He he ... I'm with you. Guess it depends on -> define: user

Arch Linux. Or FreeBSD.
I think after Slackware they are the most appropriate to try.

I don't even want to talk about it :).
Seriously, until today I did not manage to configure DSL in Debian via GUI. I get lost. I configure it via pppoeconf (or pppoesetup, always forget the name of the binary) and adding pppoe-start in rc.local, or how it is called in Debian.
Besides, calling Firefox Iceweasel? No, thank you.

At home the only other distro I use is FreeBSD, it is worth a look. However, my main OS is Slackware.

Heh... If you think that was 'fun' try adjusting the AGP rate setting with any distro 'installer' or package manager...
With Slackware it's just a matter of following Nvidia's README:
Not saying it's impossible, but.. how would one do this on Debian, *buntus, OpenSUSE, or even Gentoo or Arch? Simpler than on Slackware? Maybe not... Anyways, to each their own.
My point is that in Slackware is easy to follow the manufacturer's stock way.

What do you mean, "hold may hand has moved as a virus throughout technology?" :eek:

FreeBSD? Seriously? Does most stuff even work on that? I thought it was just for servers. I mean it's not even Linux. They make their own kernel, don't they? Does X and KDE and gcc and all the GNU stuff run on it? If I wrote a "hello world" program on Linux and compiled it, would the executable run on FreeBSD or would I have to compile a FreeBSD version?

And if the Linux binary ran on FreeBSD then how come it won't run on Windows? Windows isn't Linux but neither is FreeBSD.

And I think I heard some people straight up run Unix. So Unix runs on x86 PC's now?

If it does then why is Linux so popular? Why didn't FreeBSD or Unix catch on? Is Unix still closed source? Does somebody own it?

Well, I was serious. :) Seriously, KDE works, and sound works, and power management and CPU scaling. :) Most stuff works. The program compiled on linux will run if you have installed package called smth like "linux runtime".
I can't tell you much, I wiped FreeBSD after a few weeks. I think I found that linux had no support for writing on FreeBSD filesystem (UFS (?))? Or other way around. Since I wanted to keep linux on another partition and to store data on the 3rd partition (not FAT- or ntfs-formatted), I got angry.

I think some applications are not available for FreeBSD (or only older versions). E.g. CrossOver Linux exists for many years, but only recently its beta version for FreeBSD appeared.
But you should definitely give FreeBSD a try. (I think you need a primary partition to install it).

You do need a primary partition for Free BSD and if you try it as a dual boot lilo stanzas for ide a sata respectively could be:

I've looked atPC-BSD a desktop version of Free BSD. Don't know anything about the buntu's but it is something I would very much consider putting on a granny PC where once I installed and set up I could walk away and not be worried about it breaking or falling over. Very professionally packaged including the installer AFAIAC. I installed it last year and early this year to have a quick look but wasn't interested in it personally and never spent more than a night or two fiddling with it. It's BSD for using as an everyday PC if I remember right the KDE-4 was working without any problems The current (7.1.1) version sports KDE-4.2.4. There,s the usual host of desktop aps available AFAIC but I didn't find much info readily available concerning dvb drivers.

X runs just fine on FreeBSD. I'm currently running FreeBSD 7.2-amd64 in a dual boot with Slackware 12.2. FreeBSD 7.2 ships with KDE 4.2.2 which is acceptable. I'm looking forward to KDE 4.2.4 in Slackware64! :cool:
You can compile stuff just fine in FreeBSD using the ports directory and the commands : make install clean
You can also install binary packages with the command: pkg_add
FreeBSD runs just fine on x86 machines as well as 64 bit machines. Here's my dual boot set-up using lilo. My home partition for Slackware is mounted on sda3.

If you have enjoyed Slackware, then FreeBSD might be a good next choice. I like FreeBSD. Solaris (or OpenSolaris) would also be a good one.

I make these recommendations because they would give you the opportunity to experience a UNIX that is actually, genuinely different from Linux. With other distros, you are running something almost identical to what you are used to, but different only in annoying ways intended to remove the need for the user to delve into Linux system internals. Or, even worse, as is the case with Debian, working around the sanctimonious sense of the developers that they are the defenders of computing truth and justice and therefore know what is "right" or "desirable" for you on your own system.

You can detect this in the first reply that you got:
Undesirable to whom? The Linux police? Isn't it your computer?
If your hardware manufacturer provides drivers for their own hardware on your OS for free which are superior to the open ones, which is the case here, why would you not use them? Unless you were suspicious of the drivers doing something malevolent, the only reason would be something irrational . . . like an idealistic political crusade, for example.
The only people who care about calling it that are FSF devotees. The truth is, Linux distributions include software from LOTS of different sources. Stallman and the FSF have certainly made multiple grand contributions, but that doesn't mean that the OS is GNU as they like to say. The OS is an undefinable amalgam . . . You could call it "Purple Polka-Dotted Fire Walker" . . . who cares? They're just bitter because their own internal politicking sidelined their Hurd kernel for so long that now the possibility of there ever being an all-GNU OS with any kind of sizable user base is quite remote.
You see, it is a political crusade. Slackware only includes open-source software in its base distribution as well . . . It just doesn't get all haughty about it.

By the way, you can bend any distro to your will. The NVidia installer, for example, I believe, just doesn't like running while an X server is up. Just su to root in an xterm and issue an 'init 3' or 'init 1' (which will, on most distros, dump X and go to regular ol' single or multi-user mode) and then run the installer from the good ol' console.

I just tried fedora. I think I like it better than Debian and openSuse. But there's no xorg.conf. wtf? (As root I tried "find / -name xorg.conf" It simply didn't exist.)

So then I ran nVidia's shellscript and let it create an xorg.conf and now my computer beeps all the time for no reason. Usually when I'm hitting shift to type a capital letter. Also my numpad quit working.

Also there's sound when KDE starts and quits so it must know about my soundcard. But I can't listen to mp3's on Amarok or anything else.

Maybe if I let it download the two hours of updates it says I need? I don't know. I just downloaded the freaking dvd iso and installed. How out of date can my system be?

I'm sure these are all fine OS's once you learn how to use them. It just seems so backwards to me, from a newbie standpoint. Slackware was supposedly the least user friendly but it's not. It's the easiest. I mean I could attack each problem one at a time. If I had 640x480 resolution, no problem. Get nVidia's shellscript and learn about xorg.conf and get it to work. It's not gonna fuck up your keyboard in the process.

I know people can say I have these problems because I don't know what I'm doing and yeah I could figure it out with some research. But if apt-get and yast and the complete absence of xorg.conf on fedora are supposed are supposed to make things more user friendly, why do I end up having to do more reading and learning than I did with Slackware? User friendly my ass.

Fedora 11 runs the latest xorg which does not require an xorg.conf file. However, when installing NVIDIA's driver, it will create an xorg.conf. Slackware-Current does not have a xorg.conf by default either.

Also, Fedora 11 uses pulseaudio as the main audio manager. In my experience, pulseaudio has been a major pain. It causes an extra spike in cpu usage and it makes some multimedia and game apps play choppy sound. PA (PulseAudio) has come a long way, but in my opinion, it has ways to go.

In thing you will quickly learn with Fedora is to be ready for very large updates. Some in the order of 100 to 200 MB worth of updates a week, if not higher if you don't run yum update frequently. It is the price to pay to test the latest and greatest.

No more xorg.conf?

So how is X going to know about my mouse and monitor and video card from now on? Is it all going to magically work or is there another file we have to mess with now?

I haven't research the new xorg enough, but I believe it figures out your hardware on the fly. You can still create an xorg.conf though to fine tune your settings.