Not exactly a newbie, but usually leave my systems alone and just like to use them as opposed to tinker. I use Linux because I hate viruses and all that other shit that happens to the other stuff. I don't particularly like mac because its so expensive and such. Basically, I need some advice on what to choose to research and build to power a desktop system that has somewhat modern software ie: kernel / kde / etc.. and can update as easy as possible software such as kde desktop with as few difficulties and or dependancy problems as possible. Been using Mandrake for years, yet wanna get away to something solid and more community driven. I don't mind leaving much of the software alone and not updated for periods up to a year, but like I said, others i'd like to update or install as easy as possible. I can play with config files too and don't mind if it takes a while to get built up, just must be easy to maintain later.
Where oh where shall I go?
THX
Scooter

If you want a community driven distro that is easy to update, I have two suggestions: Fedora Core 2 and Debian Sarge.

Fedora will be the easier of the two to get up and running. After you do the base install, goto http://ayo.freshrpms.net/ and download and install the latest version of apt. The apt package will allow you to update very easily.

Debian Sarge will soon be graduating to 'Stable' status in the Debian community (right now, it is 'testing,' but with the testing process of the Debian community, their testing is like everone else's stable). It contains fairly recent software, and is very easy to update with apt (comes already installed). Debian is a little more of an 'on your own' distro.

Just my two cents.

Jared

deffently go with debian sarge. I'm using it right now and I couldn't be more happy. It's got all the pros of a big name distro like fedora but all the enhancments of community distro's like Gentoo. I couldn't imagine anything easier than apt, you can also get synaptic if you want a graphical interface. btw what are the specs of your system, just curious

I have a few machines,
One that I will be using as a desktop has a 450 p3 with 384M ram Nvidia riva tnt etc..
This would eventually become just a file server/media player, while I plan to go modern with an as yet undertermined setup. I try to find the best supported hardware, but we know how that can go.

http://distrowatch.com/

Don't be afraid to try Slack...

Be forewarned I was interested in slackware. The 120 page installation guide kinda through me off.

forget about the 120 page installation guide - this works just fine

http://www.bitbenderforums.com/vb22/...?postid=311808