As ever, most people tell you to use their distro. After all, it must be the best, or they wouldn't be using it!

I used Fedora from version 1 to 14, but it was getting so changeable that I felt like a mouse on a wheel. I'd tried Debian after Fedora 10, but I missed the Red Hat configuration tools and just generally found it uncongenial. So, as you see, I ended up with CentOS.

SUSE and PCLinuxOS have always struck me as reliable and easy to use; but SUSE is only reliable if you use KDE or Gnome, PCLOS just with KDE. If you don't mind, or even like, KDE or Gnome 3, that's obviously not a problem. Since you're presumably using one or the other, these may be the answer for you.

Slackware I'd only recommend for servers or programmers: there's just too much work involved getting software. But then my first requirement is a professional-grade word-processor, which obviously doesn't seem to be the case for Slackware's creator. But Salix and Vector put a human face on it and provide a decent supply of software ready-to-run, which is why I have Salix on my ancient laptop that finds CentOS a bit much.

Hi David - while probably this wasn't directed to my post, to be fair there's some difference between telling somebody to use your distro and simply answering to a suggestion request, speaking from your own experience (as for me it's difficult to speak from somebody else's experience). As I pointed out above, there are many discussions like this around, so one can easily point to them while providing something from his own.

I'm not actually a programmer and I use Slackware as a multi-purpouse OS, mainly for web design, graphics editing, word processing, simulation, mail, multimedia, audio recording, CD and DVD burning. I have built several packages myself and, that's true, this can involve some more work. However, usually you build software once, then you can use the same build on several machines and for re-installs, storing your small private repository somewhere. Besides, with practice you'll get things done more quickly. From my experience Slackware provides an excellent base system, which allows you to do most work. I don't feel that PV's decisions are limiting me in any fashion, because if I miss something I can easily get it from the official upstream projects: libreoffice for example, and just about everything available out there. I personally like Slackware's "shortcomings", because for me they imply many more advantages. And because every option has its specific shortcomings, the final choice is up to you, based on what you care about: [edit] that's one of the great things in the linux ecosystem. :)

Respectfully,
Philip

I give PCLinuxOS a try. Will it minime verison. I like the idea it does not give you useless software or at less not to many. And I like the fact it rolling release. I know slackware dose the same. It just I don't have the DVD or a spare usb port to used it. But I leave some space to give it a whirl. And my 3 favorite linux os that I like: openSUSE, Fedora, Salix OS. openSUSE and Fedora tend to go up and down for me. Salix OS I tried out when they came out with 13.37. It was fun to used on my old 32bit computer. tbh I don't care what DE or WM. I'm very open minded. Does Slackware give you option for lvm partitions setup?

This is possible according to a document written by Eric Hameleers (member of the Slackware core team), which provides detailed instructions for installing the system on LV:

Installing Slackware on Logical volumes

Best regards,
Philip

Taking a guess. If I used GParted to pre setup LVM. Before starting up the setup command. It should beable to partion it? I'm just asking. Because I never done anything like this before.

Hi zincflip - gparted is a graphical partitioning tool which is not available for Slackware installation: in fact the distribution uses a text-based installer and partitioning is usually done with fdisk or cfdisk. These tools are also available after installation, while gparted is not included: if you need it you have to build and install it yourself, by creating a package using a slackbuild or some other building script, or by installing the build in the traditional way, without creating a package (the build scripts are the recommended way, as they allow a better and cleaner management of packages).

[edit] Of course, if you like gparted, you could create logical volumes from another distro, for example using a live DVD, then boot the Slackware installer and go with the setup, following Eric's instructions.[/edit]

If you are interested you can take a look at some Slackware documentation:

Slackware Linux Essentials: this is the official guide. It is still valid and also a very good reading on Linux in general. A new edition of the book is being prepared, is available here and contains some more up to date information. I suggest that you take a look at both.

Slackware Documentation Project: another excellent source of documentation.

You can find useful information on the Slackware web site as well.

HTH. :)

Philip