Distro Decision
 

Hey guys

ok im stuck on a distro decision, i know this question is the most common and the answer

ive scrambled with ubuntu, mint, opensuse , fedora so this question is abit easier than the usual , since i do have an idea what im looking for in a distribution

So basically, i love all these distro's and there all great, but i want to try something a little more fiddley, but at the same stable, and lightweight and decent

Sort of points towards Slackware, debian, gentoo, or archlinux

Arch looks very good, alot of good reviews there, and so does slackware

So i cant pick between those distro's, and i dont have the download bandwith to keep trying each one, especially since archlinux requires an active high speed connection sometimes due to rolling releases

So any suggestions - heres what im after, i like to fiddle, but i also dont want to reinstall every 5 minutes

so i want some stability, and ease of use, i dont mind been fiddley and the "week of pain" im just trying to find whats for me, and suse, ubuntu, etc are great, but presetup, i want to setup a linux distro the way "i want it" and arch and slack are appearently great for that

but ofcourse at the same time, i want some simplicity, like some gui interfaces ofc, package managers, update managers, stuff like that

i prefer gnome over KDE to

i also dont want 2 hour installations of typing up commands, i want at least a graphical installer of some sort

:D any advice would be greatly appreciated - im a desktop general gamer/user

Definitely rules out Arch.Those last couple seem to rule out Slackware.
Gentoo also requires a bit of bandwidth.
Debian is probably your best bet.

Sounds like you are looking for Debian Stable or Ubuntu 10.04 Long Term Support.

Not obligate..if you can't afford net installation you can pick other type .iso with graphical included or pick distribution thats based on them and has graphical included. Dunno about Arch since still on to-try list but for Slackware you could check Absolute distribution(download Opera or Firefox install first since default web browser will not work and without browser it be painfull), for Debian pick net install iso and install base system only then do apt-get install {your choice here from lightweight DE} or as mentioned Debian has also larger iso with graphical(i saw XFCE and LXDE cd) as for Gentoo try Sabayon. If you are just trying they will be safe start and will provide good balance between GUI and terminal. Distrowatch has search option. Good luck.

Thanks for all the advice guys

As for Arch, that seems the most "attractive" of them all, god its so hard to choose haha, i know its alot of trial and error and i love it, its something constructive to do with my time besides playing League of legends haha

As for bandwith, im usually fine, i have a 50GB dl limit and 2-3MB cable connection, im just capped at 256k Right now because i overdid my limit ~.~

i get uncapped on saturday, so i only download at 20-30KBp/s until saturday, basically im bored haha and ubuntu and suse, and fedora etc, just feel "to easy" and some of them felt bloated, fedora felt the nicest, i love fedora tbh, but there just not fiddley enough ( ofcourse i dont want something thats completely broken, i want some stability, but i want more fiddling ), so im after something thats a light download and easy to setup, to play with until saturday

But all this does become confusing, arch seems attractive, but sabayon, and Slackware both have great reviews to, tho slackware is negatived because of some non dependency package manager over arch

Im just wondering which distro specifically you guys think will be best for me, debian sounds good, but thats pretty much ubuntu and mint without the face isnt it?

If you still ask..you should install VirtualBox software on your Windows 7 and do safe installations there. Then if you will like someone from them burn to CD|DVD or copy to flash to boot from it.

I don't see how Arch would use more bandwidth, don't all distros have updates?

Also, since it's rolling-release, you never have to reinstall Arch to upgarde it.

Updates with a rolling release will use a lot more bandwidth than a simple security update on a static release.

Many times I've used more bandwidth for updates in a month with a rolling release than getting a static distro .iso and getting updates. I cant recall ever getting an security update that even comes close to a 'normal' rolling release update in bandwidth used.

It all depends what you mean by "fiddley." If you think intermediate/advanced Linux projects are impossible in Ubuntu/OpenSUSE/Fedora then you are mistaken. Try "fiddling" with some projects that interest you (such as: learning the BASH command line, compiling software from source, scripting/programming, networking concepts, virtualization, etc.) and you'll realize the various distros are more alike than different.

If on the other hand "fiddley" means "difficult to set up and administer" then I'm not sure what to tell you. Each of the top distributions has a well-deserved reputation for being elegant and user-friendly in its own way. You'd have to go beyond the popular distros into the obscure fringe if you want to find one that is deliberately difficult to use.

Slackware has an ncurses based graphical installer. The installation of Slackware needs about 5-10 Minutes plus about 10 Minutes of configuration. My experience is that with Slackware everything runs out of the box on any normal hardware (not too exotic), i.e. additional configuration is minimal.

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