[stinkoman]

Hey, I want a text-based Linux with a GUI easily accessible. Is Slackware the only one for this, or are there others?

[ozar]

Originally Posted by stinkoman

Is Slackware the only one for this, or are there others?

No, you can set up pretty much any distro to work that way.

[daark.child]

As long as you do not install a GUI, then any distro will do. Even if you install a GUI environment, you can still configure your system to boot into text mode.

[Freston]

Whether a distro boots into text mode or GUI mode is defined in /etc/inittab, you can easily change that. (And you can override this setting from lilo, but that's another matter)

[ozar]

You might want to consider doing network installs of arch, debian, and gentoo. In each case, you install only the minimal base system, then install only what you want and/or need on top of that. You wind up with a lean, but powerful system that is customized to your liking.

Have fun experimenting with Linux...

[stinkoman]

Originally Posted by ozar

You might want to consider doing network installs of arch, debian, and gentoo. In each case, you install only the minimal base system, then install only what you want and/or need on top of that. You wind up with a lean, but powerful system that is customized to your liking.

Have fun experimenting with Linux...

well i dont exactly know how to do that or what i would want, but i downloaded the livecd for ark, and it seems pretty neat, any words on ark? id like something for my laptop, because the biggest thing i like about linus is its so much faster than windows.

[ozar]

well i dont exactly know how to do that or what i would want

Yeah, nobody does when they first decide to try it. Some experimenting and extra work is usually required at first.

but i downloaded the livecd for ark, and it seems pretty neat, any words on ark?

I've tried Ark (it's quite different from Arch) but it was about 4 or 5 years ago and I wasn't impressed with it back then, but maybe it's improved quite a bit over the years.

id like something for my laptop, because the biggest thing i like about linus is its so much faster than windows.

openSUSE and Ubuntu have good track records with laptops, but I'm not personally a fan of either of them. One or the other might be perfect for you, though.

Let us know how it goes, whichever route you should take...

[stinkoman]

well i have an 80 gig harddrive on my lappy with windows, id mess around with the spare 40gig once i figure out slackware on the compy, i dont want to learn 2 new systems simultaneously.

[ozar]

Originally Posted by stinkoman

well i have an 80 gig harddrive on my lappy with windows, id mess around with the spare 40gig once i figure out slackware on the compy, i dont want to learn 2 new systems simultaneously.

Yeah, you'd probably be just as well off sticking with Slackware, or maybe running LiveCDs when you find yourself getting bored with Slack. I think I've already given you the LiveCDs link, but just in case I didn't, you can find a large listing of them here. I don't personally like running liveCDs except for emergency and recovery type operations. I find them far too slow to work with for general use.

Enjoy your Slackware setup...

[stinkoman]

i was actually going to ask if livecds are always slower, so according to that ark would eb really fast, being as it's livecd was fast, but again i want to eb able to use all of my stuff on my laptop before jumping in and saying "OH CRAP!" but is there a way to sync ipods with linux? itunes isnt available, but did anyone make something else that works?