[Sussex] New & fairly incompetent Linux user

[Paul Baines]

Hey People,

Ta for all the helpful advice. I was reassured to find that I've
already tried all of those suggestions so it must just be the norm for
crappy dial-up!

Just wanted to throw a bone out for you all to chew on... 

I'm thinking of buying a cheapo second-hand desktop to Linux-it (rid
that evil Microsoft beast from the face of the earth i say) and then
use for some fairly light work, and i'm mulling over which distro to
go with. My current (stereo-typed) views are as follows:

Mandrake - Good for Linux-virgins as it has lots of nice GUI's and can
do lots for you but a bit restrictive and cumbersome once you know
what you are doing. (Particularly unimpressed by most of the Mandrake
Control Centre progs). So, I want a change...

Debian - Awe-inspiring, seems to be the holy-grail to most Linux
enthusiasts that I've spoken to. But needs a decent web-connection i
think?

Red Hat - Linux people doing their best to immitate Microsoft.

SuSe - Not really sure about this one, not met any users but seems
fairly popular...

Gentoo - Bit quirky, used by the bloke who introduced me to Linux but
again I'd appreciate any info...

Knoppix - Good for diagnostics. Thats it.

Any others?

So, basically... I'd appreciate any suggestions to correct my
misconceptions and show me the way! Go on, convince me...

Paul Baines.
(Still using his cacky dial-up internet connection).