[SOLVED] Choice of distribution

So far I've been using Gentoo and I'm really sick of it recently. Too many bugs, too many things don't work, installation scripts not ok. I'm gonna use distro for normal everyday tasks (music, films, Internet browsing) + programming microcontrollers. I was thinking of Arch but I'm afraid it will be simmilar to Gentoo. I need modern and stable enough distro. I know that I could try out all of them but my Internet connection has limits so I cannot download all distros and try them out. I like freedom of choice so I'd like to have control over my OS, but I hate when I install something and later it turns out that there is a bug in it and I have to manually check for the bug and fix it on my own etc. So if Arch hasn't got so many bugs I would take it but if it has then maybe I should use Ubuntu as no other idea comes to my mind. All slackware distros won't do couse I'm not going to solve dependencies on my own... It's sick. Please help me. I know there are millions of questions like that, but I'm not newbie and I really need some normal distro.

Mageia, Itś just great Mate!

The most stable distributions I have tried are: Debian, Slackware, CentOS, Scientific Linux.

I currently use Mint Xfce.

A good friend of mine is a longtime openSUSE user (since 7.0) and he runs it on all of his PC's (2 desktops, 2 laptops). One of his desktops runs the rolling release version of openSUSE called Tumbleweed. So if you want the latest technology, that might be worth looking into? The Tumbleweed repos are maintained by Greg K-H, who is a well-known Kernel developer.

Myself, I've yet to give openSUSE a proper spin. I've messed around with it via VirtualBox and live USB, but haven't tried it bare metal yet. I'm thinking of giving openSUSE 13.1 a proper go when it drops in November. I have a spare laptop currently dual-booting Gentoo and FreeBSD. So I might nuke that drive and give openSUSE the full treatment, come November.

Best of luck to you. Hope you find something that works well.

PClinux or debian testing.
Both are stable rolling releases.
No more reinstalls, no constant compiling.

Have you considered Mint Debian? It's Mint but using Debian Testing as the base instead of Ubuntu. Kinda the best of both worlds. It's also a rolling release which is always nice. I've had it on my laptop since LMDE came out with very few issues, none in the last year. My main comp runs Mint 13 LTS, which has also given me no issues, but I'm thinking of moving it to LMDE as well.

Debian fits your bill perfectly. A netinstall of Debian can be installed with whatever you want. If you're a fan of KDE, Chakra is worth looking at (based on Arch, but not as bleeding edge and EXTREMELY KDE-centric). Mint is good to try if you want a really good XFCE based distro (based on Ubuntu, without Canonicals tracking stuff).

Originally Posted by davepi So if Arch hasn't got so many bugs I would take it but if it has then maybe I should use Ubuntu as no other idea comes to my mind.

Hello

I'm personally a long-time fan of Arch, but from your comments above I'd think that Debian's stable branch should suit your needs well.

Originally Posted by davepi All slackware distros won't do couse I'm not going to solve dependencies on my own... It's sick.

It's a different approach, and it certainly doesn't suit everyone but managing your own dependencies on Slackware is nowhere near as onerous as you may think. Ruari did a very nice blog post on it a while back: http://my.opera.com/ruario/blog/2011...ncy-management

I'm not trying to change your mind; I don't think you'd get along with slackware from what you've said but I don't want people reading your comment and getting the wrong idea about Slackware. If it truly was 'sick' then I don't think Slackware would have survived 20 years like it has.

Ok so thanks for so many answers. I find Debian Testing, Mageia and Scientific Linux quite interresting and I'll test them soon. I think that Debian stable is too inmodern nowadays I like stability but I use my laptop everyday so I cannot imagine my desktop to look like Windows 95 I need something between extreme stabile packages and extreme modern ones . What's more I was sure that Debian Testing is not a rolling release (I thought it's just like Debian stable with more modern repos). Also thank for making it more clear how Sclackware works however I have got a strong feeling that this full install mode is not in harmony with linux ideology for minimalism (I mean it's really not economical to have some installed packages that I won't use even if 6GB is not much nowadays) and I have got also a question - If I choose a package I want to install and get all the dependecies to it can I connect it all somehow so that during update process of main package there won't be any event like that I will have to install some unstable dependencies to it?

"mimimal" systems that you add to really need dependency management to be practical for a beginner. Though an experienced Slacker could pull together a minimal system quite easily, it's going to be a tall order for a beginner inexperienced with the distro. If you're think more along the lines of starting minimal, then IMO it'd be the wrong choice. The only thing to help you with the dependencies on slackware is your own head.

Debian Wheezy/Stable was only released 2 months ago, so it is modern enough for most users. (More so than Scientific Linux, in my opinion/experience. Scientific is based on Red Hat which is old!) Certainly Debian Wheezy with Gnome 3 desktop looks nothing like Windows 95!!!

Snowpine thanks a lot. Last time i used debian it was using gnome from 2.x series and i didn't know od recent release and afaik debian releases comes out really rarely. I'll give it a try then

Also, Debian has...well, just about everything in it's repos. So if you wanna do the netinstall I mentioned, you can build it as an XFCE, or a KDE, or just use one of the *box's with a launcher and customize however you want to make it look you like. Biggest reason I'm a fan of Debian, it's one of the best for customizabilty without having to resort to compiling anything on your own. Other distros are close as well, but I don't think anything has quite the selection that Debian does.

Yeah debian stable is my choice for now. I'll see if I'll be fine with it for about a month thanks a lot I'm closing this thread and mark it as solved