What is your favorite distributor
 

There is many out there, the main ones out there are Mandrake, Red Hat, and debain (gentoo, knoppix ...).
So what?s your favorite one?
And ones you can't stand.

Right now, Knoppix. Period :!:
Look at all the forks: ClusterKnoppix, KnoppMyth, Knoppix STD, etc, etc :D

-kwag

I used to use Slackware but I don't think they release anymore. At this time (1995) RedHat just came out and it was very poor compared to Slackware so I never use it. I then dropped Linux for 5 years. Since two years I'm using Mandrake mainly because that is the first one I could put a hand on :-).

I'm basically using Knoppix for the following reasons:

(1) Includes SGI's 64 bit Journaling file system. Probably the best file system in the planet.
(2) A reasonably latest 2.4.x kernel. Not to mention that ClusterKnoppix has "Mosix" compiled in the kernel, which makes parallel processing a piece of cake.
(3) Boots off CD, and runs full graphical, detecting all sound, video, network cards, etc., peripherals. So if someone wants to "try" Linux before installing it on the Hard Disk, the can do just that.
(4) Almost all pre-configured applications run :!: ( other distros have many broken links)
(5) The new APT-GET is a breeze, to keep dependancies. Just apt-get install "your favorite package here", and all binaries are downloaded and installed/updated. No more RPM (Nightmare!) crap, full of broken dependency maintenance.

And to add to this, the new kernel 2.6.x just released (but still experimental), now supports up to 32 processors.
So that will give a run for their money to some high end propietary computers :cool:
I've been an applications developer/integrator (Using *BSDs) since 1994, and now after seeing the things that the Linux kernel offers, makes me think twice about which platform to choose :!:
Before, I would go 100% every time with BSDs. Now, well, I think the writing is very clear on the wall :roll:

-kwag

Kwag I couldn't say it better except that there is almost a version of knoppix for what you want. Also did you ever try gentoo, I am pretty sure it's knoppix based, and is supposed to be really good, but I have been working on the clusterknoppix a lot lately and my Palm pda.

I'm running into this problem now! It's making it very difficult to install new software :!: That's why I'm looking for a file manager so I can see exactly where the files in the rpm package are being copied to :wink: :

That's probably because Linux becomes (became) a "pro" matter and is not any more a "crazy students developping at night insteed of sleeping" matter :-) (yeah, I did spent a lot of night making drivers for exotic video board :-))

It's not really a surprise to see SCO trying to keep it's baby near it (or trying to sold it :-))

Hey ren, did you ever give Knoppix a try :?: :)

-kwag

Sort of.. I installed KnoppMyth on one machine but ran into some problems so I installed Debian. I tried to install Debian on another system and it couldn't recognise the screen resolution so I installed RedHat. I'm going to stick with redhat for awhile until i learn the ins and outs of the commandline :wink: I'm starting to learn how to find the lost dependancies with rpm-searching websites :D Is Knoppix easy to set up?

Yes very unless you have an ntfs partition as the first partition for installation if that?s what you ask.
Go to knoppix.net or http://overclockix.octeams.com/ for a really good version of it.

Yes it is :!:
After you boot from CD, you open a shell, and type: knx-hdinstall
That's it :!:
Then follow the menus :cool:

-kwag

Slackware 9.1 came out in September. Both the installation and system itself look a lot like version 3.3, which I installed in 1997. Actually, I'm still using that install, although I've upgraded just about everything since then by either installing new packages from slackware-current or just compiling them myself.

Like I said, I've been using Slack for years... when I worked at a university I tried Gentoo; since it was a fast system (at the time, P4 1.8GHz) and was on the university's network installing everything from source (as Gentoo does) wasn't a problem.

I never liked RedHat and Mandrake, their boot scripts were more complex than they needed to be (my roommate had both installed on our router at different points in time) and they hid a lot from the user (coming from a Slack and BSD background, I like to hack things :-) ) My roommate also used SuSE quite a bit and from what I saw it looks very nice.

The closest I've come to using Debian is Knoppix, and even then only off the live CD... But I like the fact I can put all the configuration and my home directory on my USB keychain drive.

On my newest computer, when I'm not in Windows, I'm using my own version of Linux From Scratch.