My experiance is that there are two areas that different distributions vary aside from the install tool. The major one is in the init scripting. RedHat uses SystemV init scripts while Slackware uses BSD style scripts. The SystemV scripts are harder to modify directly, but easier to use to start and stop services. The other area of difference is in tools available to configure your system. RedHat comes with a few tools that make up a comphrehensive system for maintaining and configuring your system. The big one is Linuxconf that allows you to configure most things on your system. But if you wish to learn the more direct approach involving editing of the files responsible, Slackware or Debian are better choices. But the redhat tools work inside and outside X quite well. -- Kirk Wood Cpt.Kirk at 1tree.net ------------------ Seek simplicity -- and distrust it. Alfred North Whitehead