Hey folks. Recently, I've had a bit of trouble settling on a nice distro. I'm a fan of BSD, and Linux in case you were curious.

I need something that's lean and fast. I have a P4, which I believe works best with either i586 or i686

I do not like debian based distros, instead I prefer traditional Unix. I do like the idea of a ports system.

I do not have time to setup Gentoo Linux.

*BSD is not as functional as I hope it would be.

Arch Linux does not satisfy me very well for some reason (Don't ask why)



Here's what I need:

I like to write code. I need a nice environment that will enable me to code well.

I need it to be comfortable. I prefer KDE/Gnome.

There must be some kind of package management.

And I need to listen/watch popular codec software. I also need my Nvidia drivers to work correctly (GeForce 6200)

So in essence, I need it to be easy to use and maintain power and flexibility. Being well supported with an active community would be a bonus as well. Extended documentation would also be a bonus.

I need all of this to be installed on the fly via ports, or a package manager.


I've tried Mandriva (Really liked it, but the package management seems a bit complex. Some of it is "Buy buy buy")

Tried Linux mint and Ubuntu/debian - Too slow for my taste.

Fedora

FreeBSD (Really liked this as well, I would use it more if it were functional with HAL and dbus. Ceased to use since porting applications from *BSD would pose difficulty)

Arch Linux

Zenwalk


Haha. Sorry if these aren't really in specific order. My mind is on making breakfast right now.


Peace

ichigo

Oh, I'm surprised Arch Linux didn't work out for you, it seems to fit the role quite nicely. Other than that, I could recommend Slackware, but I would say that its package manager does not suit your needs at all. I, myself, have recently been through a period of trying out loads of different distributions, and I don't remember finding anything at all that would perfectly fit your criteria, although I will say again that Arch Linux seems like it would be the best. It also happens to be the one that I've settled on (so far).

Perhaps PCLinuxOS or CentOS? I haven't personally used them, but just from reading their descriptions, they seem to perhaps fit what you are looking for.

OpenSUSE might even work for you. Actually, I'd recommend that you check it out. Just about everything should work for you right after installing (even Nvidia drivers). Although I don't know how "familiar" it would be to you, even with KDE/Gnome. It felt slightly foreign to me, but that could just be me.

The majority of my experience has been with Debian (and derivatives) and Slackware (which I would love to recommend, but it doesn't quite have the package management that you're looking for).

Although if you want to take a look at Slackware, if you install gslapt/slapt-get you get similar package management to other distros.

You are clearly a candidate for the distro listed in my profile.....

Seriously, just about anything in the top 10 in the "hit list" at distrowatch should be fine.

A few random comments:
1. Since when is Debian not a traditional Linux distro?---it is one of the graybeards.
2. You can't tell people not to ask you why---SO: WHY DON'T YOU LIKE ARCH????
3. All distros have "some kind of package management"

Take a gander at my post here- ( http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...nstall-709372/ ) that way at least you won't be wasting CD's and can use a DVD instead w/ multiple distro's.
Sounds like your almost looking for the exact same things as me....
I would say check out both GoblinX and Wolvix-both are Slackware based and can use almost any Slackware packages via tgz2lzm/mo2lzm/dir2lzm, etc
Both also have great repositories-although it takes a little work navigating the GoblinX site to find all the goodies.

Seriously, just about anything in the top 10 in the "hit list" at distrowatch should be fine.

A few random comments:
1. Since when is Debian not a traditional Linux distro?---it is one of the graybeards.

I find that Debian can be a bit complex as it diverges from the traditional Linux approach at things. I find that it's init scripts are a bit off, and it's over all system of keeping track of it's system is rather odd. It doesn't sit well with me.

2. You can't tell people not to ask you why---SO: WHY DON'T YOU LIKE ARCH????

Arch in my opinion is young, and it's due to change a lot throughout time. Young distributions take some shuffling to get things in order- but I have no way to verify this.

3. All distros have "some kind of package management"

Haha. I bet there's at least one distribution out there that doesn't use a package management system. Linux had to start somewhere- And I be that somewhere didn't have a package manager but it was rather compiled and built from source manually.

Debian too slow for your taste? Im running debian on a AMD Phenom Quadcore 2.9GHzOC, 4GB ram, 2x 500GB raid 0, and an Nvidia geForce 9600 GT. And it runs like a charm. I know any distro will, i gotta say im a debian fan . I tried Gentoo,Slackware,Fedora,and suse. But none of them i liked. I love debian's package manager. Easy to setup. Debian all the way man

About KDE

You might find that KDE 4.x is not up to your standards either, so here is just a reminder that several distros still may be installed with KDE 3.5.

Linux is nothing if it is not the diversity of choices. Happy Hunting

Well if you like the BSD's have you given PC-BSD a try?
www.pcbsd.org

If you like ports you could try pretty new distro called DracoLinux. It's build on top of Slackware and uses pkgsrc as its package manager. It could be what your looking for.

For development I would recommend OpenBSD but your nVidia card won't work on it as the OpenBSD only uses open source drivers.

I would recommend you Slackware or CRUX. They are lean and fast and are created rather for coders than for desktop users.

The reason I mentioned PC-BSD is because they have a very good desktop version now. If you have a nvidia card PC-BSD has a utility that will set it up, they have a graphical install program that I have to say is one of the best I've seen for a first time user. (Not that the OP is a first time user), but they are in my opinion really doing a good job. I have installed others of the BSD's and will say none come close to this one.