Best distro for a newbie who wants to get his hands dirty and customize
 

Hullo,

I'm a newbie to Linux, but not to technology. I consider myself somewhat advance and ability to learn. I program in C++ currently, and have done some advanced things with Windows such as a shell replacement and registry editing.

I want the distro to be very good for customization, so that I can use something else than GNOME or KDE, and other things. While I'm not scared to get my hands dirty, and to narrow it down, I'd like the distro to be suited for customization, and if possible, newbies, but not newbies and not customization.

EDIT: Could you also please list all the distro's you know of, and from there I can look at some other specific things and reviews.

Most people will say this isn't for you, but if you really want to get your hands dirty, then Gentoo is the best for customization (it gives you choices for everything, literally). It is not newbie centric though.

Ubuntu is nice, and lets you customize a lot of things, and is very newb friendly.

But I think what you are really looking for would be debian testing. It offers the "get your hands dirty" approach to most things, while also providing gui tools for most. It also has great package management (apt-get). You can customize it how you want, and still not get lost.

http://distrowatch.com/stats.php?section=popularity

slackware, gentoo, LFS seem to be good for customization and manual administration

CRUX is another good one if you want to learn Linux: http://crux.nu/

Ubuntu connects simplicity with customizability. Try it.

Personally I'd recommend ubuntu to start off with. I think it strikes a good balance between newb-friendliness and letting you do things yourself, which is good to learn on. Debian would probably also be good. Ubuntu is based off debian, and supposedly is a pretty much a more configured version of debian.

I've switched from ubuntu to Arch, mainly because I like the flexibility that comes with having a more minimal base, but it's not quite as friendly to start off with since it requires a bit more knowledge on your part. However I don't think it's beyond the capabilities of someone that was willing to put in enough extra effort to learn about.

ubuntu or mepis will be great to start. You can use the live cd, test your hardware and then install it easily. pclinuxos is another good one.

Slackware if you want to get your hands dirty

If you really really want to get your hands dirty, then triple-boot Slackware, Debian-testing, and Ubuntu.

You can use Ubuntu to get a feel for linux and learn things. You should be able to get internet up and running and make things work very easily. When you feel like you can move your way around Linux, then move your way on to Debian-testing. Though Ubuntu is based on it, you'll find it different and you can get your hands a little dirtier and see how it works for you. It requires more linux knowledge than Ubuntu and can be more customized if you want it to be. At least you'll have Ubuntu to go back to if you screw something up or if you simply don't like it.

Slackware is a different animal altogether. Getting your hands dirty takes on a new meaning with this distro. If you can get Slackware working well, then you can work with almost any distro you want. And you have Ubuntu or Debian to fall back on when you mess it up. However, when you get Slackware working "just right," I think you'll like it enough to stick with it.

Good luck.

Gentoo, even that I like Slackware install Stage 1 it'll take more time but it worth it.

I would recommend debian, then later gentoo. Debian is easier to configure (read: install) and get running, while not limiting you. Gentoo is very good, except requires substantial Linux knowledge to set up. Past that, it is the ultimate in configurability.

for getting your hands dirty i would reccomend LFS, Slackware, or Gentoo; in that order.

I'd seriously avoid Ubuntu if I were you, because it does the root account in a funky non-standard way which goes against the rest of the *nix world. It's stupid, it's non-standard, but it's something which they've for some bizarro reason have decided they're going to do anyway. This means that you'll learn how to do things in a uniquely "Ubuntu way", which is unlike other versions of Linux and unlike other Unix-like operating systems.

Also, Ubuntu is GNOME-centric. It's difficult enough to run different desktop environments that they've split into 3+ distributions--Ubuntu for GNOME, Kubuntu for KDE, and Xubuntu for XFCE (partly this is thanks to their stupid non-standard way of handling root).

In contrast, Debian is desktop-environment/window manager neutral. You can happily run GNOME, KDE, XFCE, Rox, fluxbox, icewm, and any other desktop environment or window manager all in the same system.

Go with Debian, or Slackware, or Gentoo. That way, you'll learn the more typical ways of handling *nix systems. My personal preference is Debian, but you can come to your own conclusions after trying them out.

me though i didn't get dirty :p i started with slackware then now gentoo. i haven't heard about lfs though. not until the last topic about distros. darn i could have tried it before too.

I think Ubuntu is really good as a stable entry OS for people new to Linux. (Like me) It installs easily, and does everything you need to do. It is customizable but you just have to know where to use sudo when you read commands designed for linux in general. I like it, but I'm going to something more basic now to learn theinsides of linux better, I end up using the GUI tools in ubuntu as a crutch.