one other thing redhat 7.0 installation is really nice and smooth its almost all gui and detected my hardware correctly first time (anaconda).
Great stuff

This seemed to have sparked a good discussion, so I guess I will join in.

I have personally tried Red hat 7, Mandrake 7.1 and 7.2, and SuSE. Out of these, in my opinion Mandrake wins. easy install, lots of apps, and easy to configure.

Red Hat 7 did not come with as many apps, and it is possible due to the fact that they are focusing more on the server / enterprise market.

As for SuSE, I never could get it to work right on my box. I am not sure why, but I then got Mandrake and it worked flawlessly.

Plus, Mandrake has 8.0 out for download as a beta. i installed it the other day on my spare drive, and I am impressed. They seem to want to home / small business market, and I feel they are doing a bang up job.

We all have to agree.

Red Hat (6.1/6.2/7.0+pachtes) is nice for home users.

Nice to start your Linux Experience with.

But the people who are a bit more known with Linux may already have found out that there are more Distro's.

Some distro's are real good, like Debian and Slackware.

Debian because of the apt-get system. (do not use dpkg!!!)
And it's a basic good setup. X works fine etc.

Slackware because it's nice and clean. (good to run a server on...http/ftp) (and if you want to build everything from source: this is your dist)

RedHat is nice if you want a lot of programz with it, and and you are a fan (buuh) of rpm's (i found out that the debian .deb packages work a lot beter.)

Just try a dist.

download one (iso) from http://www.tucows.com and burn it on CD.

But remember: For the last year and a half i went to http://www.debian.org and downloaded the 5 boot & 3.25" install disks from there ftp and started downloading the latest packages directly from FTP or HTTP.

Also nice to now is that Debian has an apt-get update >package name< option. So if you installed everything for ftp you only have to run the update. hehe :P i laugh at all you people still using RPM's.

Downloading and updating directly from ftp or http with apt-get under Debian rulez.

But idd. If you have no internet conn or just a 56k line.

Get a cd.

Greetingz to all,

dAyWAlKEr


[Edited by daywalker on 06-04-2001 at 09:28 AM]

I would say that packaged distros (some better than others) are suited for newbies and for home use. But when you get beyond that.. you can make any distro look and act like any other distro for the most part.

If you are running Linux in the workplace, you will mostly likely not be running it as it comes out of the box. You can make it as clean or as dirty as you want. You can build Redhat just as easily from source as you can Slackware, and if you want to pay for it, the Redhat Network does everything the "apt-get" util does for Debian. For my money, the power of RPM outweighs the beneifits of Apt-Get. Particularly in a production environment.

Granted.. things like 'apt-get' are nice... but you just don't "willy-nilly" upgrade production servers that are working. Its not a bright idea.

So lets keep things clear... Linux is Linux. You have the source code and the means to customize any one distro to look and act like any other. The ONLY difference between the distros is included tools, install routine, and support. If you become an advanced user, you will learn quickly that most of that stuff doesn't count for a whole lot after you have the systems up and running, and you can add or subtract most of the tools you like from/to any distro.

apt-get does not exactly the same as an rpm.

And idd.

Source rulez.You can build, prefix where and what you want,

edit some makefiles if you want things diffrent.

etc.

Let's agree that redhat is nice to start with.

but there's much much more under the sun.

and updating from ftp (latest releases) is a nice thing.

(not the best, think of the bugs in new releases :P)

but i had it with redhat, all the bugs they have in there brand new release, i had to download a lot of updates,

with debian - nuuu, update does the trick.



for all you people out there:


Try one, does it fit, hold on to it, learn it, change things, mess things up and begin again.


That's how you learn.


Afther a year or something, try another. (and another, etc..)

Untill you are satisfied with the distro you run.

Didn't want to make people angry.

so: Geetingz to all...


dAyWAlKEr


(been using linux for over 3 years, and i started with RH 6.0 hedwig, but debian and slack still rule)

I started with Debian, not the most recent release but not really old, and it came with an O'Reilly book - Getting started with Gnu Debian Linux. I could not figure out how to install a printer. The book did not cover basics such as printers, sound cards, and installing software (wanted Star Office). I could not get Gnome to install properly - system would crash whenever I made the change to enlightenment in the X configuration.
It did come with some nice things - I really liked the appearance of the various desktops (other than Gnome).
I then picked up Redhat - not the most recent, again, I think 6.1. Installed without a hitch, though it did blow out the boot so that I can't boot to Win95 which was on the same machine, but no matter as this was a spare machine. Came with Teach Yourself Linux. Gnome works. Sound, printer, internet, installing Star Office, all ok.
Before installing Redhat, I tried techniques that were in the redhat book for configuring my missing pieces (testing the idea that Linux dists were more or less the same once installed). Still could not configure printer or sound card.

