Sure, I notice this AFTER I post a topic about switching distros.

I have tried many of the distros:
Caldera
Slack 4
Debian Slink
Red Hat
Mandy 7
Libranet.
FreeBSD
It was exhausting not to mention expensive (because a boxed set also supports the greater good). I finally have settled on Slackware again because of the speed and the freedom in configuration.
There is a very good HOWTO out called very simply the "Distribution HOWTO." It is supposed to aid the average user in selecting a distribution, but I think the author of that manual prefers Debian and says so in the early pages.
Further, it is anymore a Debian and Redhat world where "smaller distros like Gentoo and Slack and Stampede get pushed to the side and perhaps someday crushed. I decided to stick with Slack because I am able to do anything I want with it and it is fast. Obviously there are differing philosophies among the distros.
IMHO, Red Hat has always sought a modium beween speed, ease of use and stability.
I don't recommend literally buying seven or so different boxed sets from around the country. It will put you in the poor house.
Try Red Hat first. When (and if) you get sick of it, buy something else. Downloading ISO's doesn't help anybody. Buy the CD's and a manual and the Red Hat Network (or whatever). I want to tell you that my house is overfilled with Slackware toys, buttons, dolls and hats. This help linux to continue. Besides, I like toys!
I hope you find the truth you seek!
Phear the penguin

Only LINUX SLACKWARE RULEZ !!!!
Because is fast stable and safe !!!!!
4ram and 33mhz is PERFECT machine for SLACKWARE :-)

I have a little better than that so I don't want to just restrict myself to slackware...

350 Mhz, 256 Mb RAM

Restrict and slackware don't belong in the same sentence. I have a AMD k6 with about 500 mb ram, and I run slack....it's not like it is built for only old machines, it runs great on anyhting

I was just referring to belial when he/she said slackware rules... I have no problems with Slackware...

lol, its ok

My main computer has some eccentricites. For example, it won't boot off the floppy, boots off the CD maybe 10 percent of the time, so getting it to work with Linux has been a hassle. I got another older computer with a thimbleful of RAM (40MB) to load up with Linux. Got it to work Mandrake 8.1 but was slow. Storm linux (an old retired distro) was beautiful to look at, and remarkably fast, but I couldn't get the modem working. Seems to me I need to try either Slackware or Debian. Both of these distros have their partisans. Either way, I'm going to have a lot to learn, which is as much a good thing as a bad thing.

Debian seems attractive cause of the huge number of available free applications. Why would I want to choose Slack? Is it more stable? Better for an older machine. I'm going to research the question, but does anybody have any thoughts, any reason why they prefer the one or the other.

P.S. What the hell is this supposed to be?

Well for some choosing distro means choosing the best suitable distro (like Mandrake for begineers).For me choosing a distro is choosing which is available .I can't download a distro in the 56k connection,I don't have all the bandwidth in the University and the distros are not available in the market.(Nearest place you get a distro is in New Delhi,India(that's 10000 miles away).I cannot order the same distro through post or anything coz the businesses don't allow other countries.That means that I have to be happy with whatever I got(and I should be happy ,1 month ago somebody brought me Mandrake 8.1) and we use RH 9.0 in the Uni(they downloaded it),that means I copied the cd and am using rh9.0 .Another distro that I got is Debian.Before all this I was using rh6.0 for almost a year,then I switched to rh7.3,then 8.0 and now I have 9.0(rh6.0 through the first Linux book I brought).

If you're too afraid to make your final decision, try Cygwin
Installs under Windows and doesn't even need a boot. It isn't a Linux distro, but still... if one wants to learn UNIX. The X manager is awful, so install IceWM (can be found precompiled somewhere).

For beginners I'd suggest Mandrake. If not Mandrake, then SuSE.
Or both!

naaah.. all, i mean, ALL of you are wrong!!!! SuSE8.2 is the way to go man!

no offense!
(uh oh. too late to say that... i see a few baseball bat coming right at my face...)

man just hearing those specs makes me laugh......

that would make a great server though

Another great guide to choosing your distro over at distrowatch.com: http://www.distrowatch.com/dwres.php?resource=major

I recommend anyone new to Linux and wanting to ask this question to visit that link first.

my dream is to have most of the distros on my computer...
...can't think why

titanium_geek