I know, somewhat, of what you mean. My first computer experiences were on a command line, and I resented being forced into a GUI environment. Now that I'm back on the command line, I FEEL SO MUCH BETTER! Especially as I'm not on the same old command line, to me it's a new, IMPROVED command line. I guess you could say I'm back at home with a WOW feeling added.

i like slackware (granted slapt-get is installed). gui's arent for everything. KISS doesn't mean user-friendly always. it doesn't mean gui tools always. it can and u probably should be given the option. KISS (keep it simple stupid... the slackware motto) means keep the inner workings, the heart of the machine and such... well... simple. i dont hear too many SuSE people talking about command line stuff (but it is a must in linux), b/c SuSE tries to keep people away from command line. they make the inner workings complicated so u need YaST and such. I had a bad experience with Kubuntu so if u r considering it, just get Ubuntu and then add KDE (not kynaptic). i haven't tried mepis, but it cant be too bad being debian based. debian is stable. not nearly as stable as slack (pat wont go for kernel 2.6.X b/c he says its not stable enough for god sakes!). i feel like i have real control over my system now.

i think the types go as follows actually,
RPM based
Deb based
tarball (slack) based (anything using pac-man counts)
source based (portage installs from source if i'm correct)

Most people ignore the slack based, but i think SLAX and others prove themselves.

Excuse me...why isn't Xandros a choice? Not good enough to consider?

you could say- why isn't mandrake or SuSe or RedHat or YellowDog or or or....

basically this guy picked three distros- (perhaps the ones he's got the disks for) and asked us what we thought. Slackware seems to be the most popular here- but then again, user friendly is a relative term...

yeah- I forgot about the source based (gentoo, LFS etc) like this definition of the four main flavours of linux. (like the icecream analogy- the basic flavours are: (straw)berry, chocolate, vanilla and cream (no flavouring). Then you have like, debian, which is chocolate, ubuntu, which is dark chocolate whirl.. mmmm... get my meaning? )

titanium_geek

I voted for Slackware on the basis that I have never been a Debian fan. I prefer the simplicity of slackware.

I would liked to have seen the poll include RPM based Linux. I have liked SuSE for some time and Novell seems to be doing the right things at the moment. As much as SuSE pre-Novell tried to keep you away from the command line shell, my bet is that Novell will bring a lot more of that functionality to the forefront once again.

I run both SuSE and Slackware. SuSE to wean the family off Window$ and Slackware for me and the trusty firewall.

I convinced our schoolboard to do a little experiment. For 1 semester split the computer class in half for a semester, one half uses Windows XP and the other half SuSE. The next semester switch the class to the other OS. The results were interesting to say the least. The half that learned XP liked XP and held a desire to stay on it, the half that was taught SuSE absolutely disliked XP. The school system is now 75% SuSE. They have seen the financial windfall that Open Source provides and this is beginning to spread throughout our state.

What can we learn from this experiment and apply here? Simply that, what ever you happen to learn first will become your preference because that is where you became comfortable. This is where Bias is born.

These apples to oranges comparisons can never reflect a good data set.

Due to my own history I am some what of an OS agnostic. I believe in using what ever tool that gets the job at hand done in the shortest amount of time. After-all my personal favorite OS of all time is DEC VMS and my Slackware workstation has the look and feel of it. This is my comfort zone.

I put mine down for Mepis, although I don't use it much anymore (currently running Debian through Kanotix). Never did much care for Ubuntu, and Mepis has its quirks. My own Slack experience is from some of the forks: Vector (which I love), College (are they still in the league?) and Slax. I think the main reason I stick with Debian is because its apt-get package system rocks. Finding myself using the shell more and more and most of the "pretties" less and less, so it wouldn't surprise me if I eventually find myself a straight-up, hard-shell card-carrying Slacker before too long.