I can deal with a quiet computer, but not one that can't print. I also had problems getting Debian to remember my ethernet card from boot to boot - a pain to have to go through configuring it each time. I know there are ways, but for a first timer, the version of Debian I had was simply inappropriate.

All that said, I'm thinking about trying Debian again. Maybe I've learned enough, and I'd like to use an X desktop without Gnome - this machine is an ancient P60 with 48 meg ram, so Gnome is a bit slow, and I remember X under Debian as pretty quick, all things considered.
/js

Lets not confuse hobby use with what you might want to put in a production environment.

I started with Slackware 3.2 and used it for years. I had also tried Redhat 5.x off and on. Slackware was very nice, but also very different from every other Linux. I use Redhat at work and its what I support commercially.

I never said that 'rpm' did what 'apt-get' can do. What I said was that I would rather have the unique feature of Redhat, i.e. RPM, rather than the unique feature of Debian, i.e. Apt-Get.

Linux is Linux. To deny that is ridiculous. Other than the package management system, there is nothing I can't strip readily from one distro and incorporate into another.

As far as 'apt-get' and 'update' goes, like I said, the same capabilities are available from the Redhat Network. However, on a system that is critical to my company, I don't want to just type one command and have it change anything. I go over each and every update, and perform each one individually in a test environment first.

Actually, I run a Linux From Scratch setup at home. I built it using Redhat. Source code does rule, but building your own RPMs from source code works even better.

I agree - let's not confuse production environments with home/hobby/small time use. Look at the original post. The question raised was one of someone eager to learn Linux with a basic machine, not someone looking to run ebay.

Hi, i am quite new to the linux world, it's been only one week... Before Linux I was a complete windows kid, but Linux is great!!! Currently I am using mandrake 8.0 and I think it is quite nice for beginners because the installation is really easy, adding programs couldn't have been easier with the software manager. I don't know anything about other distributions but most of the people say that Red Hat is really good. But honestly Suse is really attractive with 7 cdroms and a dvd... For beginners I personally recommend Mandrake 8.0...

I dont know if this will help, but Mandrake is by far the best distro for the beginner, but after about 6 months or so, you will hunger for a challenge ala Debian or something along those lines.

Currently Im using SuSe 7.1. Since Ive installed it, I formatted my Windows98 hard drive and became a Linux user 100%.

Right now Im building a new server with Windows2000 as the OS. Its going to be used for something not even Windows2000 can screw up........

A file server.

I have tried everything. I always go back to slackware. I think it is the easiest less problems with dependancies when you install programs and very straightforward. I found the others to easy to break. I did more reinstalling with mandrake and redhat than anything else. slackware 8.0 just came out and I went to store.slackware.com and bought it right away. not that i needed it but because I wanted to help support the best distro out there

mAineAc

Opaque, I got started down the same road as you about 9 months ago, then I discovered SuSE and am still using it and am considering delelting win95 from my box but... I still have games like strat o matic that i MUST play from time to time... At any rate when you get ready down the road I urge you to check out suse --7.2(?) and give it a whirl...by cracky i think youll find it to be the best...

in my opinion there is nothing better than slackware, it is all I use now. If you just want something easy to setup and don't care about reinstalling it all the time mandrake or redhat is pretty good.

mAineAc

Heres my question to decide which Disto is best. Which company provides the most up to date information and updates? I did pick Red Hat at first, because i percieved them to be the most widly used, ergo, most suported. Well, i wish they would have a SoHo division (Small office/ Home office) Their site is hard to navagate. I went with Mandrake because it looked more desktop friendly, but because it was easier to start, didnt make it easy to install and make chages, ect. Next i will try out freeBSD or openBSD, but the users are a bit "clickish." So back to Red Hat I go, maby.
I am faced with the daunting task of trying to get a usb adsl ppoa modem to work under ANY distro, however, its true, once you get past the install, their all the same, sort of. I think Red Hat should come out with Red Cap, for the SoHo people, what do you think?

In a time when you see things like Slackware being orphaned by its parent company and VA Linux getting out of the hardware business.. I will never say never. But I think the natural order of things is for a few distro's to survive in the long term.

Redhat and Debian will definitely be two of those.