Leaving Ubuntu out of the subject for personal reasons I would like to recommend you use Debian stable as you must already be accustomed to dpkg and apt utiliti

Leaving Ubuntu out of the subject for personal reasons I would like to recommend you use Debian stable as you must already be accustomed to dpkg and apt utilities. The way to use Linux that works best for everyone is to start with a very clean installation, and really only install what you need. This does not only work best because you don't end up with unwanted processes eating up resources but you also get to understand a bit more about each part as you install them, if you're curious enough to seek information on dependencies and explore around the configuration files of every software component you add to your installation. To do this with Debian is really easy, just deselect every single item in tasksel during the installation process, and later use apt/aptitude to install what's missing. I prefer not to install meta-packages that are meant to bundle "everything you need" for X (example: task-gnome-desktop) but you get to decide if you like having system components you do not fully understand... For the sake of an example here is a list of all the packages that would be installed on my laptop if I would install task-gnome-desktop (897 packages / 2,175 MB disk space): http://paste.lisp.org/display/325002 http://paste.lisp.org/display/325002 Of course if you have time, or just interest, but mostly if you never went through it before I would recommend Slackware. Have a fun ride!