot partition with grub legacy; what i neglected to mention is, it chain loads all the distros i use, which is why it's handy to have grub legacy occupying that partition, and having no need to run the commands, 'lilo', or 'update-grub' these commands are reserved for my slackware partition, and debian patition. It makes things easier.

thanks onebuck for the words of advice. I was not becoming angry if that's what you thought. perhaps I didn't phrase my post well enough. Tobi, please to not misinterpret my post, I just thought you were referring to my original post, i did not feel like you were attacking me, so no need to apologize. Sorry to throw everyone off.

Hi,

You should take a deep breathe and exhale slowly.

You presented a query and members have responded. I really do not see where TobiSGD was "Are you having a dig at me?" at you. Please expect varied replies and methods of communication when posting here at LQ.

No, I don't. If it sounded that way I apologize, that wasn't my intention. The "I don't want to have to run lilo after changing the configuration!" thing comes up in every discussion about bootloaders where lilo is mentioned, and I still fail to see why that is so annoying. Since you have a special type of bootloading this doesn't refer to you at all.

Hi,
@Knightron
Please do not edit a post to make directed comments or reflections to a later post. Respond with a new post so the flow of the thread will remain intact. Thus no confusion.

sorry again, i was just trying to avoid hogging the thread with off topic discussion.

It seams to me that a distinction of preference to bootloaders is whether to use what is just there or whether a person is presently able to install and configure one that suits their purposes better.

I read the Grub2 guides and decided that lilo would be a backup choice to Legacy instead of Grub2 if the need arises. Losing the interpreter part seams like a huge step backwards in ideology. I attribute Grub2's usage because it is included with the install disk.I leave Legacy on because it is already there ,was a pain to learn, I like the features and it has not had any pitfalls as of yet on my machines. I looked at the executable style loaders and the manuals where intimidating and seamed like they were overkill if a Linux style loader will suffice. http://www.plop.at/en/bootmanager.html There are a few others like this.