bigjohn wrote:Of course, if you really are into cutting edge, then look into Gentoo, because if you follow the install handbook religiously, you should be able to get it installed. It usually has the most up to date stuff available, plus theres a way to mod the config to make it bleeding (rather than just cutting) edge.
The stable Gentoo tree isn't particularly cutting edge, it's.. well... stable. Switch to testing and you get the latest stuff.
bigjohn wrote:The only downside is that it's based on source, so if you tell it to do the updates etc, then it gets the packages and only then does it compile them - which depending on the package(s) can take a while (I used to do that over night).
Updates aren't a problem, because you can leave it compiling the new version while still using the old one. Installing a new piece of software the first time can be a pain if there are a lot of dependencies to compile.
Someone was raving about Tomboy at the last Liverpool LUG meeting. I tried to install it when I got home and found it had about a dozen dependencies (it's a Mono app and I had Mono stuff installed) so it took around 20 minutes to install it all, which was just time to make a brew and catch up on my email.
Some of the bigger packages, including Firefox, are available as binaries, so installation is almost instant.
bigjohn wrote:Plus it make you learn lots, as so much stuff has to be done manually i.e. not many automated config tools.
The first release of the new Gentoo installer was this week. I've not tried it yet, but it appears an ambitious project, using one backend with curses, GTK and web front ends.