I've only been a linux bod for about six months and I use FC3. I'd heard that it wasn't very good for beginners but I am a bit stubborn had made my mind up and like a challenge. To be honest the learning curve has been quite steep but I reckon I have learned a lot more about linux because I had lots of problems. I haven't tried any other distros because I am lazy, can't be bothered with chunky dl's when I have something that works.

Final verdict?
FC3 is a bastard to get to grips with but I don't know what others would have been like, FC3_64 is a bastard which I gave up on.
I am coping but I may be gifted
This forum is my bible, I wouldn't still be using linux without it.

Fedora has alwasy been good to me for programming and playing games, though I don't really like yum or up2date. And you dont have to join a cult to get in.

Red Hat like distros doesn't catch your attention (at least mine): they're already configured and, certanly, this way you won't need to learn. That's why I don't like these distros.

as far as all of the command line tools being there.. don't remember who said it and don't want to check.

...anyway.. I've found that when there are higher level, easier to use command line progs available rpm style distros have only the low-level versions..

I'm sorry, I can't be specific.. I'd try to replicate such things but I don't even have access to a rpm box anymore, all of my friends switched to something else.

this is just my impression and very well may not apply.

hey where is the 'neither both are garbage' option :P nah jk i respect both projects id vote fedora

But you must recognise that Debian would be much harder to learn for a than Mandrake will ever be.

(Russians, give us the Prednistrovye back!!)

Mandrake, this is the only distro I found that everything is in the right place.

Mandrake works for me, I've tried fedora but dont like the setup. I found Suse support for packages i needed was lagging abit. Thanks to exams I cant really afford the time at the moment to resolve issues that happen with other distros

I added the "I don't like neither" option to the poll.. and I'm also moving this to the Distributions forum.. where its more suitable.

Well, I didn't try Debian, but've heard many good words about it.
One day I'll try it (and Gentoo too).

When I was a newbie (a complete one, now I'm an experienced newbie) which was using Mdk9.2 I didn't like Linux. I was disappointed that I've heard smth like "If you configure it, you can do whatever you want", and I couldn't notice it.
And what do I see in Mdk? A bad OS which tries to be Windows. And doesn't succeed.
I could play games under Windows - under Mdk I couldn't.
I could listen simultaneously to many music files - under Mdk I couldn't.
I could use my Conexant modem under Windows - under Mdk I couldn't.
Then I try to install some program. Reboot.
And what do I see??? My main menu has spoild and I don't know why. I could do nothing without it! Even run some logical games, control center. Ahhhh!
How can I get all things back? I reinstall it. I thought it's my mistake.
I install another app. Reboot. Again the same happens!
I call my elder brother and ask him "What's going on?".

I've heard that he was using Linux, but've never heard which one... and actually I didn't
know that there can be any difference between distros (moreover, I didn't know such word - "distribution")

He said that I'd better use some good distro instead of such s**t.
I just delete Mdk and go back to Windows.
Half a year passed.
I go to my brother to get Slackware10.0 at the very end of 2004.
I come home about 21:00.
After two hours I've seen a shell. Not from GUI, but a "real" shell.
After two hours I've succeeded in running X!!! It was only 50Hz, but I was happy.
After 30 minutes while running "xorgconfig" several times to understand WHAT IT IS,
I've got my GUI at 85Hz.
While these four hours I've known that there exist mc! Mdk9.2 didn't install it by default.
Mdk9.2 didn't even have kernel sources! Being a complete newbie I couldn't find them on
CDs. But I wanted to know what it is to compile a kernel.
You see? I could do NOTHING with Mdk.
And you see that I've got the basic knowledge about installation and X Window in 4 hours!!!
I had Mdk9.2 for about a year on my hands, and didn't succeed in doing anything with it.
And in the first day I know SO many things about Linux.
"Jesus! It's the best thing I've ever done with a PC!", I thought.
I've never seen real Linux before, and here I see how its powerful! I see that Windows sucks.
Hadn't I got Slackware that time, I would never be here.
If you don't believe me, go to Slackware, Gentoo, Debian threads and see other
people which got out of Mdk, SuSE, FC, etc. and how they're happy now.
It has changed my point of view on the world.

I know MANY people who start with "L'user friendly" and never come back to Linux.
They think they've seen Linux and've known now what it is
(see what I could do under Windows, and what I couldn't do with Mdk)
Would they know, how wrong they are.
RH-like distros blow people out of Linux.
That's my opinion... and my experience.

[that was a useful off-top]

try Yumex you'll love it (generally speaking)

Fedora Rulz I'm using since RedHat 5 by now FC4-rawhide and the guy that said no knowledge in using RedHat-based distors is plain not well informed rpms is just an easier way to handle packages but of course if you like details you can always explore the rpm before authomatically updating/installing or using source packages ) and for those who so much like Slackware for the "manual" processing for example well you can try the -no-dependencies option which is highly not recommended, about Mandviva mandbake I really hate it it's totally useless for me I don't have time to mention more details for Mandviva for a comrehensive post about it check later

Hi,

I started using Linux with FC3, and as a noob I really loved it. But as I got a bit more skilled I got fed up with the RPM issues (even with APT and Synaptic) and also with the lack of raw power it provides.

I now use Mandriva on my work laptop and Gentoo on my home desktop. Mandriva is great because it just works, but you can also get under the hood when you want to. Make sure you do install the kernel sources though, so you can compile software. The package management is better than Fedora (which isn't saying much), and it provides lots of GUI based configuration options when you need to change something quickly. That makes it a good work laptop - when at work I can't spend time fiddling with stuff, which I would have to as a noob if I used the command line.

But overall Gentoo is my favourite. Super package management, great performance and real reliably. You do have to spend ages messing around to get stuff to work sometimes, but you learn loads in the process, and I feel much more confident with Linux since installing it.

Anyway, that's my two-penneth! :-D

Jamie.

Fedora Core 4 (first distro with gcc4 - faster performance generally speaking) what's so great about Gentoo and Mandriva pkg systems? and Jamis apt/synaptic is debian stuff it can work with RedHat but what you need and is pre-included is yum with yumex GUI as an optional upgrade

If you missed the command line, you'll like Debian A LOT!

And that is all about luck. E.g., I've tried fr 2 weeks to install ALSA in Debian. Then I installed Mandrake (LE2005 aka 10.2) and it installed ALSA autotomatically (I know, it's a kernel issue). Of course, Mandriva screwed up my MBR, but with the experience I got from Debian I made it back in a few hours .

Mandrake babies you just enough to dump a box of monkey wrenches in the work, and Fedora is a giant, bloated, unstable chunk of RedHat. I can't stand either.

Slackware and Debian is where it's at.