Slackware installation is easy compared to Gentoo, or even Arch. Calculate and Toorox are far less complicated to install than Gentoo proper (easy GUI installers), and yet retain 100% Gentoo compatibility, more so than Sabayon, as I understand it.

I need to check them out too then!

Fedora 19 is out.

What part of bleeding edge did you fail to understand?

Yeah, I know, bleeding edge is supposed to be highly unstable, but not UNUSEABLE, right? ^^

Let's just say "cutting edge", then... I'm looking for a cutting edge distro. I mean something that will have new versions of software like KDE, Gnome, Kernel in less than 2 weeks after they're released.

The way I understand "bleeding edge", it would have new versions of this software even BEFORE they're officially released, so bleeding was definately the wrong word for what I'm looking for.

Debian Sid seems to meet your description perfectly. Have you tried it? Is there something about it you don't like?
jdk

No, I have not tried it, yet. I'm not quite sure what to download, to be honest! ^^ On the Debian website they speak of "testing", "Sid" and "unstable" versions and I only find the download option for "testing" so far. Is "testing" = "Sid" or is that something else entirely? ^^ And which one is what will become Wheezy on May 5th?

Have a look at this link: http://wooledge.org/~greg/sidfaq.html. It confirms my guess on how to do it. You install Debian testing which you can get here. I'd suggest the daily snapshot of the Netinst disk. Then you alter your repos file to change the repos from testing to unstable (/etc/apt/sources.list). Just follow the instructions and give a shout if you need help. It's actually not difficult at all.
jdk

Okay thanks! I'll download it right away and check it out in VirtualBox first.

This would be great, because I really like Debian. The only thing I didn't like about it were the outdated (but stable) package versions. But if Sid is more cutting edge, than it would be perfect.

Bleeding-edge (and yes, two-week-old software is gushing blood) means bugs that require the user to fix. Bleeding-edge is not for beginners, so you will not find such a distribution that is beginner-friendly. If you truly "need" the latest shiny new s***, then you will need to acquire a little advanced knowledge and be prepared to do some work to keep your system running. For example; if you do not yet know that any GUI can be installed on any system and are searching for a distro based on the default DE, you are not ready for an advanced distro.

Stable systems that always work without the user's intervention are stable, because they do not use the latest software. They wait until the bugs are worked out before adding it.

One step at a time. Learn to walk (learn the basics) before trying to run (use a system that requires the ability and willingness to do lots of work).

Debian Unstable and Sid are the same thing.

You're right, having the latest versions of everything is probably not necessary for a beginner anyways.

I was just wondering why there are "stable" and relatively beginners-friendly distros like Fedora 18 or Ubuntu 13.04, which use relatively modern software versions like Gnome 3.8 or Kernel 3.8, but those are both fixed-release distros.

With rolling you always seem to have to choose if you want modern OR easy... either you choose something like Arch which gives you Kernel 3.8.8 and all that but lets you install everything from the CLI, or you chose something easy like Sabayon which still seems to be at KDE 4.9 when 4.10 is pretty stable already...

The only exception I know of was Fuduntu, which was definately beginners-friendly and easy to install but still had the latest stuff... except for the DE, apparently. ^^

I mean: If Fuduntu had KDE, everything would probably have been perfect. There wouldn't be any library problems like with Gnome 2 and the distro would probably still be alive and kicking. Well, maybe they continue Fuduntu under a different name with a different DE, so maybe it'll happen after all.


Ok, so "testing" would be the preparation for the next "stable"? So right now "testing" is what will be Wheezy Stable, soon?

If you use the net-install or businesscard CD to install Debian and you choose the "expert" mode for installation you can choose if you want to install Stable, Testing or Unstable. No need to upgrade an existing installation, saves quite some time.

Thanks for the tip!


EDIT: Hey, the expert mode is really good, you can even configure it like in Ubuntu that you can't login as root!

Yes.

I need to take your word for it, since I have not used Sabayon. All I can state is that I am not aware of any rolling releases that have older software. (Of course, I am far from omniscient.) I value stability above else, so avoid systems that do not put a premium on stability. Not having the latest and greatest is not a problem for me. I am happy if applications can do what I need them to do and do it reliably.

Don't get me wrong, I do value stability, too. I have CentOS 6.4 installed as my "working OS", which I love for the long-term support and rock-solid stability.

I just want the cutting-edge rolling-release distro as a secondary OS which I use for day-to-day things like surfing, playing with and learning about Linux, so I don't have to destroy my CentOS-work-environment when trying out new things that could possibly damage my system.

Serious work and important data will always be done under CentOS!