Hi,
as I just had a bad harddrive crash (one of those freak accidents where the backup on my external drive also proved to be corrupt :( ) I can really start from scratch. Always wanted to switch over - no better time than now.
What I want from an OS is it
a) to be lightweight. I do not want bloat. Even XP was too much in that direction and I usually stripped it down after installation.
b) looks elegant, but - similar to a) - doesn't throw effects at you. That is, pleasing to the eye, but a good OS is one where you don't notice you are "using" one.
c) Don't mind fiddling with commands and the like. But I am not enough of a geek to _have_ to compile _everything_ myself.
I like the look of Linux Mint. I am intriqued by Arch Linux, will probably pass Gentoo by for a start and have the feeling that Ubuntu might be a bit too much in the bloat category for me. Yes, I am aware of live CDs, but I'd prefer not to download loads as I am using someone else's internet connection (them OK with that) currently.
Thoughts?

My brother swears by Ubuntu, or at least, up until the last time I spoke to him!

OpenSUSE isn't a bad distro from what I've used, there's not as many bells & whistles and its more functional than pretty but the important word here is functional

Ubuntu is really easy to use, but as you noted, may be too bloated for your tastes. What comes to my mind is Damn Small Linux. Not sure if it will suit all your needs though, but it should be good as far as bloat goes. I suggest checking it out to see if it suits your criteria.

DSL should probably not be used as a "normal" distro...
Ubuntu is nice, but bloated. You could go with Debian.
If you want a bit of a challenge, try Arch. You need to set literally everything up yourself though.

isn't Linux Mint basically Ubuntu? Or did i mix it up?
If you don't have a really old PC you don't really need to worry about bloat, as they'll all run fine?

I'm a big fan of Linux Mint. Nice clean interface, good community, inbuilt codecs. What more could you want? :)

Xubuntu is a good imo. All the benefits of ubuntu with less bloat. Desktop effects don't come preinstalled but can be easily added in. I use Xubuntu on my main system, mostly because I prefer XFCE over Gnome. Gnome has few annoying limitations that really tick me off.

^^This. If Ubuntu is too bloated for you, but you still want its incredible ease of use, Xubuntu is the distro for you.

Arch Linux is really great if you're pretty comfortable with the command line. It's like Slackware, but with a package manager. Or Gentoo, but without the need to compile everything. You do need to set up *everything* by hand, although the documentation is excellent. The package manager is set up so that when you need to compile things you can feed it "recipes", and it will download, compile, and build a package for you to install normally.
If you want something related to Ubuntu but without the bloat, I'd recommend Crunchbang. http://crunchbanglinux.org/
It's still Ubuntu so you've got the great hardware compatibility and massive software repositories, but it's slimmed down and quite snappy. It will be a bit faster than Xubuntu and the default desktop will use fewer resources, though it's not quite as easy to use. It's not hard to use, but it may be a little different from what you are used to.
I don't know how powerful your computer is, but Crunchbang was extremely snappy and responsive on a 1 Ghz 512mb ram machine several months ago; booted in ~40 seconds. Since I tried it, Ubuntu has drastically increased their boot speed, and that's likely been included in Crunchbang also.
But getting out of the way and and letting you work? It's Openbox! The ultimate in getting out of the way. ;-)

Thanks for all the replies :)
I brought up Linux Mint as an example of something that looks nice, but yes it's Ubuntu+, Also, to explain the bloat thing ... sure, most of the stuff probably doesn't impact performance much, but it bugs me just if it is there. As I said I strip XP, usually, anything I don't absolutely need goes out.
Arch Linux still interests me, but I have the feeling I'd want a second Computer on hand while installing - just to read up on documents (I don't have a printer :/) ... so it's likely one for the future. I've stumbled over crunchbang earlier today ... and will take a closer look at xubuntu, too. \o/
1.86ghz core duo (with now 2GB memory) laptop ... still okayish speed wise, but don't really need more right now anyway.

With Ubuntu there are a surprising number of bundled applications that cannot be uninstalled by normal means (e.g. GIMP). I don't know whether that really fits your definition of "bloat" or not. I haven't used any Ubuntu derivatives so I don't know if this applies to them too.

Ye. Exactly that. For example the crunchbang "standard edition" comes with a load of stuff. Not what I want. The "light" version is more to my taste. But even with that one ... I'd replace firefox with opera (I am with them since ages and just like the browser) - which also means I do not really need a seperate irc, newsreader, bittorrent or e-mail client.
http://crunchbanglinux.org/wiki/applications
From my perspective the ideal Operating System should only really be an interface between software, hardware (that includes control over the system) and me as the user. It should not be anything more. I am able to pick and choose the software I want to run on it myself.
:)
Edit: That is ... I don't mind bundled software - as long as I get the choice whether I actually want it to be installed or not during setup.
/end mini-rant
-Mnemon

I'll also suggest Ubuntu, or Xubuntu if you want something less bloated and light. We use Xubuntu on restored PCs we would (at work) give away to families that could not afford anything. Once you get them past the 'it's not windows' complaints :\ they were quite happy with it.
Damn Small Linux is nice and small, but not really good for general use, it's more of a speciality distro.

you could try http://www.instalinux.com/
i think it allows you to (kind of) build custom versions of ubuntu, etc...
I haven't tried it.
Really lightweight - Puppy Linux. Plus there are loads of "puplets" which are custom builds by users.
I'm sure i've seen several other linux distributions that also supply custom builders or lightweight versions.
I like ubuntu, and didn't find it particularly bloated. I kinda wanted the KDE office suite and KDEnlive. But that is bloat again.