Hi,
I'm thinking of trying a different distro but would like a few ideas which to try. I currently have Xandros running on my spare pc which is an old Celeron 700mhz. It seems to work very well and I'm very pleased with it but it does seem a bit limited. I'm looking for something to install alongside XP on my main pc, which is a lot better spec. I'm still a relative beginner so I want something that is easy to set up and use but also is good for more advanced use as I get better with it.
I've tried Mandrake but found it a bit bloated, like I don't need 6 different web browsers and 4 email clients etc
Can anyone give me some suggestions?
Thanks in advance.

Have you ever tried RedHat 9? I'm still quite a newbie, but I've fiddled with RedHat 8 and 9 a bit both of which have been a pleasant experience so far.

try slackware

It works fast on my 233MHz computer.
It configures easily enough and you can do a lot more with it once you get the hang of it

Slackware or Debian. If you're just playing around with, go Slackware. If you are an intermediate or professional, go with Debian or Fedora Core 2 or Fedora Core 3. All are easy to install and work with.

--Abid Kazmi

Thanks
DEFINATELY not an expert! I'll have a look at Slackware for sure.

I would say check out Damn Small Linux. Works very well on old hardware, can be run as live cd or installed to the hard drive. Its not bloated like all the others but has all the basic stuff you will need. You can also use their dsl extensions or use apt-get to install the other extras you might want.

Don't forget Arch.
It's slack based, but has a great package management system, a la Debian's apt-get (Arch's is pacman). It screams on all the hardware, but the downside is you set it all up yourself (well, that's an upside too). It's a small download, and not bloated at all. You install the software YOU want.

I am currently recomending Debian-Sarge to my raw newbie friends. The 1 disk internet install is very easy. When it's complete, and starts asking you about the packages you want installed, select ONLY 'Desktop', and when that's done, 'Finish base configuration.' That'll give you plenty to work with until you start getting comfortable. The update program, APT, is a marvel. Sarge is currently the 'testing' distro, soon to become 'stable', and stable is what Debian is all about.

One other thing ... if you try it, when the install disk boots up ... F1, F3, linux26

red hat 9.0 is the last one. they only make the red hat enterprise linux now. go with something like fedora or suse

Red Hat is not "totally" out of the picture. It also has a good packaging utility and interface but slack is the way to go.

--Abid Kazmi

"Red Hat is not "totally" out of the picture. It also has a good packaging utility and interface but slack is the way to go."

the red hat desktop linux is no more. 9.0 is the last one. It's a bit dated and I believe it's no longer supported. Red hat sells enterprise but, you have to pay. Fedora is now the only free red hat os. It's still updated and free.

fedora core and suse are very easy but a bit bloated (my 59 yo dad uses suse and doesn't know very much about computers but he says it's less confusing than windows) I got fed up with the .rpm package system dependancy hell but you can get apt-get for rpm.

slackware and debian are a litle more involved, more slim and faster. I think slack has the best artwork & logos (see slackware's "propaganda page") it's a great os and I run it on my laptop. Debian has an awesome package system (apt-get) I think this is second only to gentoo's portage.

Gentoo is what I use. Everything is compiled from the source (you don't have to compile everything but I did) It has no installer program and you have to install it manualy (but I found this to be a good learning experiance and not to dificult.) portage is the best package manager in my opinion.

emerge k3b

will dowload and compile everything I need to run k3b on my computer (with support for my hardware and nothing extra I don't need) but, I don't think gentoo should be your first linux.

Even better ... ha ... asking 4 a distro will allways give U 1000000000 answers ....
Id say Vectorlinux .... very fast ... stable ( based on Slackware ) ... just really good ...
but Slackware normal isnt bad either I guess ... or DSL (even faster but very limited packages as far as I know ) ....
.. I have allways had good experiences with SuSE .... .

Distrowatch.org prop is also a good place to look & the LQ reviews .. :-)

this is true everyone will recomend the distros that they have used. even I said gentoo. I've never used vector but it's slackware based and slackware is good. I guess you should take all these sugestions with a grain of salt. after all we are fanatics.

dsl was one of my first distros it's knopix (and thus debian) based I used it for a rescue cd till I got my 2005.0 gentoo cd (install and live) but I think debian would be more compleet than dsl. I've tried to be as impartial as I could in this post (but hey, its my birthday and I'm drunk) but you should "forge your own path" as it were. there are almost as many distros as users