Hi,

I'm trying to choose a distro for a dedicated router but am overwhelmed. All I need is a nice GUI and optional VMWare image. Does not need to support wifi. I see there are options like SmoothWall, m0n0wall, vywatta, ipcop and all the ones listed at wikipedia (can't type the url; this is my first post). How do I choose??

thanks for any advice,
orange roughy

By trying out a few of them and then sticking with the one you like best?

Yes, that is one way. Another is go by recommendations by people who use linux for their router. I've looked for reviews but didn't find much. Distrowatch.org is lame for reviews of distros. Is there anywhere else I should look for distro reviews?

thanks,
orange

Going solely by what other people recommend is really bad idea IMHO as you limit yourself a great deal and will likely miss out on solutions that could have fit you much better. It's kinda like movie reviews. Some people give a movie a terrible review, yet if you go watch the movie you might actually find it to be pretty good. Or vice-versa. Seriously, I think taking the top, say five (or whatever), firewall distros out for a spin and then making up your own mind is the best way to go. The top five will more than likely include the ones which people are bound to recommend to you anyway.

And no, I don't know where you could find firewall distro reviews. As you can tell, I don't really care much for reviews. If you do find a site with that sort of content, I would just suggest you give equal attention to reviews written by experienced GNU/Linux users as well as newcomers. It would be insane IMHO to read just one point of view. Then again, the time you spend reading everyone else's opinion could have been much better spent making your own opinion IMHO.

At any rate, hang in there cuz I'm sure you'll start getting recommendations any moment now.