EDIT: I hate lubuntu. It's clunky and quite awful when it comes to remembering any settings.
EDIT2: WattOS was okay but it had its own set of troubles... foremost being lack of activity in its support forums. Just one person supports that distro and that is a surefire recipe for very-long-wait-times and even more frustration.
EDIT3: Peppermint Ice was an unstable error-popping joke. I think the whole idea was to have the user install and use the OS for a day or so before unleashing an update from hell on their computers and have it boot to some inane terminal instead of the GUI so that windoze-converts will have an seismic what-do-I-do-NOW panic-attack. I had to google the "startx" command. Peppermint, you are ditched. I am now on Linux Mint on one laptop, Fedora on another (both gnome) and a stripped-down heavily-modified and patched WinXP (I know. I know.) on my oldest laptop.
BodhiLinux came close in terms of minimalism but I just could not figure out how to change simple display options under the Enlightenment GUI. Dual monitor setup was a nightmare. Changing the brightness of the screen required me to learn command line linux. Changing the display resolution was a complicated 1 hour google-hunt without a definite answer. The disappointment list just goes on lengthening.
Deskop Ubuntu has some unwieldy application-bloat. I liked the spiffy-looking Ubuntu-Netbook version but it has bloatware as well. Xubuntu was very display-tweak unfriendly. I am not competent enough yet to build linux from scratch. Someday, I will. Till then, I am settling for a semi-permanent lubuntu install on my Toshiba U305 S7467. I will miss the extremely light version of XP I used to run on the U305. It was just 0.7GB, took 12s to boot, ran just 12 background processes and took up less than 2% of system resources at any given time.
I don't know if and when I will reach that level of hacking comfort with lubuntu. It took me quite sometime to reach that state in XP. I never transitioned to Vista and it's newer evil cousins simply because their bloat was unbearable. I don't think any OS should occupy more than 2GB at the most and take up less than 3% of system resources when it's running.
Or maybe Chrome OS will come out before I get too comfortable with linux. Who knows...
Someday, I need to check out this arsenal of linux boxes you seem to have. I keep imagining it as a row of computers all running different abstract distros lined up and hard-wired together like that scene in the Matrix where we see Neo's flat for the first time (and maybe the last time).
Whoa. You know wayy to much Linux. Have mercy on the n00b here! I had no idea about 85% of the things you mentioned in that comment...
I didn't get a laptop, I have the Limbo 6000A with a hex-core processor (AMD 1055-T, 6 gigs of RAM and 500 gig hard drive. I also looked at System 76 and for what I was looking Zareason was cheaper.
As I define bloat, no, E17 isn't bloated. E17 is standards compliant, very configurable (sometimes too much) and not based on anything else. I've tried Bodhi. It's a decent implementation of E17 but right now doesn't come in a 64 bit edition so it is not all that interesting to me.
Openbox is a windows manager without bloat. Try CrunchBang :::link::: if you want a debian based distro without desktop shell/window manager bloat.
Speaking of bloat, the geek in me hastens to add that it is important not conflate "operating system" and "distro". Ubuntu may be a full of bloat distro. But it is not the operating system (the linux kernel) that is bloated. It's all the stuff - desktop shell/window manager and apps - on top the operating system. Since Windows comes with just about no apps, lots of distro developers take the kitchen sink approach and throw in lots of apps. Some people like that approach. Obviously you don't.
Wait. You have a Zareason????!! I briefly considered them, but almost every one of their better configured laptops was out of stock! So I have ordered from System76 instead. Also, I think Zareason is rather too expensive. Could be just sour grapes though...Which model do you have?
I am just starting out with all this linux mania. I put fedora on my other laptop late last year with (e:Paul)'s encouragement but I never really was this committed to dive in fully. I guess necessity is filling in its matronly shoes here.
I tried Xubuntu as well. Isn't it built with XFCE? I was not very happy.
It gave me a headache with trying to figure out simple display stuff.
I am really interested in hearing why you like E17 so much. Doesn't it seem pretty bloat-ridden? Have you tried BodhiLinux? What is your opinion?
Someone else I know likes Lubuntu better than the other *buntus. When I got my Zareason box I promised myself that I would live with Ubuntu Studio for 6 months before I thought about getting rid of it. I'm still not friends with the *buntus, but now at least I don't want to cross the street to get away from an *buntu. I got Linux Mint on another box which I think is better than any of the *buntus despite being Ubuntu-derived. Right now, I am seriously considering farting with the Debian-derived Linux Mint release or perhaps pure Debian.. If time was no object, I would create my own Arch-based custom distro. But I seriously doubt that I will ever get around to it. The only thing that I got Arch on right now is an iBook G3 which I am using more or less as a wi-fi bridge/access point.
I think the only true way to avoid bloat is find a distro that only installs to a CLI and take it from there. Arch is my favie for that sort of thing. Personally, my bug-bear with Linux bloat are the depends for desktop environments like KDE and GNOME. And that is why I think you like Lubuntu, it has LXDE (which I have running on some box but I can't remember what distro). XFCE is another light desktop environment. But, all in all, I'm an Enlightment 17 fanboy. My dream distro would probably be Arch with E17 custom built by me.
Good Luck with Linux. I hope it serves you well.