It's been awhile since my last post. Since then, I have downloaded and tested about 100 linux distributions. My favorites are either based on Debian or Slackware. My all time favorite distribution has become Slackware, mainly because I love how I can so easily compile programs in it (includes most needed libraries) and that it keeps files where they should be (most unix like). Although I read that people think Slackware is hard to configure, i completely disagree. It is so easy to start/stop daemons (cd /etc/rc.d) (chmod -x rc.acpid), or tweak the inittab file to have it boot to a command prompt. It also comes with some great command line utilites that are more reliable than most gui utilities (pkgtool, netconfig, etc). Things just work with Slackware which I can't say for all the other distros. Debian is my second favorite with Ubuntu/Sidux third. Although I love mini distributions (Puppy, Zenwalk, Vector, Wolvix, NimbleX, DSL, etc) they don't work for me long-term because I like to install a lot of software and they are usually missing a lot of libraries and often make it difficult. For someone that doesn't install much, I would recommend Puppy Linux since it boots up and shuts down so fast and is light on memory.
As far as window managers go, Ive tried many from here: http://xwinman.org/ I prefer the light simple ones. Two of the latest I have tried are "Karmen" and "Awesome". I like both but for different reasons. Karmen is simple and doesn't have a config file or root menus so you need to use a launcher app with it. It does show running tasks by right clicking any titlebar or desktop. I like how it looks and its simplicity and stability. It manages windows in a very microsoft kind of way. In contrast, Awesome is a tiling window manager that has full keyboard support. It took me a couple hours of editing the .awesomerc file to get this one to my liking, but I eventually got the thing launching apps with mouse1,3 and Alt-mouse 1,2,3. Moving windows with Win-mouse1, sizing with Win-mouse3, and closing windows with Mouse2. You can really configure most anything with it. There are several other tiling window managers that are fun, such as Xmonad, Ion, and Wmii.
So I guess in summary I have wasted a lot of time loading and configuring software but its something I enjoy, and at times get tired of. I never use windows anymore and still believe Linux to be better due to its security, availability of free software, and configurability.
