I have been using Gentoo for the past few years (after bouncing around
through a bunch of different distros), and I haven't looked back since
i switched.  I like having fun stuff like X composite extensions and
the newest version of Gaim.  However, I can see the attraction to
other distros, especially if you have more than a few computers to
maintain or have other things to do with your time then endlessly
reconfigure).  Re-compiling everything from scratch takes a long time,
and you have to have a deeper understanding of the packages you
install so they can be configured correctly (I'm sure there is a GUI
config program somewhere, but I ha vent looked for it).  The
documentation is incredible (but you have to read it), and the
hardware support is also quite good (particularly x86-64).  Use
whatever makes you happy or gets the job done.  A good friend of mine
uses Debian and has had success with it, so that would be my
recommendation for a 'casual' user.

-Matt

On 10/5/05, Darrin Chandler <dwchandler@stilyagin.com> wrote:
> I don't really enjoy the choices as much as I might. There are sooooo
> many distros these days, and it's been very hard for me to tell the
> difference between them. I've tried to figure things out from
> distrowatch, etc., but it's still a big mess in my mind. The worst thing
> to me is that the flood of distros seems almost completely focused on
> making a Linux desktop that looks and acts like Windows. Hey, if I
> wanted *that* I'd just use Windows!
>
> I'm writing this from a box using FC4 and Gnome, and I don't like it much.
>
> I've been thinking of trying Gentoo. Sounds more like what I want.
>
>
> Josh Coffman wrote:
>
> >Hi all,
> >
> >  This is not a complaint. I enjoy the choices; it's
> >kinda like being single again... just kidding.
> >
> >  I've been using Fedora for a while now. It just
> >leaves me a little unsatisfied in some areas
> >sometimes.
> >
> >  So I have to admit I find myself being tempted by
> >other distros though. OpenSuse should be released
> >before too much longer; Mandriva 2006 is close to
> >release. SimplyMepis 3.3.2 is also close to release. I
> >keep wondering what I'm not seeing that makes Ubuntu
> >so popular. ..and there's the temptation to get really
> >hot-n-heavy with Slackware or Gentoo. Some of these
> >I've fooled around with in the past. Does this make me
> >a distro gigilo?
> >
> >  How about a little banter about distros? What are
> >you using and why? Anyone consider things like boot
> >time, trimness of the distro, included soft packages &
> >version, window manager?
> >
> >
> >
>
>
> --
> Darrin Chandler
> dwchandler@stilyagin.com
> http://www.stilyagin.com/
>
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