Well...I just got my really old laptop (running RedHat Valhalla) back from the store today -- damn loose hinges -- and I had a question. I really like linux, but so far my experience has all been with RedHat and Mandrake. If I wanted to "broaden my horizons" a little bit, which distro would you reccomend? I was thinking slackware? Maybe? Some advice please...

Slack, Debian, Gentoo....One of them. I don't know how old is your laptop, but I guess it's old enough that building your own LFS is not a good idea. My personal opinion: try Slack.

Hmm..ok. Basically is a *craptop*, Toshiba 1625CDT, that is so old, I don't mind if I screw it up too badly...

Slackware is a nice solid distro. Just for fun I loaded it about a month ago. There is more hacking at the config files to get everything set up compared to mandy and rh, but I have learned a lot.

Depending on the speed of your lappy it make run a bit quicker.

I myself am out on the edge with Evil Entity. Pretty much a slack based distro, but optimized for P4. Runs very fast on my p4 2gig.

There are many different distros, do some reading on them. I personally like to try different things because I can and have a curiosity that doesn't quit.

If you really want a challenge try gentoo or LFS (linux from scratch) I am sure either one of these will be a total adventure.

Ahh, yes an adventure...lol
But seriously, what is a good site, I have been looking at www.distrowatch.com, any other recommendations?

VectorLinux, based on slackware has very good hardwaredetection and laptop-support. (see distrowatch )

Hmmm.. I like, I like a lot
Thanks! very interesting this seems!

Vector is a very small download 250 MB, runs well on old hardware, and they have a very very very effective forum ( with help from the developpers themself ) to help you out if you get stuck.

Cool...looks like we have a winner. Is there anything included in the package -- a whole $14 (thats a budget-buster!) -- that I can't download?

And what does it inculde, i.e packages

You can download the lot have a look at:
http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/linux/dis...s/vectorlinux/
I'd go for the regular 3.2 ( not the soho ) for a test, there are a few extra packages on the same site too. Adding more packages later is easy from RPM's at sourceforge or slackware-packages, anything will do. Installing is dead easy with the Midnight Commander that is included in 3.2.
Good luck !

Bruno

Thanks, great recomendation

You're welcome