well, this is not a newbie quetion but i did not find any relevent Forum for my question, except this one, so here is my question:

i am using Linux from last 10 months & have used Fedora, Debian & BLAG over ths time. now i feel irritated by "configuration using GUIs" as they hide the complexity.

e.g in Fedora, you go to "GNOME menu -> Adiministration -> Networking/Printing" & configure/install the Router/Printer from there, where as "localhost:631", "/etc/hosts" "/etc/resolv.conf" "ping/tcpdump" give you much flexibility, power & control over configuration & installation & even these command-line tools are much-expressive & helpful when a serious-problem arises like i had with my router. i also want latest (or at least "not old" softwares like GCC 3.x when GCC 4.x is here). i only work on GNOME, dont use KDE (a.k.a Windows's coloured-copy)

i found 2 distros fit my requirements:

1.) Arch
2.) Frugalware

Arch has serious bugs, i used it. i am downloading "Frugalware" right now. does anybody has any further suggestions for distros? or any other views?

And why doesn't Debian fit your need? It has few to no GUI config tools. Just because a distro has GUI tools doesn't mean you have to use them, you can always edit the config files by hand.

Slackware and Gentoo would both be good choices as well.

You may even want to take a look at Source Mage and Sorcerer or LFS.
About Source Mage | Source Mage GNU/Linux About Sorcerer

I've used a lot of distros. I seem to have settled on Debian Etch, or testing, for the time being. Debian lets me do pretty much everything the way I want to. There isn't any rule about command line vs gui. Command line is slow at first, but after you write all the scripts it's fast. But, it's pretty boring browsing the web from a terminal. And, terminal isn't wysiwyg, so you can't see what you are actually going to print, except in the loosest sense. Compiles are much faster in a terminal, and if you ever use wget or rsync on a lot of files, you won't run out memory as easily in terminal mode. But, desktop PCs aren't much good without a gui. In a gui I can launch tabbed terminals, which I do for tailing log files. You can't do that in terminal mode.

So, terminal and gui have costs and benefits. One isn't correct, while the other is wrong. There is a reason why the most popular distros are popular. It's because they're good, and they work for what most people want to do.

i tried fedora with gnome as my first distro (about 2 years ago now) and there were TOO MANY gui options. options for this, options for that, options for things id never want, and my eyes would have to trawl through them all. i know you can just ignore the options or remove them from the menu (with another GUI!), but i would rather start with relatively nothing and add what i want, no more, and get the benefit of learning at the same time. im using slackware with fluxbox now, and if i want do do something, i find out from the web and this forum, and then edit configuration files by hand via the commandline. its a slower method than using the GUI menus but its less cluttered and i learn a lot more about the programs im using. i see you are considering 'arch' linux, am i right im saying arch is based on slackware, but preconfigured and tweaked? this could be a good move, because before slackware i used 'Vector linux' (also a tweaked slackware based distro) and it gave me a good introduction on how things could be done, and it also gave me the motivation to learn the commandline and a few other things while i had a near complete system up and running, it was like a bridge to slackware.

Slackware. Given your requirements, its gonna win out in the end, so you may as well just give in now.

I grew tired of GIU configs, so I switched to Arch. Problem with that is, the binaries kept on breaking. Switched to Gentoo, and I love it.
Slackware looks good, too, but I've never used it before.

arch is based on CRUX. it's neither preconfigured nor tweaked, that would be against the arch-way of doing things. it's i686 optimized and probably one of the fastest distros out there.

@arnuld
what are those "serious" bugs you're talking about?

i switched from mandriva to arch - and i love it!

"Debian Sarge", i used it for 1 year, one of the most stable distros i have ever seen & used, 2nd is BLAG. Debian has quite old compilers GCC 3.4 whereas i need 4.x

YES but Slackware does not have GNOME it has a Desktop whose UI is a coloured-copy of Windows (i am talking about KDE, i really hate it). as i mentioned on original post, i only work on GNOME.

i tried "Gentoo" 1 hour ago with AMD64-minimal-install CD. it seems good and i want to use it but my ADSL Modem, Netgear DG632 has some IPv6 issues. On Fedora Core, Debian & BLAG i have to "stop IPv6" to make internet work e.g on BLAG/Fedora, after installation, i add these to "/etc/modprobe.conf":

alias net-pf-10 off
alias ipv6 off

as usual, i need to download "Stage3 tarball" before installing Gentoo, So how can i stop IPv6 on Gentoo *before* installation?

i also liked SOURCEMAGE and when i try "sorcery update", it starts to connect to "1.0.0.0" :-( dont know why it chooses "1.0.0.0" instead of a SOURCEMAGE mirror.

i want to install Gentoo. May you tell me how can i solve the problem i am facing (look at my reply to "craigevil" where i have explained my trouble)

thanks

I would suggest either Slackware or Debian Sid (Unstable).

Slackware is often seen by many experienced users as the best, but I prefer the "bleeding edge" nature of Debian Sid, and also the HUGE number of programs available through apt. I have not had any major stability issues, even though it is the "unstable" version.

--Ian

check my post at "ArchForums" @ http://archlinux.org, posted in "Desktop Environments" section, with subject "GNOME panel problem" or take short-cut if it works:

http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?t=27910

Slackware does not have GNOME :-(, the only Desktop i work with.

For that
Issue you might want to use the DNS from your ISP instead of using your router as a helper.

I also got this problem with IPv6 enabled on my E-TECH ADWG02 ADSL modem.

I had to do the following:
lookup the DNS severs IP for your ISP

in /etc/rc.d/rc.inet1.conf add the line
DHCP_KEEPRESOLV[x]="yes"

in /etc/resolv.conf
nameserver DNS_your_ISP

Not a problem. Install Freerock Gnome, GWARE Gnome or Dropline Gnome. All of them are Gnome optimized for Slackware. In fact the existence of projects like these is one of the reasons Gnome was dropped from Slackware proper.

that's fine as long as these Desktop Systems are GPL'ed. i will check them.

hey...what about my 2nd problem: Slackware 11.0 (latest stable) has GCC 3.4.6 where as i need GCC 4.x. what about this problem? now, i dont want to install GCC from source