Go with Slackware for sure! Clean, fast, stable. Simple package management and updating, with no dependency hell, and since it's based on precompiled binaries, no outlandish compiling times to deal with. Massive user base of very helpful users. Super fast and completely configurable. Once you go Slack, you'll never go back - it's that good.

i have to agree with kovacs..and i'm a dedicated suse-user...i installed slack 2 weeks ago and i'm loving it...

mdk 10

I used Mandrake, Redhat, and Debian before becoming a Slackaholic. If you wanna light and fast distro, then Slack is definetely a good choice. I dunno what Suse is like, but Slackware is a bullet compared to those other distros. The procompiled binaries available on the slack mirrors and linuxpackages.net make gettin new progs easy. They aren't nearly as big as the Debian depositories, but almost all the programs you're wanting are available either on the slackware cd's or LP. Slack also has a nice program called rpm2tgz that can convert rpm's to nice slackware packages. I think Suse uses rpm's, so it shouldn't be too hard for you to use anything with slack from suse.

Thanks for the info on Slackware. I just downloaded it and am testing it. So far, the only thing I don't care for is its lack of a good packaging system like Mandrake (Mandrake has me spoiled), and I had to edit XF86Config in order to get my Logitech USB wheel mouse to work. Slack also seems a bit behind with its 2.4 kernel and 3.1 KDE pkg. Now, if I could just get my mouse to work with FreeBSD, then I'm off to try Debian.

One good thing is that I have not had any need to go to my Winblows XP Pro partition for weeks. Anyone want to buy Winblows XP Pro real cheap???

I am a Gentoo user and I personally think Gentoo and Debian are the best distributions out there.

They're really similar, except Debian isn't geared to being source-based in the same way Gentoo is.

The package management functions of Gentoo(portage) and Debian (apt-get) are almost perfect.

For a gentoo example, if you wanted to install X with gnome 2.6, you'd only have to type:

emerge gnome

and portage will take care of downloading, compiling and installing all the software you'd need to get a running GNOME Desktop Environment.

Need to install OpenOffice.org?

emerge openoffice

Need to install KMail?

emerge kmail

Need to upgrade all of your applications to the newest version?

emerge -u world (updates every program on your system automagically)

If you'd like to get KDE 3.2, you can download updated packages from the current section of a slackware mirror, then just use upgradepkg packagename.tgz to upgrade em. You could also get Swaret, which is kinda like apt get for Debian. It makes doing massive upgrades easy. If your still learning i wouldn't recommend it though, since it really dumbs down slack. Right now there are 2.6.6 packages in the testing section, but i wouldn't play around with those just yet, won't be too long before they are put into current anyways.

i have use slackware for about a year now after tinkering with various .rpm distro's.
They (mandrake, rh, suse) where all very easy to deal with but later found them to be a bit sluggish and I didnt realy learn anything other than how to install .rpm's. Nothing more.

Gentoo just seemed like too much for what I wanted to do. All I wanted was a clean and simple operating system that would stay out of the way and let me get my work done with whatever app. I was using. I want to get it installed and configured. I realized that spending all that time downloading source and compiling wasnt an option for me. Especialy if the day ever came that I had to do a reinstall, and there have been those days.

Debian was great at first. Apt-get was a big help for those few minutes every month or so I absolutely needed an update. But I got tired of the constant "debian way" of doing everything. Not that this all wasn't an equal trade for its rock solid stability.

But Im going to have to go with slackware from here on out

Slackware has a quick and easy install. Lots of information availible here on this site, as well as other places. Simple software managment with pkgtool and even slapt-get/swaret to speed things along a bit. Its plain and simple. After sitting thought the 2-disk installation your up and running after about a half hour. Of course add some time for whatever app prefrences and visualizations you prefer, but there is very little involved in keeping things running smoothly. Great disrto for tinkerers, but also gets you from point a to point b in the straightest line I have ever seen.

or you could be realy adventurous and try freebsd. Its actualy quite the os as well. I suppose working with slackware for a year helps alot there, but its running faster than 2.6.6 linux on my system for some reason I havent found yet, and it has one hell of a ports system. But I digress...