my kudos on SimplyMEPIS

Sorry for the long post if anyone thinks it so. Hopefully other people in similar interests, hardware, or hardware/software issues can relate to my story of searching for "the right linux"

Nobody goes to a car dealership and just 'gets the car' without having any real experience driving it. Those that do are well... usually unhappy. What do you do? you go test drive one, if it meets all your needs and you like everything, you get it. If you're not sure, test drive another. right?

Well, since most distro(s) of linux are FREE, I have no reason limiting me from trying out all the ones I want. And now, I think I have finally found a good match for what I want, what I need, and something that works with my franken-computer.

So here was basically my needs and things I won't deal with:

1. I needed and wanted something that utilized the resources better, executed programs faster, and isn't too terribly bothersome with installing things.
2. I wanted something with a desktop environment that was user friendly
3. I really wanted something that had a desktop with a small footprint.
4. I needed to get out of the 'nv' and get this legacy card to work.
5. I will not deal with an uptime of anywhere from 5 minutes to 30 minutes and a sudden crash with no log or any sign of what is wrong.

So, here are the versions I tried.
Ubuntu 6.06 LTS, 6.10, and the beta of fiesty
Xubuntu 6.06 LTS, 6.10, and the beta of fiesty
Kubuntu 6.06 LTS, 6.10 (after knowing the fiesty of gnome and xfce didn't work, why bother?)
Knoppix
SimplyMEPIS 6.00 and 6.05 RC
Dyne:bolic

Through just general testing of the live cd and the time it took to test out the hard drive install of each (minus dynebolic) I realised that the KDE environment is more my type... I don't really have any particular reason for saying so... it just is. Ubuntu or any derivative of wouldn't work for me because for whatever reason regardless of desktop environment (gnome, kde, xfce) or revision of the software, I would get a crash somewhere during use with no signs or aftereffects that would give me a reason why. also, I needed something that would install the nvidia-legacy drivers and after a couple hours in each OS I really didn't get anywhere. If it's that frustrating and difficult I can find another OS that isn't.

So, I'm running SimplyMEPIS 6.5 RC. It had the fastest hard drive install time, the fastest boot time, it detected all my hardware just fine, I easily installed the nvidia legacy drivers in the system configuration tools with NO problems, it was the only of the ones I tried to detected the combo of my vid card and monitor allow 1280x1024, and the last but not the least - it uses the least amount of ram in comparison to the others. (toolbar at the bottom configured the same, no apps running, ect. same conditions between all.) and it's nice to see that between different monitor resolutions it doesn't take more memory resources. I'd use bigger than 1024x768 but it's too small to read on this 17" screen...

anyways... got my linux finally, and now I'm happy. My baby runs just great.