I know that command. It was the first command I actually ran in my Ubuntu VM, but I don't really like Ubuntu. Somehow, it feels "dumbed down" compared to other distros.

So you want something not dumbed down that can be made to look somewhat pretty, but is not to heavy on resources and stable. Go for Debian (despite what others may tell you, there is closed source software available for Debian, for example in the non-free tree (mostly drivers) and in the Debian Multimedia repository (not an official repository) or Slackware.

It's amazing how good and versatile those 2 distros are. I would recommend them in ALMOST any category:

Server distro: Slackware and Debian
Desktop distro: Slackware and Debian
Cutting-edge desktop distro: Slackware-current
A distro for an old computer: Slackware and Debian

What "bloat" are you referring to? Ubuntu doesn't install any more stuff by default than Fedora, and with 100G, frankly, who cares?

Distros that are bloated are aimed mainly for new users to linux and for the reason you specified above. Also, these distros hope that there is enough software that would satisfy your needs.

For the veteran linux users we prefer to build/add from a based install. You'll understand when you reach this level of your linux experience.

When I talk I about bloat, it always comes to mind how I want it on my android phone. I want a clean look and I don't want a lot of apps installed by default. I want to be able to select my own applications, but I still don't want to start from a barebone state. Some bloat may be acceptable, but not the level of Ubuntu.

100 gigabytes and a good laptop or not, I still don't want the bloat Ubuntu offers. Also, heavy UI's tend to slow down the overall performance, much like HTC's Sense UI for android.

It depends how one defines bloat. For me bloat is not when there are many programs on the harddisk, but when many programs run (unnecessarily).Therefore I am fine with Slackware, it runs only what is needed by default, but the default install comes with everything and kitchensink, it is over 6GB in size on the disk. If for you bloat is to have many programs on the harddisk then Slackware is obviously not your distro of choice. Go for Debian instead.

My 2 cents on this: I always choose my distro in regards to the intended use, the hardware and my personal preferences (read: which resembles at most the way I work with the system). That is almost always Slackware, in rare cases Salix (easy to deploy and maintain, if you don't want to spend much time with that particular system) or Mint (mostly for friends that want to give Linux a try and want to be able to install software themselves using Software Center).
So in short:
Things that are considered when making the distro decision: Package management (if you want dependency resolution Slackware is not really for you, if you don't like RPM you won't use Fedora, if you want a large repository you won't go for Slackware, if you want packages optimized for your computer you will use a source-based distro), type of configuration (GUI, text files)
Things that are never considered when making the distro decision: Look including DE/WM (can be altered anyways), size on the harddisk (can be altered anyways), lots of pre-installed drivers (can be altered anyways), lots of programs that run by default (can be altered anyways).

You should really sit down for a while and think about your priorities before going further in the process of choosing a distro.

1 members found this post helpful.

My priorities are simple, but I'm very demanding. What I really mean with bloat is having lots of programs (packages) installed that I couldn't ever see myself need or only very rarely need.

I want a distro I can be satisfied. Updates are always nice, but not constant every day updates. That's tiring enough as it in on my Windows 7 installation. A graphical UI when installing any Linux is nice, but a simple text-based GUI like that of Arch is fine as well.

I do not want Unity installed per-default and I don't really want KDE either for that matter. Out of all, I'd prefer Gnome 3 since that is the DE I've used the most and I like it. Enlightenment was nice, but way too flashy for my liking. LXDE and Xfce are both nice because they're very simple looking but still get the job done. I can safely say I'd like LXDE, Xfce and Gnome 3 installed all at the same time to be able to switch between, and so far the only distro I've tried to allow that easy switching was Ubuntu, but then again it had a ton of programs installed that I didn't seem to need. I don't like Linux Mint. It's DE doesn't appeal to me, and that distro if any has the most bloat of all distros I've tried.

I don't want a distro where I have to build my way up from barebone-level like Arch. I want it pre-configured to some state, but not Windows 7 like where it's "just" to boot-up and use. I want some level of self-tinkering, otherwise all the fun is taken out of it. I want a distro that a lot of people use so it doesn't take a billion of hours Googling for an error and there's no one that can help me. I don't know if I'm a noob at Linux. I haveb een with Linux for some time. A few months running various distros in Virtualbox and about a month running Fedora 16 on my PC next to Windows 7.

I don't know, really, but maybe Ubuntu is for me after all? I like the debian package manager over rpm and I like both aptitude and yum repositories equally.

That are the only sentences at all in that lengthy post that is helping to choose a distro for you. it seems to be Debian.
About your other wishes:Well, just de-install them.
Can be done by (almost) any distro easily. It is not the distro that is switching the desktop, you choose them in your display manager. Any distro has display managers available.

I am thinking of formatting my harddrive (I only have one) and reinstall Windows 7 from scratch followed by Ubuntu. I have spent some time thinking about it and I've decided to go with Ubuntu despite what I said. Either 12.04 or 12.10, we'll see.

My hard drive has a total of 640 GB and I've though of dividing it up like this:

C:\ ~ 80GB (Windows 7 + programs/some games)
D:\ ~100GB (personal files. Movies/music etc.)
dev/sda1 ~100-250MB (/boot) (I'll also put GRUB here)
dev/sda2 ~20-30GB ( /root)
dev/sda3 ~ remainder of space (/home)
dev/sda5 ~ 4GB (swap)

Since I'm not a hardcore Linux user, I don't think I'd benefit from having a partition for /usr, /var and /tmp. A separate partition for /boot, though, could always be useful, I guess.

I might adjust some partition sizes. I don't know yet how much I plan on using either OS, but if I'm gonna use Linux more, I'm gonna give /home and / slightly more space, but if I'm going to use Windows 7 more, I'm gonna give D:\ more space. I'm gonna have to give this some serious thought.

I agree with you. That partition plan looks good too, and if you dont like Unity in Ubuntu you can always install Gnome shell or KDE or both and switch back and forward if you get tire of one of them.
for KDE do
After that you can select what graphical interface you want to use on the log in screen

Now I like Ubuntu in part because that was the distro I was introduced to when I first hear about Linux. But lately I have been having issues because it keeps crashing leaving me with a non responsive system sometimes every 20 to 30 min which is really annoying. a reboot is oftem the only cure when that happens.

I dont remember if you mentioned if your installation will be in a desktop computer or in a laptop. If it is in a laptop you might be lucky and your system supports suspend/hibernation when closing the lid of it. My did not and I had to change the settings in the power manager.

Good luck to you man and report back on how you did with this project, sounds like fun.

Thank you for your input. I am planning on running this on a relatively new laptop. Since I wrote my partitioning scheme plan, I've though about ruling out Windows 7 for good and only going with Ubuntu. Now, the reason for that is that gaming isn't so appealing now as it was when I bought this laptop, and let's face it, this thing can't run the new games. I've played most gold games of the past so much they're boring now.

Everything else is perfectly achievable on a Linux box. Music, media, etc. will all work and work well. I'm gonna sleep on it, though, and make my final decision tomorrow. It's 23.08 (11.08 pm) here now and I'm halfway through a movie (The Dark Knight) after which I'll get a much desired sleep. I'll get back to you guys tomorrow to tell you what I've decided to do. Ubuntu is, despite the bloat and Unity DE, a very nice distro with lots of support.