Howdy folks,

To start off, i know there are a gazillion threads about linux distro choices etc...
However, i'm not a newbie in the Linux (and distribution) field. Still i have a difficulty in making the choice on the distribution that will stay longer than approx. 2 to 4 weeks on my system. (workstation/desktop)

I have tried (recently) :

- Ubuntu 6.x (both, and also tried the kubuntu-desktop installment):
- Debian etch
- Fedora core 6
- CentOS 4.4
- OpenSuSE 10.2
- Slackware 11.0
- Gentoo 2006.1


None of the above fits like a glove:

Debian (and thus Ubuntu) has apt, which is very nice. However, I dislike the distribution as total (file location etc wise). To much hussle.

Fedora is nice, but i dislike the idea of having to download 4+ cd's every half year to stay current. (yes i know you can dist upgrade with yum. But this is very unstable as of yet). And who is that goof, that invented the Bluecurve? He/she should be locked away in the deepest dungeon forever. It messes up both KDE and Gnome deeply.

CentOS is to much geared at server purposes, and the repo is small, therefore i need to seek for "compatible" rpms for more media support.

OpenSuSE is kinda of nice, however i dislike Yast. That tool drives me craze at times, when i don't have the time to do trickery. Furthermore, it's not so fast compared to Debian.

Slackware, is nice. But i don't like the fact the Gnome is left out. And the missing package management. (with dependency checking that is). e.g. for k3b to install and have it to work properly, took me 20 minutes! This because i downloaded k3b, installed it.. fired it up, nothing. (a lib is missing) I installed the missing lib, still nothing.. (missing cdrdao) installed cdrdao, still nothing.. missing scsi support for cdrdao.. etc etc etc.
Yes i know of the existence of Swaret and Slapt-get, but those tools are still pretty new, and thus not tested on the long term. Furthermore, i'm concerned of the future of Slack. What happends is Pat is leaving the project (or worse)?
Will the distribution continue the exist as we know it? or will it change direction/goals ?

Gentoo is my favorite from the list, however i hate to have to wait a few hours to compile Gnome or KDE again, when a new version is released. (same counts for the other software)
Once it had a friend over, he wanted to demonstrate something he had setup at home. We needed a terminal client on my system to connect to his machine. I emerged the package... after like 15 minutes!! we finally could start login in.

I work with linux for like 5 years (both private as business wise), I know the cli. However I am human too. So i want to be able to be lazy, whenever it suits me (like e.g. windows is a lazy OS, controlling wise), and dive into the cli whenever I want to.
So to conclude, i want a distribution that is 1) Easy to use, for when i'm to lazy for console. 2) Flexible enough to work my own way at the console, if i'm not lazy. This without stressing the wizzards/toolsset of the lazy part of the distro. 3) has seamless upgrade possibilities (forever), and can be upgrade on a running system (like gentoo/debian).
4) is fast.

Now, give me some (nice) feedback and suggestions!

Arch Linux has a very good package manager where you always have the newest packages, at the cost of having things broken from time to time. You'll also have to configure things by hand, but since you seem to know your way you won't have many problems here.

If you like Slack you also have Vector and Zenwalk, both based on Slack but with a 2.6 kernel. Not many packages available, but you can use linuxpackages.net to supplement the repos.

Whenever I have to choose something that works out of the box I usually end up getting Ubuntu. The big repository is definitely a plus.

Well---you have only scratched the surface. Distrowatch lists something over 300 different distros.

Seriously, you have already sampled a pretty good cross-section. Some thoughts that may be helpful:

1. Forget about 4CD sets and DVDS--use the package manager + the repositories
2. You can install KDE or GNOME (or XFCE, or Enlightenment...etc.) on any distro
3. If you are coming from a Windows perspective, you can get very frustrated when things don't "work like Windows". Distro-hopping will probably exacerbate this.

At least two others to consider:
Mepis---based on Ubuntu, but uses KDE and does not use the silly "no root user" nonsense. This is my current default at home
PCLinuxOS--based on Mandriva, but uses the Synaptic/APT** package management system

**the best, IMHO

yes i know (as i said in my post) that one could update through yum.. but this is much likely to cause problems, cause fedora and redhat (centos) is not build for that way of upgrading

I know every desktop can be installed on any distribution, but that wasn't my point.

I'm not coming from a Windows perspective at all. (read my post: the last part)

Choose the most likely candidate and set it up the way you want?

sure, i could do that.. but, as i stated before: i am also LAZY (at times).
So, i'm seeking the easiest/laziest way.. an out of the box kinda distro that fits without much adjustments.

No offense, but "Linux" and "Lazy" don't always work well together.

Actually, "Lazy" would not have tried everything that you have so far.....

no offense taken

Yes, it's true that lazy and Linux don't always work together. Infact, that's the very reason for asking the question.
Is there a distro, that makes lazy and linux go hand in hand?

I would only recommend Slackware if you're like me, i.e., don't require it to work perfectly right away. I enjoy the customization process. I hope it will be even more customizable next time I set it up so that I can still spend the same amount of time doing it, despite having learned it by trial-and-error.

Keep reading.

This is not a Slackware problem. I had that same problem in KDE with the KDE libraries completely installed, etc. It's actually a permissions problem, and you have to run K3b-setup for it to get sorted out. This was not on Slackware but on...

PCLinuxOS, which you should definitely try. Comes on 1 CD and for most people it works completely well out of the box. It's my home distro.

Joel

Lazy costs money. There is nothing wrong with spending money on a distro that solves your problems for you. Try Linspire or Xandros.

Mandriva
http://www.mandriva.com/community/mandrivaone


PCLinuxOS .92
http://ftp.nluug.nl/pub/metalab/dist...glish/preview/
ftp://ftp.nluug.nl/pub/metalab/distr...glish/preview/

This is the distro I use and recommend, Why because it works right out of the box. No need to configure Everything, everything just works. It also comes as a 1 CD install that is a live CD that you can install later if you wish.

Mephis
http://www.mepis.org/


Blag
http://www.blagblagblag.org/download/

To be blunt---NO