Ubuntu. I don't think I'm woman enough yet for Slackware

i dont know if vector had slapt-get and gslapt in it when u tried, but thats another thing keeping me with slackware. apt-get for slack. i really want to see vector. i dont know too much though. distro sites barely ever tell me what i want to know about the distro. vector uses plain slackware packages? are they cross compatible like .deb's or annoyingly separate like .rpm's? they never tell u the important stuff.

And what exactly is so woman about slackware? i'd think it's the opposite. slack isn't so: "oh no i need a pretty looking tool to do this! i dont care or know what my memory usage is, just make it pretty!" i hate to badger, but i'd love an explaination. btw, i obviously am not a woman as i am offended at the woman-ness and not the gender remark itself and love slack (though pcbsd looks great).

A little bit ironic really.
I just voted for Slackware since using this from day one years ago when Slackware 3.x was released. Also, voted Slack a perfect 10 in the Slack Distro Review Distro-ratings sections and helped edit the Slack Wiki

At the same time, my preferred Linux liveCD's MEPIS and KNOPPIX, plus my fully-installed Ubuntu Hoary Hedgehog, are all based upon Debian. Notice on the DistroWatch site, that Debian-based distros altogether make up the majority of the highest-ranked distros within the top two dozen listed distros.
It is entirely feasible -- maybe even hopeful -- that such Slack-based distros as
- Vector Linux
- SLAX LiveCD
- Zenwalk Linux
or this new Slack distro
- Whax LiveCD
will eventually catch on more and more just as Debian-based ones are now.

So, Linux == ice cream? This just keeps getting better and better...

From that list, I would go with Slack first, then Mepis and then if someone was holding a gun to my head, Ubuntu.

Hello all,

i´m a linux user since 1998 and during this time i tested a lot of distris. I also tested *BSD! But to my opinion there´s only one real linux system --> a slackware base system! Why do i think so? Here´re some arguments:

--> slackware is easy to learn: there is a cool book (slackware essential)! you can learn slackware really fast!
--> i like the OpenBSD way: disable everything, which is not needed and let the user learn how to use the feature!
--> its easy to use: Have you ever tried to change the login manager on FC (wdm and not gdm/kdm)?
--> it is extremely fast!
--> it´s portabel: i use it on a mac(!)
--> it´s easy for beginners, if they are willing to learn!!!!!!!! There´se no uneeded stuff!
--> the slackware package system is really cool! You can easily build your own packages (i do it for my mac). You don´t need to install a lot of packages, which are never needed (have you ever ask yourself, why you need so much deb-packages?)
--> slackware is wonderfull development system. Have you ever tried to recompile the kernel on ubuntu-ppc? It´s terrible! The patched kernel are realy bad!!!!!!!!
--> slackware has the newest packages and with slackpkg its quit easy to be up to date! I will never understand the debian guys: In sarge (the latest stable) there´se only gnome-2.8!!! That has nothing to to with stability or so!

Slackware has only one lack: There´s no BSD-Port system! But i´m working on it!

So if you want to learn linux, then you MUST use Slackware!

Bye
Thorsten

ARRRGH!!! what have I done? what have I started?

what I meant was that slackware felt like linux. I am a girl- I use slackware. (these two facts aren't related)

and yeah- people talk of flavours of linux all the time- so why not relate it to icecream? mmm icecream.

sigh. I've debated editing my other post, but I think I'll leave it for humour and posterity.

titanium_geek

Why are you ARGHing? I think its a interesting discussion!

Bye
Thorsten

Wow, a girl that uses linux. Very cool, most people I talk to about linux just get a blank look on there face. I only know one person who uses linux, Red Hat, he uses it for programing.

I chose Ubuntu because that is what I run most of the time. I learned on slackware 3.5 installed on a 486. I have used red hat, fedora, Debian (currently etch), suse, arch, gentoo, peanut, and several live distros.

This is a very interesting discussion and also very humorous as well.

I also think that it would be interesting to have a poll on different flavors of linux. Slack, debian, red hat, and gentoo. Those are the largest distro with all of the different variations IMHO.

Kelean