My new phone should be here soon. Woot. Stupid old intermittently-working cellphones.

Now to geek out:

I'm getting a "new" computer (either trading a laptop for a desktop, or putting together a new box with used parts via Free Geek) soon. I'm gonna use it as a file server so i can dump all my music files onto it. That way i don't have 5 copies of each song on the 5 other computers in the apartment. Also, i'm gonna be using it to run file sharing programs to expand my musical library.

I'm also going to be using it to house my website prophetnoise.com when that's up. (gonna have to get a static IP, because aparently comcast doesnt give you one even though it's a cable modem. They change it every few months or so. Anyway...)

I might find a few other uses for it, but those will be the main functions.

I'm torn as to what Linux Distro to install. I installed Gentoo on my P4 laptop and loved it. I built it from scratch so it had only what i needed. No desktop, just an XWindow system. And it flew, unburdened by needless trifles. But it take sooooo fucking much to actually install and get it runing. I love the portage system. It's very organized the way my brain works. But it took me about a week to install on my laptop, averaging a few hours a day getting my machine to run. I'm sure if i wanted to get everything working 100% and PROPERLY, it would have taken 2 or 3 times as long.

Then there's Unbuntu. I know it's easy to install, and it "just works". What i lose in control, i make up for in time and headache and stress. I probably won't have to finagle every peice of the system to get things to work. But i think the Debian package management system is a bit messy (although i'm more familiar with SUSE 10's packages, which uses RPMs as opposed to DEBs, package management in general seems messier than Portage) And Unbuntu uses the Gnome desktop. I suppose i can use Kunbuntu because if i have to use a desktop, i choose KDE over Gnome. Xunbuntu might be the closest to what i want: A command line based XWindow system, but again, Portage seems much more manageable on the command line than Deb Packages.

But i really don't fancy doing another Gentoo install.

This is all preliminary thinking, option weighing, and deliberation. I don't even have the computer yet, so i have plenty of time to ruminate.

I'm all ears to anyone who has any input... unless your input is to use a microsoft OS. That's just dumb. I may have installed Gentoo on my laptop, but i'm not a massochist (well, as far as computing goes at least. Other parts of life may vary)

+++edited

PS. the more i read about ubuntu, the more i think i want to install it on my laptop (if i ever decide to put it back together). But, i don't want to waste all that effin time i spent installing gentoo. I feel like i should leave gentoo on there for as long as possible because, well, it was a fucking event installing it. But i think Xubuntu might get a few more 'things' working.