Favourite Linux Distros

[Proinsias]

I've been playing around with a few different linux distros on an old laptop and was wondering what distros you enjoy, non linux sugggestions welcome too. I've tried ubuntu, kubuntu, linux mint, arch linux, puppy, xbuntu, zenwalk and just booted into debian. Ubuntu and puppy are my favoured ones so far but ubuntu is a little ott and puppy is quite limited.

I'd be keen to see a distro aquisition disorder 'must try' list, if you will.

The linix mint thread is rather unwieldy so thought I'd try asking here.

 

[global_dev]

gentoo

i always used to watch http://distrowatch.com/ for news

but lately i only use astlinux for my pbx needs

 

[Greg1911]

For a KDE distro I haven't found one I like better than OpenSuse 11.3.

Ubuntu is my current Gnome pick.

 

[fiferboy]

The only gap in your list that I can see (aside from openSuse, which was already mentioned) is Fedora. The setup is nice enough by default, though I use kubuntu as my go-to KDE distro.

Depending on the type of laptop (Intel Atom?) MeeGo might be interesting to try out. It can make good use of older, more limited hardware. Disclaimer: I am a non-core volunteer MeeGo developer in my spare time. I would definitely recommend running a live system before trying any type of install.

 

[RichGem]

Fedora w/ KDE

 

[LinuxMintyFresh]

I think my position is obvious. If you're looking for something specifically for low a power machine Linux Mint LXDE is ok. I prefer Gnome, though. I do think that Mint is superior to Ubuntu in functionality and usability.

I also liked OpenSUSE and I enjoyed Mandriva a lot.

 

[ImaWestie]

Not much to add, but I'm on my first real (as in: "actually use it" rather than "install it, say "look, it works", reinstall Windows) venture into Linux with Ubutnu 10 on my netbook.

ALL my posts here are done from it since a couple of months ago.
IMO, find something that works and stick with it.

 

[Pebcak]

Started off with Mandrake/Mandriva but made the move to Debian and never looked back.

 

[PedroNavaja]

Laptop: dual boot, Windows Vista and Ubuntu 10.04 LTS
Desktop: Windows 7 32 bit