Trying To Find The RIGHT Linux Distro

[logicalstatus]

Hello, I am new to the Linux world. I am not familiar with which distros have which features, so I was hoping you could read what features I want and direct me to the right distro. I am looking for Linux with:
Compiz-Fusion (beryl with compiz) or just Beryl
Scale feature,
Expo feature,
Dodge feature,
Cube feature,
Animation features (ex. random minimize animations),
Ndiswrapper and or very good wireless support,
Emerald themes,
Decent boot loader,
Easy search and double click installer (I am not Linux savvy so I will not do well at typing a lot of codes and commands)

Does anyone know of a distribution that has ALL of these features? Preferably one that has LiveCD?

If it helps heres a little background:
I have tried a few distro's already. The best one I found was PClinuxOS. That distro has everything I listed. However, the panels would crash and disappear, the expo and scale functions would stop or not start up with the OS, and just yesterday, im getting an I/O error and it will not boot. So I wanted to try another more stable OS that had the features I use most. I tried Freespire but it is even more unstable than PClinuxOS and wireless does not work properly. Fedora 7 does not include Ndiswrapper and is difficult to install with my wifi card. Ubuntu offered a Ndiswrapper download from their website, I installed it and loaded my inf file but it said it was invalid driver. I like to stick with liveCD distros because I can test my wifi first without wasting time installing and partitioning. I took the time to research distros this morning but now I need your help. I hope I haven't made this post too long. Any advice helps. Thank you!

[T3ddy]

LinuxMint is probably the way to go. It's based on Ubuntu but has better wifi support out of the box. So if the ndiswrapper issue was the only thing keeping you from using Ubuntu, try out LinuxMint. Linux Mint

[oz]

Welcome to the forums!

Take a look at the link in my signature for lots of good information on getting started with Linux. There are also some quizzes there that might help you in picking a distro. You can find a good listing of most liveCDs here:

The LiveCD List

Have fun with Linux!

[logicalstatus]

Welcome to the forums!

Take a look at the link in my signature for lots of good information on getting started with Linux. There are also some quizzes there that might help you in picking a distro. You can find a good listing of most liveCDs here:

The LiveCD List

Have fun with Linux!

Hey thanks you guys. T3ddy im downloading the iso for Mint linux now. Ozar im 2 steps ahead of you, I already visited the livecd list a while back and already saw the FAQ-was very helpful. It would be great of someone could develop a database file to show a grid of the livecd list but also include what features are in each disto. I could make the database file but I dont know much about the hundreds of distros. Owell maybe one day.
Can anyone else name a specific OS that meets my needs?

[MikeTbob]

If you haven't already, take a look at Sabayon, it has a lot of the features you are looking for.

Sabayon Linux Project Website

[dpar]

I'll have to say +1 for Mint. I think you'll like it.

[logicalstatus]

If you haven't already, take a look at Sabayon, it has a lot of the features you are looking for.

Sabayon Linux Project Website

Hey thanks a lot for your suggestions! I tried Linux Mint but it did not have compiz and would not load my wireless driver through Ndiswrapper. I tried Sabayon and it is spot on just what I wanted! Has Compis-Fusion, and my wireless card was recognized automatically! However its very slow. On livecd and after fresh installation the 3d cube is very choppy. And this does not happen on any other installation. I ended up switching to Mepis but, due to its lack of features, i'm running back to Sabayo. Is there any installation technique I should know about before I install it to make it run more smoothly? I do not want to lose any of my graphic effects. And my computer can handle the graphics because it can on any other distro. How can I make it faster?

[MikeTbob]

I would say, keep in mind that Sabayon is based on Gentoo and when you install software, it will take a long time to compile because it is all installed from source code optimized for your systems specs. After you get Sabayon installed, you can try disabling unwanted/unneeded services and whatnot, to improve speed. I guess that's part of the trade-off, having everything installed by default but it runs slower because of this.

[logicalstatus]

I would say, keep in mind that Sabayon is based on Gentoo and when you install software, it will take a long time to compile because it is all installed from source code optimized for your systems specs. After you get Sabayon installed, you can try disabling unwanted/unneeded services and whatnot, to improve speed. I guess that's part of the trade-off, having everything installed by default but it runs slower because of this.

Ok thanks. That does make sense. I went to KDE COMPONENTS--> SERVICE MANAGER. and only left 3 of 8 services checked and it helped but still not at my desired speed yet. The sessions are set to start new every startup. Is there another way to remove services from startup to improve speed?

[MikeTbob]

KDE COMPONENTS--> SERVICE MANAGER only works for KDE services, you want to stop Kernel services. I think sabayon uses the same paths as Gentoo so try to login to a terminal as root or use sudo and type "rc-update show" This will list the services set to automatically start.
type "rc-update del [SERVICE] [GROUP] where service is the name of the service you want to stop, and group is the group it is in (eg, boot, default, nonetwork)
adding a service is identical to above, replacing "del" with "add"