Moving distros

[snowpine]

Ubuntu Minimal
Debian Netinstall
Arch
Slackware
Gentoo
Linux From Scratch

Then you'll come full circle and realize Ubuntu isn't "dumbed down" at all; any and all of the same terminal commands and tools work just as well in Ubuntu as they do in any other distro.

[KoRnholio]

Crunchbang! It's based on Debian, so you'll still have apt-get as a base. Or just use pure Debian.

[bobman321123]

Ok, a few points.

First of all, Ubuntu is a fabulous operating system. But because of it's extreme user friendliness, it's not forcing me to learn anything anymore. So not dumbed down, but keeps most people unaware of inner workings

Second, Arch wasn't too hard for me, I just had some trouble with video drivers (which I probably could have fixed) but the version of the kernel I have has a very specific problem with the specific wireless card I have. And since my computer is across the house from the router, it's kinda destroyed my motivation to attempt to solve arch since it involved moving my tower across the house.

So yeah, that's the sum of my problems.

EDIT: also, the type of wireless network I have is more complicated than normal, and is covered very poorly in the wiki, but people still seem loathe to help.

[IWantFroyo]

+1 to Ubuntu minimal install. No little shield to keep users from seeing anything with this one.

Try living in the command line. That should increase your skills by quite a bit. To see what it would be like, hit Ctrl-Alt-F1. To go back, Ctrl-Alt-F7.

Or you could install a minimalist distro such as CrunchBang, and set it up so you have a graphical terminal, with some transparency and a nice background. The black and white of the pure command line is rather lonely.

[codingman]

If you really want a new OS that's midway I would go with Debian squeeze or Debian. If you can wait 25 days go for F17. They are all stable and are mostly terminal, but like the mod said "Press Ctrl-Alt-F1 to go into a tty",Ubuntu's not putting shields on you.

[bobman321123]

Thanks for all the suggestions. I'm really considering sticking with ubuntu just because of the fabulous community attached to it.

[QIII]

You can lift the engine cover as easily on a Carrera as you can on a Beetle.

[Antman]

Give Chakra Linux a try. It was based on Arch at one point and has branched off into its own distro. It uses a semi-rolling release model with software that is tested more and has less breakage than Arch in theory. It is a KDE based distro.

[bobman321123]

Ahhh sorry, I had a bad experience with KDE which really put me off it until I get bored of Gnome-shell

[keithpeter]

+1 to Ubuntu minimal install. No little shield to keep users from seeing anything with this one.

+1

My little side project is installing a 'pure' Gnome desktop, without Evolution, but with everything else working, including correctly scaled screen fonts &c

That will keep me googling...