I'm looking for a linux distro that isn't all loaded up. What I really want is a system where I'm forced to learn a lot about the linux OS. I've been using Fedora for awhile, not much satisfaction though. I mean its nice but its almost just like windows.... not much to learn.. Eventually I want to get involved with embedded systems so linux would be choice.. Any suggestions on a distro?

Well, i'm gonna try to not turn this into a distro debate, but I've always been a big fan of slackware. I've learned alot about the inner workings of a GNU/Linux OS from tinkering with slackware.

Gentoo will teach you a lot, if you don't get frustrated by the hours of compilation time.

I second slackware...its simple and quick to install. I don't think I would recommend gentoo to learn from.

Well gentoo teaches you to learn...gentoo. Honestly, I don't see how it teaches you to do anything except type 'emerge blah blah'

Although I don't use either of them now, I found Slackware to be the most useful for learning linux, and FreeBSD the most useful for general *nix usage.

gentoo is cool...but kind of a pain. Taking Damn Small Linux and building it into an effective system should teach you about the os.

I suggest giving Linux-From-Scratch a go. It won't make you an expert by any means, but
- You'll get to see firsthand why program A depends on program B.
- You'll learn how to do emergency cleanup and maintenance when you accidentally blow away an important subdirectory.
- You'll learn the value of thoroughly reading and re-reading the directions. Frequently.
- You'll learn how to understand what compilation errors mean and how to search for patches and/or compilation options to fix it.
- You'll learn exactly what the effect of toggling bits and modifying scripts will be without hiding behind package managers and setup tools.
Want to have even more fun? Do LFS for a non-x86 architecture.

I'm a Slackware man, myself. There's nothing I appreciate more from the distro other than the fact that it gets the hell out of my way. No configuration tool hand-holding. No weird three-level deep wrapper scripts around binaries. No annoying-as-piss branding everywhere by the distro-maker. Installed software is generally built with sane parameters. After the initial installation, it's basically a pre-compiled LFS.

If you're going to be doing embedded work, I'd suggest learning about these topics:
- Shell scripting. Likely Bourne shell. Learn classic Bourne instead of Bourne-Again. You'll be thankful when you land on a BSD box. Pick up some C Shell as well, but focus on it. TCSH > CSH.
- Communication systems. Don't just glance over the ISO/OSI network model, LIVE IT. Every layer should be tweaked and tuned at least once, just to let you know what's possible (defaults are usually sane for 97% of your applications). If you can, experiment on freaking ancient hardware. You'll really start to appreciate the bandwidth of that 56k cap in the dorms.
- GNU Coreutils and BSD "fileutils". Both are the backbone for their respective systems. These binaries are the basic 'rm', 'cp', 'mkdir' and so on commands you use in your scripts. Why both? The behavior and calling conventions are different enough that you'll trip up when you switch off.
- Kernel space vs. User space. You *can* and *should* rip stuff out of the userland that's unnecessary if you know what you don't need. For example, on some arbitrary embedded device which takes input from one port, performs some kind of transform, and outputs on another, there's really no need for system logging, periodic job execution, dynamic device creation/deletion, etc.
- Cross compilation. Learning to build stuff for one architecture from another. Important if your embedded stuff is going to be based on ARM/XScale, PowerPC, or MIPS. Although I'm a big proponent of native builds (less messy, more options), the timeframe is quite smaller when building and debugging large pieces of software on a very fast workstation versus the slower native CPU.

grml is a live cd distro that on first boot drops you strate at a bash prompt vs the tipical gui's while still mataning the useabilty of a gui. the best gui is
fluxbox
it is started with
#grml-x fluxbox

I'd get the latest version of Knoppix, and then stick with Slackware. I've run servers off of slackware and havent had a problem yet. I run it on my laptop and acutually managed to get all of the drivers installed and working as well. Plus, it forces/teaches you to write shell scripts moreso than other distros.

I understand this is freshmen week, so I wont get mean, but please... do not revive dead threads.