Hello,
I have been a Linux user for about a year and a half now. I started with Kubuntu, then switched to regular Ubuntu. After that, I switched to OpenSUSE KDE, really liked it, but abandoned it after corrupting it somehow. Then, I kind of refrained from using Linux after falling in love with the Windows 7 beta... I rediscovered Linux about 6 months ago, (Ubuntu), then installed Debian. Tried gOS, Mint, then Mandriva KDE... I loved it, but it was way too slow for my laptop with 512 MB's of RAM. Even the GNOME one. I also will NEVER go back to Mint, after it CAME with broken dependencies ... Then, I installed sidux KDE on my desktop. I have it currently, but I think that it is too unstable to be my main distro.
So, can you guys help me decide which distro I should choose? I need:
1. A KDE distro for my desktop. One that doesn't have to be lightweight at all, but should be (for the most part) stable, yet still contain more modern packages (at least kde 4). Also should contain more GUI-related tools, as I hate editing config files...
2. A KDE distro for my laptop... Should be more lightweight (only 512 megs of RAM), yet still be as usable as the desktop one.
3.A KDE distro that runs easily off of a USB flash drive... Should boot quickly (No way OpenSUSE would work, it boots slowly even installed!) My flash drive is 8 gigs, so the size of the distro should not be much of an issue...
So, what do you think? Keep in mind that these don't necessarily even need to be Linux, just free... I was thinking maybe PC-BSD for my desktop, but no way for my laptop... I could only get an 800X600 resolution on it.
EDIT: I also would like the installer(s) to contain a GUI, but I could live with text-based ones, just that I don't want to have to use a command line to install, or to have to compile packages myself .

Currently, how stable is Chakra?

COME ON PEOPLE!!! If you are going to read my post, at least reply!

Chakra is a more advanced distribution, requiring some manual work to get working. openSUSE is definitely a good one ( I use it myself.. slightly biased here )

Chakra is basically Arch at the bottom, so if you don't like to edit config files manually, I wouldn't recommend it (although Chakra also has some GUI tools).

openSUSE was recently chosen by LinuxFormat as the best KDE distro; it may complain a bit if you try to run the Live CD in 512Mb but I managed to get it far enough to install on a 256Mb machine; I upgraded this machine to 768Mb and it runs perfectly happily - no problems even with the Live CD - though of course with only the very basic desktop effects.

I think the distros you should look at are openSUSE, Kubuntu and Debian (Squeeze).

Which would be more lightweight, Kubuntu or OpenSUSE?
Also, which would be better to run off of a flash drive (Live USB)?

Jonan wrote:I think the distros you should look at are openSUSE, Kubuntu and Debian (Squeeze).

I highly recommend Debian testing (squeeze as of now). Debian and Arch are wonderful systems. Debian would be easier to get into to, but both are simple to manage. Debian does have a nice GUI installer, just dl it and install. There are plenty nice guides to assist you in using it. And forums.debian.net has ALOT of great info, and not to mention they'll help you with anything.

As far as speed and the lightweight aspect, Debian is great for that. It doesn't install a bunch of crud. I haven't used liveUSB with Debian, so I can't answer from experience there.

The problem with running as a Live distro is that it requires more memory to run than if you run it off a hard drive with swap which it can access. You are far better installing your chosen version to a hard drive or SSD.