Let me explain. I have been using Linux for years. I have at least four machines here now that run Linux, and accounts on another half-dozen or so around the internet.

But I have simply never seen the attraction of Linux "desktop" or "GUI" software. I access all these machines using things like telnet, ssh, FTP, HTTP, or SAMBA. On the odd occasion that I have used one of the X GUI frontends on someone else's machine it's felt like someone has superglued all my fingers together and dipped them in treacle. It's not that I disklike GUI software completely - I use other systems that way, but it just seems so pointless with Linux.

Getting to the meat of my rant, I'm finding that there seems to be so much emphasis put on X interfaces, fancy GUI features and Window-manager wars that the core benefits of the system are in real danger of being lost. The last time I looked at a commercial Linux distro I was appalled that so much of the setup and confuguration assumed the use of X. Even the "server" installs seem to fill the disk with GUI fluff, unable to imagine that I don't want it.

I'm likely to be configuring and installing a new general purpose, non-GUI Linux box soon, and I'm interested in any hints and recommendations for distributions that offer up-to-date kernels and stuff, don't force me to install or unpick all those media players and screen clocks, and (most of all) don't need a GUI to configure hardware and low-level config support.

Can anyone help?