Which Distro?

[shadoi]

Hans Fugal wrote:
> On Sun,  3 Sep 2006 at 19:52 -0600, Brian Beardall wrote:
>> Gentoo is very flexible, and I like it for it's flexibility, and that is
>> why I use it. However if someone just wants something up and running
>> with the necessary software I usually recommend Ubuntu. I find Ubuntu
>> quite appealing. I bet an Ubuntu install could be stripped down, but the
>> user would need to have the skills.
> 
> No real point in stripping down Ubuntu. If you want stripped down, just
> start with Debian since that's basically what you'd get if you stripped
> down Ubuntu.

Definitely.

> He thought he wanted Debian, but had issues with unstable. 

I think he tried mixing Stable + Unstable, which is just asking for 
trouble, even though with some care and planning you can use 
/etc/apt/preferences to do this.  If you have to do this with more than 
1 or 2 packages it starts to become a mess.  Personally I use unstable 
on all of my own systems, I haven't any any major issues for over 6 
years.  I run a server that hosts lots of projects and it runs testing.

Perhaps the best reason for Debian that I've found is 'apt-get 
dist-upgrade' you can usually go from stable -> testing -> unstable -> 
experimental (if you're a little daring) without any major headaches, 
live, without a reboot (other than for kernels).

> 
> However it sounds like Slackware fits his style, so he's all set.

Not a bad choice, lately it's been (re)catching up.  But it does seem to 
depend a lot on one person, maybe that's just a perception issue though...

-Blake