i have run mandrake and slack and have finally decided on debian, simply
because of the 'apt' packaging system. its the best way ive seen to
painlessly keep your libraries current.

also, i kep hearing about GNOME and KDE. i am a windowmaker junkie. its
like having your hands directly in the kernel. it is super-lightweight;
in the year ive been running it, its locked up x twice, both times
because i was foolish enough to run konqueror.