I have to format and reinstall Linux.

I have RH9,

Should i stick with RH9 or try another Distro?

I want a distro that that will run xine, mplayer, xmms, from a gui and use gnome. I dont want one where everything has to be dont from the command line. I dont mind installing programs from the command line. thanks

Moved: More suitable in the Distribution forum where this is asked all the time. Regards.

Use what you feel comfortable with. Any distro will do what your asking. Its a matter of which one comes with what by default, but all can perform and do the same thing as any other.

The choice can only every be yours. The apps that you want can run on almost all current distros about. The question you should really be asking to yourself it: Am I happy with where I am, or would I like to do something else? If you want to learn more about Linux, then get another distro and give it a try! Debian or Slackware would be good choices - you've tasted a 'gently gently catchy monkey' distro, and these two would give you the opportunity to try something a little more complex (to start with - after a while, they're all pretty much the same). Or would you like to simply see what other 'easy' distros are like?

You must have a reason for trying other distros - and 'just for the sake of it' is a perfectly valid reason. Do you want to try others? Or are you happy sticking with what you alread know? Only you can answer that, my friend.

You should give Gentoo a try. the installation process is a mess but if you follow the install guide you should do just fine. I myself use Gentoo 1.4 and can run all the apps you mentionned above. Plus, it blends in nicely with Gnome, and downloading/installing softwares is as easy as sayin emerge 'software'.

Anyone who needs a solid linux distro and has a lot of free time should take a closer look at gentoo!

ps: if u think gentoo is too advanced for you, take a look at slackware. it may not be the most popular distro out there, but its solid and very easy to use.

That's up to you really...do you like RH9? Does it work for you?
Do you feel you want to try another distro?

The reason I say this is because I don't know if you realize you are asking a question which is more than a bit personal. I mean its up to you to decide what you want to do with linux right? What goals do you have that would make you decide one way or another?

If you hate RH9, sure, try another one (any one). If you feel like you want to see what another distro is like try another one (ANY one).

Another option is that you can keep RH9 and install another distro in another partition. Personally I have Mdk as my workhorse and Debian to experiment.

As for what distros you SHOULD install if you decide to try another distro, just browse the forums, I think there's like a gazillion threads that start with "Which distro should I use"

I think im gonna go with RH9 again but not install much of the extra stuff I would like to try slack or peanut but I had many errors while trying to install them. Ill give slack another try though.