I'm not a complete newbie, used to run linux on a daily basis a couple of years ago, but kind of lost interest in computers for a while, and lost a lot of knowledge in the process...

I used to run a linux-from-scratch based system a friend of mine put together, only with file based configuration and no unnessecary gui stuff. Anyways I used to know my way around a linux system, compiled my own kernel and optimized it for my computer, only installed the programs I needed and basically ran a lightweight and fast system without any fancy stuff...

Much of what I knew has been lost, but I think I'll pick up much of it rather quickly. But I need some help finding a distribution. The description above of my previous setup is basically what I'm looking for. I've looked into lots of distros, and basically narrowed it down to a few: Arch, Slackware, Debian and possibly Gentoo. Still open for other suggestions though if there's some I've overlooked...

I would be very grateful if someone could take the time to give me some pros/cons for the distros above (+suggestions if any), and perhaps give me a rough/short version of how they differ from eachother...


Thanks
TwinEEE

Basically all distros are prepared to be used without any GUI interface. Maybe you're looking for a distro which you can customize yourself from the very beginning.

Try a installing a Debian (the last released) and install it with net install. This will install the necessary things to boot and provide you with a basic TUI. Then install from the internet the applications you need. This way, you won't have any unwanted programs installed on your system.

I guess your right, sorry if the title is a bit confusing...

But I still would like to get some input of differences between the distros...

TwinEEE

Have you tried looking at the distro reviews section of lq?