The age old - Which Distro/Destop question.

[aSystemOverload]

I've been dabbling (occasionally) with linux for the last year, tried Ubuntu, but didn't like Unity. Then Gnome Mint, didn't like what happened in LM12. Now I've jumped to Chakra (KDE) and I love the desktop, but not the instabillity.

Can anyone advise me of a distro/desktop that will give me stability, fairly recent versions of software and plenty of customise options on desktop.

After playing with Chakra, I like a 50% height left (auto-hide) launcher (with a classic 'start-menu' on Ctrl ¬) and a top panel (with clock and standard status (sound/net etc...) icons) with the ability to add widgets for things such as weather, RAM/CPU consumption and desktop management.

Also want to be easily able to set up my dual monitors, stretch wallpapers across them and flick between desktops at the click of a button.

Not sure whether I like the idea of rolling distro or not, so don't mind either way if that is an option?

[elija]

Debian testing and XFCE may fit your bill nicely. I'm sure others will have other opinions.

[oz]

I'd recommend going with one of the distros that allows the easy installation of a minimal "base system only" arrangement, such as Arch, Debian, or Gentoo, then you can add only those things that you really want or need on top of that.

[MASONTX]

Go to distrowatch.com and do a search for distro's that meet your needs, such as KDE desktop, beginner or advanced status, older computer or newer, etc. Alternately, you could go to the top 100 list there and start at the top and try them one by one until you find one you like.

[jayd512]

Adding to ozar's suggestions, you could also look at Slackware or CRUX.
Either one of those will let you perform a minimal installation and modify them to suit your needs.

[nixblog]

Debian testing and XFCE may fit your bill nicely. I'm sure others will have other opinions.

That seems to be a very good opinion as I use it myself

If the poster liked Mint but not LM12 then he could try Linux Mint Debian Edition. Also Xubuntu may fit the bill too if its ease of use and up to date software is whats needed.

[Charles4809]

You could have a look at BodhiLinux. Minimalistic approach, Enlightenment Desktop and very fast.

[kriss]

Debian is fairly nice, and the package system is fantastic. Quite user-friendly as well!

[hicitusficitus]

If you liked Ubuntu but not Unity you could install use Ubuntu with gnome3, or you could install Kubuntu which is the KDE version of Ubuntu. I would also recommend Debian. Quick question, does anyone like Unity? I have yet to find anyone that does.

[aSystemOverload]

I will be trying Ubuntu and Mint again as they were both stable, but I still want to be able to customise to a high degree.

Having used Chakra (KDE) and Debian KDE and having them both crashing on me way too frequently I'm steering away from KDE.

Can't bring myself to use a desktop with a mouse.

I'm downloading Fedora and Arch to check out, but I'm also downloading Bodhi Linux, which I'm hoping will be as good as the website makes out. Maybe this will give me the stability of system and desktop.

Thnx for all of your input.