I have recently switched from a Mac to Linux because my Mac was getting old and a new PC is far cheaper than a new Mac.

I have been playing around with Red Hat 9 and it looks really good. My only criticism so far is that it seems to have too much stuff. I want to strip it down and only have installed what I want/need/use.

So, my first questions are: How can I create a very basic installation of Linux that will run the applications detailed below? What is the best distro to use for this purpose (every one I have come across on the web seems to have between 3-10 CD's of stuff)? Can I just uninstall stuff from the /bin directory? How do you do that if it is possible?

I have made some choices about some of the applications I want to run:

NVU (I can't install it, but thats a case of ignorance I think)
Bluefish
OpenOffice.org
The GIMP
gFTP
GAIM

Please could you guys suggest any good apps for the following tasks:

E-mail/calender application
An Ogg ripper/encoder/tagger/player
A CD burning application

thanks a lot!

sketchyfrog (the newbiest of all the newbs in Newbville.)

uninstalling:

In RH the way to do things is
rpm ... there may be a nice graphical
gadget for that in RH ...


Cheers,
Tink

depends on how long you want to take?, core linux is what i sued when i first came to linux, then i tryed LFS wich dident work sence i couldent be root, and i only had root user (if you dont understand that , good, neither do i), its striped down and has only a few extra programs that you might not need, i ony installed what i wanted, then reinstalled them form source to update everyhitng, its probly one of the most striped down distros there are that are for regular PC's and not special made for routers or firewall, it claims its for advanced users but if your willing to learn linux and search google for any problems then you might get along with it

if you dont have the time then, id say jsut dl one of thsoe big distros and get one taht lets you pick what ot install (i think i heard of slackware was good)

Check out Slackware. The base install takes just one CD, and if you want GNOME or KDE you'll need only one more CD. The best part is that during the installation you can choose 'newbie' install and read a description of each and every package that is installed, so you only install what you want. I use Dropline GNOME as my Desktop Environment and it comes with many of the programs you're looking for. Bluefish, GAIM, The GIMP, and gFTP are all standard in Dropline. OpenOffice.org is available in a simple to install series of packages and a Dropline user has even made a package for Sound-Juicer, a good CD ripping utility.

I heartily recommend slackware, but redhat was great to get me started. Redhat is a gnome distro but comes with kde, but if i remember right, when you install it, it offers to do a workstation/server/.../full install. Workstation comes with all the basic stuff you need, like evolution (email...) gaim and standard gnome apps.

I switched to kde from gnome, and frankly prefer it. It still runs gtk apps (if you install the libraries), so if you want gaim, that still works.