maximum packages in a distro
 

Anyone have a suggestion on which distro comes with the most precompiled packages availabe. I know that i can always add more packages but I am looking for a distro that comes with the most software available directly after installing it. Currently I think that using knoppix's installer feature gives the most, any body care to comment. I would love to hear your suggestions.

Oh, I dunno... how many CD's is Debian up to these days, or Red Hat? And how many more packages are out there on places like Freshmeat?. :rolleyes:

It's a fine idea to get a distro with lots of packages, and "install 'em all," and spend the next however-many years studying them. But "the most" might be a big number. . .

Well, Debian Testing currently has about 16900 packages on 14 CDs or 2 DVDs; Debian Unstable has about 2000 more (packages, not CDs ;) ).
But as was said above, don't go after the number of packages but after your needs and preferences when choosing a distribution. If there is a package missing, you can still install it from source.

If I enable all of the repositories in my sources.list I have almost 25000 packages.

If there is something you can't seem to find you can always search www.apt-get.org
or search freshmeat.net

Like everyone else has said you are better off finding a distro that meets all of your needs rather than worrying about which has the most packages.

SuSe comes with a ton of apps also. As does Mandriva.

You can always compile from source or use alien to convert a package to whatever form the distro you choose uses.

There are some 15 000 packages for Debian which I think is the biggest of any Linux distro.