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"Scott Robert Ladd has updated his GCC versus Intel C++ compiler benchmarks. This time round he includes updated results of the recently released GCC 3.1. The new version of GCC seems to be much better than its 3.0.4 predecessor, and GCC 3.1 even wins some benchmarks it lost previously over ICC. Overall, ICC remains a much faster C/C++ compiler, but GCC has successfully narrowed the gap. Read Scott's interesting conclusion at the end of the article too."

> 2. KDE 3 is the biggest new thing that desktop users will see; when the next Gnome comes out, that will be the focus of attention.

I highly doubt it, because most distros default to KDE. Although I like KDE and all, I think they should probably default to twm like the good days. While KDE is great on my Athlon XP 1500, it sucks on my p166 with 32mb of ram (I use blackbox on that).

It sounds like you aren't looking for a source-based distro, but you don't need one in order to use Linux.

Crux is small. You want their i586 version.

Peanut Linux, as the name implies, is compact. They have an abiword package if you don't want to compile it yourself.

Some major distros like Mandrake offer minimal install options.

Big catagorized lists of distros are here and here and here.

You can get about any distro to work nice if you use a lightweight window manager such as blackbox or xfce (which is actually a complete lightweight desktop environment). Every major distro has a few like these.

Next time search for a good review that's thorough rather than linking to some half-baked MSNBC article.

The best review out there isn't exactly a top-secret either, as is apparent below.

1] http://www.tuxreports.com/modules.php?op=modload&n ame=News&file=article&sid=670&mode=thread&order=0& thold=0
2] http://www.tuxreports.com/modules.php?op=modload&n ame=News&file=article&sid=667&mode=thread&order=0& thold=0
3] http://linuxtoday.com/news_story.php3?ltsn=2002-04 -12-014-26-RV-DT
4] http://linuxtoday.com/news_story.php3?ltsn=2002-04 -12-005-26-NW-DT
5] http://pclinuxonline.com/modules.php?name=News&fil e=article&sid=1856
6] http://pclinuxonline.com/modules.php?name=News&fil e=article&sid=1848
7] http://newsvac.newsforge.com/article.pl?sid=02/04/ 12/1740252
8] http://newsvac.newsforge.com/article.pl?sid=02/04/ 11/1459213
9] http://www.distrowatch.com/index.php

Thanks.

It seems like like all those new Distributions, which want to come up with a Desktop-Linux, simply cut all the good software/tools away from Linux and hide the root account from the users as good as they can. Look at IcePack, Lindows or Xandros.
They all seem castrated to me, like a Kernel + KDE. I like the approach of Mandrake, who try to deliver an easy to use and configure GNU/Linux System, much more (And Mandrake 8.2 is really good). It's easy, but powerfull (Suse and Caldera are too) and not easy and varporware like Lycoris etc..

It seems like like all those new Distributions, which want to come up with a Desktop-Linux, simply cut all the good software/tools away from Linux and hide the root account from the users as good as they can. Look at IcePack, Lindows or Xandros.
They all seem castrated to me, like a Kernel + KDE. I like the approach of Mandrake, who try to deliver an easy to use and configure GNU/Linux System, much more (And Mandrake 8.2 is really good). It's easy, but powerfull (Suse and Caldera are too) and not easy and varporware like Lycoris etc..

It seems like like all those new Distributions, which want to come up with a Desktop-Linux, simply cut all the good software/tools away from Linux and hide the root account from the users as good as they can. Look at IcePack, Lindows or Xandros.
They all seem castrated to me, like a Kernel + KDE. I like the approach of Mandrake, who try to deliver an easy to use and configure GNU/Linux System, much more (And Mandrake 8.2 is really good). It's easy, but powerfull (Suse and Caldera are too) and not easy and varporware like Lycoris etc..

See lwn.net and distrowatch for really long and uselessly comprehensive lists.

Oh, but nice try, anyway... ;)

It seems that every few weeks there's some new distro-related story on /., all asking pretty much the same question, in one form on another ;

Which distro is best for what, and why?

A site that answers most questions one might have about pretty much any distro is www.distrowatch.com

Didn't think of it before posting, but distrowatch indicates whether and what version each of a few dozen distros ship with (not just ALSA, dozens of packages). Yep, as two followups have indicated, SuSE and Mandrake have included ALSA for awhile. That's a good thing. Don't know why someone thought I was trolling, it was an honest (if lazy) question.

Unlike other distros, Gentoo Linux has an advanced package management system called Portage. Portage is a true ports system in the tradition of BSD ports, but is Python-based and sports a number of advanced features including dependencies, fine-grained package management, "fake" (OpenBSD-style) installs, safe unmerging, system profiles, virtual packages, config file management, and more.

When I started using Linux, I vaguely knew there were other distributions besides RedHat; but I knew that RedHat was the biggest, oldest, most successful Linux. So, why would anyone want to use any of the other distos? Do they seriously rival RedHat in terms of performance and ease-of-use. Do they have redhat package manager type innovation? Does anyone use them besides the people that develop them as vanity projects?

If any of the other distros do have advantages over RedHat (which I kind of doubt), then I may have to reconsider my use of Linux. I mean, if you can't get all the benefits of Linux in one distribution, what's the point? I might as well switch to WinXP, where I know that the entire company is focused on one version of the OS, not dozens of competing distros. Isn't Linux kind of shooting itself in the foot with the distro system? Wouldn't cooperation be more efficient than competition?

Diversity is the engine of evolution; ergo, a sign of a healthy Linux is multiple distributions meeting different needs. Natural selection will weed out the weak, while the survivors will settle into niches both great and small.

Right now, everybody and their dog seems to have a Linux distro... just check out DistroWatch for the states of 36 different distros around the planet.

If Progeny's niche had merit, another distro will come along and fill the void. If it had no merit (and I don't know, not having used it), then its passing allows energy to flow to stronger distros.

Boy, that sounds New-Agey! ;)

The DistroWatch web site has been updated to include the latest Mandrake release. Look at the Mandrake page for all the details. To see how it compares with others, visit the Major Distributions page. Have fun!

The DistroWatch web site has been updated to include the latest Mandrake release. Look at the Mandrake page for all the details. To see how it compares with others, visit the Major Distributions page. Have fun!

The DistroWatch web site has been updated to include the latest Mandrake release. Look at the Mandrake page for all the details. To see how it compares with others, visit the Major Distributions page. Have fun!

The site is www.distrowatch.com. Not nearly as comprehensive as (now defunct) Appwatch, but growing and will hopefully be useful for people who used to frequent Appwatch. I relied on Appwatch for a lot of information, but now that I am on my own, I will do my best to keep www.distrowatch.com up to date. Feedback is welcome.

The site is www.distrowatch.com. Not nearly as comprehensive as (now defunct) Appwatch, but growing and will hopefully be useful for people who used to frequent Appwatch. I relied on Appwatch for a lot of information, but now that I am on my own, I will do my best to keep www.distrowatch.com up to date. Feedback is welcome.

Take a look at Yellow Dog page at DistroWatch for more information about features and packages. It has been updated recently.

Take a look at Yellow Dog page at DistroWatch for more information about features and packages. It has been updated recently.

Here ou go: DistroWatch.

Check out the list of features and packages at www.distrowatch.com/mandrake.htm.

Take a look at distrowatch where you can find a fairly comprehensive table comparing all of the major Linux distributions.

Conectiva 7.0 was released to ftp servers on 30 July 2001 - this is a bit of an old news, really. Anyway, check out the features at distrowatch.