ok - i need to know which distro to try next
distros i've tried:
SuSE
Mandrake
Fedora Core 4
MEPIS
Damn Small
Knoppix
Minislack
Xandros

they've all been pretty good, but none of them have all of what i want. any ideas what to try?

Yeah. Blag.

ubuntu best one ive tried yet

What do you want?

Exactly... What are your requirements for a good distro? Or do you just want to try another one?

hmm....requirements...i might be asking for too much here, but here it goes

a distro that would come with applications for word processing, instant messaging, email, etc but not all point-and-click, a little command line.

something that installs more programs fairly easy from their source code

and if possible (not a big priority) a graphical install

and KDE is preferable

Well, set up properly, Slackware can be very point and click. My mom uses it that way. The config is CLI, and the installation is in between (ncurses). KDE is included.

Along with the suggestion of Slackware, Debian (or a Debian-based distro) would fit your bill - got a fairly easy installer if not full of pretty graphics, installs KDE for you, gives you more access to the command line, includes graphical point+click tools for installing stuff, but also direct on the command line or from source. Lets you learn more about Linux without being controlled by distro-specific control centres whilst still providing fall-back tools to do the work for you.

Sounds like a BSD is in order lol

FreeBSD has a nice ncurses installer or if you need a more stylish one try pcbsd.
And both come with kde 3.4.

What version of Mandrake did you try? Mandriva 2005 LE is really sweet.

amdrake - i tried 2005LE, but i didn't like it very much.
i think i'll try FreeBSD and a Debian-based distro next
thanks guys!

Slackware, Gentoo, LFS .

Debian Sarge is out now. it sounds good and i notice debian isnt on your list. I havent used it myself but its next on my list.

PCLOS meets almost all of your needs. It was originally based on Mandrake, but Texstar and team have developed it into a star Linux Distro in its own right! The one area that PCLinux might miss is on your request/requirement for installing from source code. Of course being Linux you can work this out for yourself but PCLOS isn't really trying to shine brighter than all the other stars on this front. PCLOS generally 'just works' and is excellent for both experience and newbie alike. Take a look for yourself. This distro currently ranks 15th at distrowatch, but that is probably mostly due to the more limited promo that it receives than those ahead of it. Just my 2 cents.

Oh, yeah... PCLOS is a Live-CD with a graphical installer so you can check it out and then install and still check it out some more or surf the net while installing. And you can re-master the Live-CD with a little effort to make the perfect distro...

I'm going to backup the recommendation of Slackware.

There are tons of packages available on the CD, plus slackpacks are available online for many other probs.

It has an ncurses install, which is graphical but no mouse support (see slackbook.org for screenshots).
It's good that you've tried many, I went down that path, but my journey was short, I found slackware. =)