looking for recommendations

I'm looking for some distro recommendations. Sorry in advance for the long post, but I think it's needed to explain exactly what I need and for you folks to be able to make a recommendation.

I'm a Windoze SA that's sick of M$ at home. I also have been asked in interviews if I have experience with Linux. So I want to learn Linux. I don't just want to pass an exam, I want to know what I'm doing. Don't get me wrong, I will certify when I'm ready, but that's not the primary goal. Primary goal is to learn Linux.

I've got a couple 733 MHz machines at home that I'll be using. One is already set up as a Win2k server and will continue in this role. The other currently has Red Hat 8. I installed that any have been playing around with it for a couple weeks. I've read thru and played with the Red Hat for Dummies. I've got teh PDF version of the Rute User's Tutorial and have gone thru a couple chapters in that. I really like that one, so will be burying a print version soon. But I'm starting to see that I could probably benefit a bit more from a different distro. Not that Red Hat is bad, but it seems to do everything for you, so doesn't allow me to have to fix the problems.

So, can someone recommend some distros that will fit my requirements? So I need one that will run on my 733 MHz 128 Meg PC. Allow me opportunity to play around on the command line to learn more about Linux. But it still needs to be friendly enough or have enough of a user base where I, as a newbie, would be able to get help if I need it.

Once I get to know what I'm doing, I'll load up my daily system with a good desktop distro to work with it for everything at home.

Sorry again for the long post and thanks in advance for any suggestions.

F_M

First off, read this: http://wiki.linuxquestions.org/wiki/...x_distribution

I'd recommend using Gentoo or Slackware if you don't find Red Hat challenging enough. They both have reasonably good online support (also, very few support issues are truly distro-specific, so forums like this are usually good even for really weird distos).

One common criticism of Red Hat (compared to some other distros) is that it is too difficult to configure as a novice, so don't expect most other sto be much more configurable in that regard.

If you really want to learn (rather than wanting to actually use your computer), then your best option is Linux From Scratch, which will guide you through making your own Linux distribution. You can always dual-boot it with Red Hat (or whatever) in case you need a working machine in a hurry while you're installing.

Hope that helps,

—Robert J. Lee

Thanks for the link and pointing out Linux From Scratch. I'd never heard of that. So now have a bunch of links from my google. I'll go reading thru the info and if it sounds like something I can handle, I'll go that way. I would think that the way to know a system the best is by building it from scratch.

Here's the links that I'll be reading thru over the next couple days.

http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/
http://www.tldp.org/LDP/lfs/html/
http://lfs.sourceforge.net/
http://www.linuxgazette.com/issue49/...LFS-HOWTO.html

F_M

Don't forget these 2:
http://www.linuxquestions.org/reviews/index.php?cat=2
http://www.distrowatch.com