[Gullible Jones]

Wow. I've been away a long time.

Anyway... I'm getting a little burnt out on Arch Linux, for several reasons. First, the lack of manpower is kind of getting to me; the devs are spread very thin, what with all the packages. Second, pacman, although wonderful, is not really standard, whereas .deb and .rpm packages can be found lying around everywhere. Third... I'm just bored.

What I'm looking for is a distro that uses RPM or DEB package management, offers textmode/base system installation, and keeps its packages reasonably up to date. It also has to be speedy - think "designed for older hardware".

I've tried CAOS Linux NSA and liked it, but the current NSA version has serious problems with package availability, and the "SMART" package manager it uses frankly sucks. Basically, I'm looking for something like it, just a bit more up to date and with better package management (yum, apt, whatever).

Anyone know a distro that might fill the bill?

[daark.child]

The distros that I can think of, are Debian Testing (although there is a package freeze in Debian Testing at the moment), Debian Unstable, openSUSE and Fedora. You can use a network install disc to install all three distributions. Fedora is generally up to date in terms of available software. For openSUSE, you may have to setup various build service repos to get the latest versions of some packages.

[Gullible Jones]

The problem there is that those are all relatively sluggish, especially OpenSuSE (which I've tried installing on another machine BTW).
Basically I'm looking for something like Vector Linux, only RPM or DEB based - fast, customizable, installs a base system first rather than a desktop...

(Debian does fit the customizability requirement, but in my experience it has performed very poorly for some reason - perhaps the default kernel.)

[gogul2k]

You could consider doing a net based install of a distro like Debian or Ubuntu, then after you install the base system just apt-get install your chosen apps.

Edit: ^ just noticed that's something you're already considered.

[Thrillhouse]

Originally Posted by Gullible Jones

Anyway... I'm getting a little burnt out on Arch Linux, for several reasons. First, the lack of manpower is kind of getting to me; the devs are spread very thin, what with all the packages.

You do know that if there's a new version of something available and the developer responsible for it hasn't updated, you can install the package yourself via ABS, right?

You're right, though. Arch developers are a little slow in getting new stuff out there but a lot of times, there's a reason for it. The good thing about Arch is that most of the devs are readily available so you can contact them if you would like something updated.

Second, pacman, although wonderful, is not really standard, whereas .deb and .rpm packages can be found lying around everywhere.

Again, everybody puts out the source code so there's nothing stopping you from building the package yourself. I actually think that's easier to do in Arch than in any other distribution I've used because of ABS.

Third... I'm just bored.

Well, that's understandable.

What I'm looking for is a distro that uses RPM or DEB package management, offers textmode/base system installation, and keeps its packages reasonably up to date. It also has to be speedy - think "designed for older hardware".

I don't know if there are a whole lot of distros that meet this criteria. "RPM" and "speedy" are not necessarily synonymous terms. But, the good thing about this is there are a ton of distributions based on these two package formats. Have you searched distrowatch? One that comes to mind is Scientific Linux. I believe they offer a text mode install. Also, most of their repositories are not under the Scientific Linux's control so they're usually updated quickly as there is no time needed for testing. You should know, though, that up to date repositories usually means instability.

[gogul2k]

Just to throw in another suggestion since my last one wasn't so useful, BeaFanatIX I find is light (.deb based but stopped development a couple of years ago) and also Fluxbuntu (also light, though currently buggy and development seems to be slow ... might be worth a try though, it's stable enough to get a decent set up but might have to use a boot disc if you can't run it).

[Gullible Jones]

I'm actually beginning to eye FreeBSD... However, I need to know - are there GTK wifi config tools for it, other than GWireless (i.e. equivalents to wifi-radar)? Lack of such tools would be kind of a showstopper for me.

[gruven]

You want a text install but have to have a gui wireless config? Weird, but I don't know of any unless you use network manager.

I don't know if it available for freebsd or not, but from what you have said, debian unstable sounds like it is for you.

If you didn't have to have rpms or debs I would suggest gentoo.