Debian it is!
After two weeks of compiling, installing, re-installing and again re-installing numerous Linux flavours and OpenBSD, I have finally settled on Debian.
Why Debian?
Well, it was easy to install, it didn't overwhelm my machine with thousands of crappy applications, it instantly recognized my hardware, and it just works! Downside is a rather ancient set of KDE applications (based on KDE 2.2.2), but I hear that's going to change in June, when KDE 3.2 enters "stable".
Why not OpenBSD? Or Gentoo? or even Suse?
Well, OpenBSD is, I believe, not made for the desktop. With it's excellent security and pf packet filtering system and it's emphasis on a safe environment, Theo's baby is better installed in front of a desktop machine. You just feel during installation, that X Windows and KDE are rather grudgingly supported and really only just tolerated for all us pussies who prefer a mouse to a proper Unix commandline, but that's ok, as OpenBSD will continue to be my preferred choice in OS's when it comes to protect my network against the evils of the rest of the internet.
Gentoo didn't make it because, well, for me as a n00b, the installation was just to tricky. I know that sounds like a capitulation, and it is. After my third install that didn't work I was just tired of it. Sorry.
Suse 8.2. has a great installer, but crams your HD full of unnecessary crap and just didn't support my Trident PCI card, due to it's rather weird way of installing X Windows. Sax2 just never worked for me, so, after a day of getting a proper picture on my monitor, this had to go as well.
So, running Debian's Woody I might not have the latest set of KDE apps, but the machine now has an uptime of more that 82 hours without any hangups. That's something I can't say about the other Linuxes.
So, a round of applause for the debian community and thumbs up from this noob!
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