[botmeister]

PMB, that's what I'm looking for!!! Linux without all the proprietory non standard muck stuck on top.

I'm not interested in a Linux distribution that tries to be a Windows, since I'm getting rid of Windows as a server because of all the flaws it has (will continue to use it as a desktop OS however).

Although Windows does have it's good points, IMO it is seriously flawed fundamentally because it is a not a standard, it is an internal and external twisted mess which is full of bugs (and always will be unless the whole damn thing is completely redesigned), it changes significantly with every new release, it has poor security, it is a CPU and memory hog, it tries to make an idiot out of me by hiding away everything and trying to think for for me (I can't get to the guts of it, and I can't modify it, and the registry is total chaos, not to mention the DLL hell), and it is overly complex with many thousands of features I have no need for (and am not even aware of).

So, in a nutshell, a bare bones Linux that conforms to a standard is what I'm looking for. I don't even need a GUI if I'm running a server, which is what I will be doing with it for the most part. I'm very much used to command lines since that's how I started off when I first studied computer science, I'm an old timer compared to most of you guys.

So, Slackware and Debian seem to be your choice, which is interesting since I've considered these two as most likely to fit my needs. The use of Knoppix is just to get going quickly with something, the hard part comes later.

Now, you bring up another question. Should I even bother with Linux since you mention BSD? I'm looking at the website of FreeBSD right now. In the meantime, any opinions on BSD would be nice.