I reinstalled slackware 9 about a week ago, i just did a total update using swaret (i've been having a few problems this time so i decided to do a total upgrade) and now my system is sluggish. So since i'm gonna have to reinstall again anyway, i was hoping that i could get some recommendations on a new distro to try(gimme your best sales pitch for your fave distro). The only distros i've used to a large degree are redhat 8 and slack 9. I found redhat 8 to be a bit slow. I've tried to install gentoo more times than i can count, i've had no luck with source mage, sorcerer or any of the other source based distributions. I tried installing suse 8.2 a couple months back, but it kept crashing during the ftp install (i think my iso was bad).

So why should i try (insert distro name here)??

I was thinking on debian, maybe suse 9... What does everyone suggest??

I like distros that come with GUI configuration editors. I know how to edit config files for most things and others will say this is the way to do it. But why the hell should you do it like that if you can do it so much qucker and easyer in a gui config editor. MDK has alo of them. I am using red hat and it is ok but I dont like how the CEO told people to use windows now that they are out of the desktop market.

I am going to start programming a nice gui config editor (All In One) as soon as I finish the program I am doing for my company.

Instead of people selling you a disrto idea, you should see what they have to offer you and then download the one that fits your needs.

Trying to figure that out myself right now.

I too agree that there is nothing wrong with a GUI. Why configure IP tables on the command line when a simple GUI works just as well? One example among many methinks.

I am having a little 'fun' trying to get slack to work, but no luck so far on the network card.

FreeBSD was a quick and easy install, and I was up and running with no troubles. Updating with the ports package seems like it would be nice. It is a unix-based system.

I want to run DNS, e-mail, web, and maybe a backend db. I look forward to hearing what others think about this one as well. Just want to get it nailed down and start the migration!

-joseph

Debian is worth a try, but the install is a PITA! SuSe might be good if you want something that "just works".

Try Mepis - they just released a new version... It is based on Debian, but has some nice GUI-based tools and hardware detection to make install easy. If you had a lot of problems with source based distros you'd probably have difficulty with Debian installer as well, but with Mepis you avoid that hurdle, yet once up and running, it is pretty much Debian. You can apt-get whatever you want, unlike with Lindows or Xandros, which drifted just a touch too far from their roots to be called truly Debian-compatible.
What I said about Mepis applies to Libranet as well. Libranet is one of my favourite distros, but Mepis is a lot cheaper!