which linux distro? version 2

I like Kanotix , PCLinuxonline , and three pay distro's Libranet 3.0 , Xandros 3 , Linspire 5 . All are KDE based (my fav) and easy to install and maintain . I am a semi noob tho.

Gentoo if set up correctly can run VERY fast, in fact probably faster than most any other distro out there due to being able to compile it for your architecture only with the -O3 flag. Not very difficult to maintain though upgrading takes longer because of the compilation involved, however it is something that you can usually just start before you go to sleep and come back to it in a couple of days

Why install all your programs under /home? Why dont you use /usr which most people consider deigned for it or /opt under some distros works as well and is set aside for it? Matter of curiosity for me.

Seablade

Slackware.

yes, i am quite confused by why you would want to install everything in /home.

with ubuntu just instaed of "sudo apt-get instal xxxxx" every time just do "sudo su" and remain in root mode as long as needed, then "exit". Or, if you read ubuntuguide.org it tells you how to configure a root account (which will disable to the 'sudo" feature). In my opinion sudo is the best thing since sliced bread when it comes to security and practicality.

here is my 2 cents. stay away from distros that force you to use KDE, KDE is slow compared to all the other GUIs out there (even slower than Gnome). Linspire 5.0.69 ins't too bad, but I had a bad time configuring my networking, and again, because it is KDE-only, it was quite slow (took 20odd seconds to fire up firefox on hardware that fires up firefox in other distro in under 10 seconds). Libranet 3.0 is so very nice. If you can afford it, get it.

In recent past I've checked out onebase linux and I must say I am very impressed. go read up on my "onebase anyone?" thread a little lower on the linux forum page. the install is a bit lengthy (because it downloads all teh packages from the net when you install so you start of with teh newest stable packages and don't need to update it right away with like all the other distros. This is a simillar process to portage or debian's net installer. Vida LInux 1.2 came out yesterday. You know what that means? bliss! VLOS is a gentoo-based full blown distro (choice of gnome or kde) that uses RH's Annaconda installer so it is not only easy, it also doesn't take days to install.

slackware + Dropline (or Freerock) Gnome. This last go around I played with Freerock first, followed by Dropline and after spending some time in the Dropline IRC channel and talking with some of the devs I'm a lot happier with where those guys are at and their thought process behind it. That of course is not to diminish anything the Freerock folks are doing - their release is technically very sound and works well out of the box.

Anyway, that is just in case abf was poking that slackware is a KDE only distro.

i am not saying slack is kde-only. i know there are choices. i was referring more to distros like Linspire and Xandros

Yes, sudo su (or sudo -s) will effectively make you root in that console, until you issue the 'exit' command or close the console.

I've been running gentoo for a long time (although I have now switched to Ubuntu) and the package management system (called portage) is the best one I've tried, among console based package management tools. Color coded output helps alot for readability. Gentoo uses a set of system wide flags called USE flags (they can be altered temporarily on the command line) that defines what features you want complied into different packages. F.ex. there's a USE flag called 'dvd' which makes portage compile in dvd support wherever applicable, and if you don't need dvd support, leaving the flag out will cut down the compilation time, and may improve porformance and memory usage for affected applications.

Ok, now I'm ranting... In short: I like the Gentoo package manager. Still the best one I've tried.

Reason I switched to Ubuntu is that I use linux only sporadically in periods, which meant I had to do huge updates when I did them, and I didn't have the time to leave the computer running for that. As long as you update regularly, about once a day or at least once every few days, the updates are really smooth. And version conflicts and dependency problems simply don't exist (ok, sometimes if you run unstable).

No. You recompile only the updated/new package. If it requires a lib or other dependencies to be updated or added, then ofcourse it will compile those too. But you'll never need to recompile more than the updated/added package and it's dependencies.

That's my input. Good luck!

I've been a long time VIda 1.1 user and now for the 2nd day in a row i am running Vida 1.2 Free Edition on my thinkpad. Like he said, portage is a very good management system. If you are uncomfortable using text mode, you can always just emerge Yukiyu or Porthole. These 2 programs are for portage what Synaptic is for APT. This makes portage very easy to use. One downside is because everything is compiled, installs take quite a while. For instance i was installing openoffice and I had to leave it over night. However, there are speed benefits to all that wait for when you actually use the software. If you want to play around with portage before installing gentoo see my "installing portage on non-gentoo distros" thread.

I got the bug to play with Linux again and tried FC4, what a waist of time for a n00b. Anyway saw the thread here and am trying Ubuntu and I like it.

Anyway, thanks for the info and insight.

-Your So Far Happy Ubuntu User Dallas.

Thanks to ABF I'm now using VLOS 1.2 64 bit. So far so good . It took some work to get ati 3d (m10) and broadcom wireless up but not too bad! I am having issuses with fglrx being slower than other distros and tuxkart , tux racer etc. not using 3d accel but I'm sure with some work it will come around. I also miss kde I like it better , I assume I'll be able to install it later. This noob gonna learn it sooner or later .


BTW my laptop is a eMachines M6811 w/9600 ati

fglrx should be rather easy to install. the desktop on which i ran 1.1 was nvidia so that was pretty easy, never tried fglrx on anything other than debian (ubuntu, mepis, etc). You will be able to install KDE on VLOS if you want (or you can get the purchase version if you're too lazy to emerge kde for a few hours).

Good luck and glad you like it

I ordered the dvd the other day. I still can't figure out how to get fglrx up other than using root tho. (Damn NOOB) : ) Oh well havinfg fun tryin to get it going. Very nice distro so far.

ummmm chmod 666 /dev/dri or something like that.

Thanks , Believe it or not that got me about half the acceleration of using root!
So I'm getting closer. I ordered the dvd and will be using KDE but this distro has the best stock GNOME I've tried yet.