My 2 cents about easiest and hardest linux distribution:

Mandrake
My appreciations about Mandrake:
-You insert the installation cd,10min later, your linux is working,operationnal,and all utilities are ready (mirc,licq etc..)
-Mandrake give you a lot of useful sys accesoiries, watching your memories or building a network can't be easier!
-If you're a newbie mandrake do not require a deep comprehension of linux Os
-If you have a Dual OS computer,you will like Mandrake Lilo,easy to use, easy to install... no damage to MBR.

My Deception about Mandrake:
-If you try to install something or Mandrake... well good luck, mandrake look like to do not see any library you can install.
-Newbie do not learn anything with mandrake;they can't install anything (cuz you need to be a reall hacker to install a library) and cuz mandrake do not let them learn anything about linux... All installation are made automatically.

Slackware
Appreciation about Slackware:
-Library are easy to install,slackware see them.. well no prob here.
-Slackware is really powerful,cuz you have no GUI to help you installing your hardware/software, you must do it in command prompt... and habitually there are a lot more option in command prompt :0p
-If you want to learn how linux work and have a lot of time to spend,well slackware is for you

Deception about Slackware:
-Slackware is really hard! If you dont know what's a module, what's a library and C++ and dont want to learn... forget slackware.
-Lilo. Badly,Slackware lilo is the worst I ever see in all linux distribution... If you have a dual OS system,you will need to boot slack from floppy or be really lucky... Lilo just can't be installed without scrapping MBR.

Half_Elf
Btw,excuse my english,I can read it but my writing just suck I think

you must not have good luck, cause i had lilo working great with a dual boot with slackware... i had redhat and slackware once and had slackware and win98 using lilo as the boot loader with no problems.
and i thought lilo was its own program, slackware i don't think make their own lilo or make any changes to it.

Well maybe i'm not lucky,but I had a lot of problem with slackware lilo... It was destoying my MBR every install except one (dont ask me why ;0)
And hum.. For sure different distribution use different lilo... maybe it's just because slackware use an older one but it is different...
First look at GUI... Slackware is simplier than mandrake... No? But that's not a proof right?

So look how they work... slack lilo use lilo.conf as list of "what to boot" so it is easier to change (welll easier if you use prompt command)
Mandrake? Dont know what it uses but it's not lilo.conf... try it,modify your lilo.conf manually, it will not change anything... Mandrake use something else dont ask me whay I never found it (but if you know tell me!!!) but it seem to be less "dangerous" to the MBR.

Lilo is lilo is lilo, no matter what distro you use, lilo is lilo. All distros that use lilo as a boot loader use /etc/lilo.conf because lilo must use /etc/lilo.conf. After you add something to lilo you have to do "/sbin/lilo" as root to add the the new entry.
BTW, slack 8 uses lilo v21.7

is it possible you loaded Grub as the boot loader instead of lilo??

In slack or mandrake?
Well I don't think I loaded Grub... in Mandrake I'm really sure to use lilo... and when I was on slackware,well Installing broke my MBR few time but one time the installation was done correctly (luck?) and my MBR was safe (but I think it's because I install my second OS after slack... but dont remember) and it was using LILO at boot...
Why? Grub is more dangerous? or Less?

mandrake gives you the option of using grub or lilo as the boot loader.. grub isn't dangerous, just another boot loader... some prefer it over lilo.

No grubs in slack...

although grub is meant to be good from what i hear, there are more things to think about thatn simply rushing and and making a fairly major change such as this.

*quite* a few programs will have problems with grub if they are designed for lilo. this mainly but not exclusively includes programs that load their own kernel modules or other such drivers.

I had such a problem whilst trying to run Win4Lin. as the version i was running had no support for Grub.

Just something to think about.

I tried Mandrake, and my biggest complaint is a "minimal" install seemed like 100 terabytes of installed files. I told it not to install X, and it installed X. It also starts everything under the sun at boot time, causing the machine to crawl.

Slackware install gave me exactly what I asked for and puts you at a good starting point when you boot for the first time.

I have to say there's no real comparison! It's Slack all they way...I started out a while back with Mandrake 7 and although I liked it's out of the box functionality, I found myself staring at it wondering what to do. Slack has been a killer challenge and has taught me more in a day than i learned in months with mandrake. Even when i'm in kde i find myself diving into console to do things. It's a blast! Lilo is tempermental at times, but i've never had a problem with lilo and Slack. Everytime is flawless on my win98/slack dual boot. Yeah, i'm biased, but you gotta go with what yuh feel best with...

Yeah!
Get slack.....you know you wanna

Slack is the best,you know it! :0p

So what do I choose? I'm relativly new to linux. I've played with NetBSD and the command line is fun for a while but the novelty wears off. I like the sound of mandrake for out-of-the download functionality but I really want to learn about Linux so I think slackware would suit.

Either way I still need Windows because I like gaming - anyone know where you can get a Counter-Strike client for Linux

So Mandrake or Slack?

Go for slack, I've got kde 2.2.2, automount etc... just like a mandrake distro except you have to set it up yourself instsead of having all those pretty GUI tool that do it for you, you learn a hell of a lot more that way, plus its heaps easier to build and install a custom kernel (or any other software from source) in slack, everything goes where its ment to, not where someone thinks it should go.