response 442 of 480:

Dec 18 18:32 UTC 2003

I usually do what I suggested in my earlier response - use one as my
"main" (production/work) OS, and try out other distros on other
partitions. I'm using Slack at the moment to get a more "hands
on"/"Unixy" feel to things - slack is closest among Linux distros to
what many consider to be "real distros", with
RedHat/Mandrake/Xandros/Lindows being progressively less "Unixy" as
you read from right to left. I'm having terrible trouble deciding
between Slack and Debian. I was previously leaning towards Debian, as
it comes with tons of software (so I wouldn't have to download much
over dialup), and as I was afraid of compiling packages, which iirc
recall correctly never worked properly for me before. (I might have
needed to comile from source as not many people release software as
Slackware .tgz packages anymore). However, the position is now more
complicated as I have succesfully compiled a few packages (on Debian),
and there is now the prospect of getting broadband fairly soon.