I use Puppy Linux on an old notebook (browsing, mailing), because it's very uncomplicated and really fast. All other comps are running slack13 resp. slack64

I went from PageMaker 7.0 to InDesign CS2, and that was far enough for my needs.

Slackware64 runs Windows XP Pro in Virtual Box as well as natively, if not better.
InDesign works great in that environment, as does Photoshop.

Last I tried PageMaker 6.0 would run well in WINE, if you care to try.

Scribus would never work for me, unless they did a whole rewrite. They started
it using Quark Express as their example, which never appealed to me. For some
while I worked with the Scribus project, but it's not DTP to me.

InDesign and Photoshop are required software for me, and the only reasons there
is a Windows OS running on this LAN, even in a virtual machine. Would take Win7
for a test drive if I could get a free download of it. Of course, here in China
they always have the software available really cheap even before it's officially
released.

To answer the OP ... if I didn't run Slackware, then CLFS. I've always wanted to
customize my system, and am working towards that CLFS build already.

Slackware can be maintained even in the distro officially ceases to exist, so there
is no need for a Slacker to look elsewhere if satisfied, even if there is no Slack.

CLFS = Calculate Linux From Scratch???

Bruce, I only do page layout and a bit of photo touch-ups (mainly adjusting size and tone). I also clean up scans of old magazine ads and technical documents, and I needed something that would take moir patterns out easily. I use Corel PhotoPaint for photos.

I could work with Scribus, but like you I prefer the way PM6 works rather than Quark. My problem with Scribus is that it's not fully developed yet, support is sketchy, and they were changing file formats when I looked into it. No expected date on the new format, so it might be done now, might not. I'm not about to change software only to have to change again a few months later, and the new software won't read the old files. I'll probably go with PageStream from a small company here in the US. It was used a lot on the higher end Atari STs and Amigas, so it's well developed and the writer supports it. Yes, it's been ported to Linux, of course! I've got the trial version -- I forget how it's hobbled... won't save and won't print more than 2-3 pages?? Something like that. There's also a product from France called Xclamation, but I haven't found anyone who's used it, so I'm not sure about support.

I couldn't stand InDesign. Way to much work compared to PM6. I looked at PM 6.5 and PM7, and quickly discovered they were geared toward taking PM users to InDesign, not truly upgrades for PM. I've used PM since 4.x (just before 5.0 came out) and was looking for something similar, especially in ease of use for page layout. InDesign is not it! For all-round graphics use it might be fine, but I find it way too complicated... or more accurately way to unfamiliar. Scribus is more like PM6 than InDesign is!

I might try slackware later, but I mainly want an OS that pretty much works out of the box. Mint seems to be it for now! Will see after a few months use...

Interesting. I've run Arch for a week on my test box at home (logging in here on my company work station). I've found Arch to be stable and *very* bleeding edge.
However, I *do* miss Slackware on the test box. My other 4 Slackware 13.0 and -Current units continue to run steady_as_a_rock.
Slackware work station #5 coming up this evening. This will be fun.

Not a blast at Arch because I do like it.
Heck, I fell in love with AUR.
I ran it for about 2 years but was never able to go for more than a few months tops before something somewhere was broken.
Usually it was something minor and just an irritant, other times it was something that for me was serious.
What helped for me before updating is read the home page concerning recently released updates, scour the forum, then wait a few days for any problems to be reported.
It helps, but when no two boxes are the same,, someone, somewhere is going to have a problem.

Better to use lts kernel in arch to avoid kernel upgrade related issues.

What I learned from Arch is if you want to upgrade or install something, you need to perform system upgrade to avoid headache...thanks God, I managed to get my system back.

Back then my only access to internet (wvdial) refused to start after an upgrade, since it needed some library. Using other linux box, I read on the wiki that I needed to downgrade. Well, wvdial went back to normal then.

I also used Arch packages to find dependencies when I needed package to install in Slackware...some were not installed smoothly...

I like both.

LOL, that is a nifty trick which I use as well. If I have to install a package in slack, first I search the Arch Packages then AUR, to note down the dependencies and install them and then compile the package. Slackbuilds doesn't have much packages compared to other distributions. Linuxpackages,slacky,etc combined have often outdated, really small amount of packages which are in no way sufficient. So if you use slack as your main system then a lot of manual digging about packages and their dependencies are required. Arch linux only installs required dependencies and no unnecessary dependencies are installed, so its a good place to search about dependency information.

Do you mean Arch's kernel..? I immediately removed the Arch kernel, and installed my own. Never had any problems with running my own kernel, and all the kernel's I find in the AUR are flawed... Especially when you can use git and clone the master branch, then find your own patch sets.

The kernel here is what I'm testing now on my Arch box http://zen-kernel.org/. Its quite impressive actually, very responsive and amazing X performance IMHO ...

I used zen kernel in the past, it works well. I meant Arch's-LTS kernel which is suitable for servers due to it's solid stability.

Ahhh... the only problem I see with LTS is that it might lack certain features of newer hardware.

Ya, the zen has been good so far. Using the BFS scheduler, and the BFQ i/o. So far I've been impressed

CLI for ever.

Down with case sensitivity. All uppercase up. The first part is more vivid and original. First parts, in music (first movements) as in literature, I think, were with very few exceptions always the best ones.