Alright heres the question, for my desktop computer (which I plan on using Cedega/Wine for some games), but basically I am just someone who enjoys programming. Most people have told me it is preference, but I am sure there are some advantages of Mandrake over Fedora and visa-versa. I use Fedora for my server and have been using it since Fedora Core 1's initial release.

What is the better choice for my desktop? I would love to hear your recommendations and as to why you would pick one over the other.

Thanks, everyone!

I'd say the only difference in the end between two RPM based distro's is the initial installer used and then their own fancy GUI configuration tools.. everything else is pretty much the same when you break it down so it is a preference thing or what your going to get is personal opinions in such matters.

Like myself, I'd tell you to go with Slackware with a 100 or more reasons possibly.. cause well, I prefer Slackware over both of these you're trying to compare. what your asking is Which one is better.. Green Pears or Asian Pears.. might look a little different on the outside but pretty much the same thing when you take a bite, maybe a little bit difference in taste but not much..

few things, the best distros for cedega according to transgaming site are as follows:

http://transgaming.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1997

abotu 3rd post down:

i personally can not stand MDK due to the way they do their updates. the 1 and only time i had MDK 10.0 on any of my systems it took roughly 9 days to connect to their update server, and once it did after it installed everything it crashed my system to the point i had to format reinstall the system.

so i would sujest either SuSe or Debian. i personally use Debian-sarge. few side notes about debian:

1. sarge is not supported by transgaming and has several KNOWN issues, but sid and woody both are supported and are said to work extreemly well with Cedega and Point2Play.

2. debian with the 2.6.x kernel has timming issues that can reduce the performance of your hardware when playing some games. note that is can and some, not will and not all.

with that being said i run cedega on a 2.4.x kernel and point2play on a 2.6 kernel. i was able to get cedega working, but took a lot of efforts to get it working. it is extreemly stable and the performance is roughly 30% better then in Windows XP Pro when playing World of Warcraft.

on the 2.6 kernel my overall performance is about the same, but not near as stable with FPS as under windows. i get higher and LOWER FPS in some parts of the game in linux then windows. so in some parts of the game my performance is roughly 10% better, but in other places it is roughly 50% worse. i have not played with putting a 2nd kernel on my game box to see if it really is a kernel issue, but after plenty of research that seems to be the major problem with my performance.

hope that helps.

I say debian or slackware, get away from these two bloated distros, okay you may not want to do that. you still should.

out of the two..
mandrake is simply better suited to it.

they both suck, I know it's rude to say, but given my own horrible experiences with these distros and their respective companies, it was going to be said no matter how much I offend anyone.

In my opinion Mandriva seems to be better than Fedora out of the box. You have mp3 support built into the distro and there are a lot more packages available in the Mandrake rpm repositories compared to Fedora. They are not so different, but to me Mandriva is a lot more polished.

I agree, Mandriva seems a little more refined... I also think that the .mp3 issue is hurting Fedura, SUSE and who ever else is involved in this non-.mp3-support issue. I think it will cost them more in lost revenue from people using the OS then it would to fight the court battles.

I use Slackware as well and it is also a great OS. I started with RedHat 6 so I am kinda stuck to the .rpm distros only because I'ts easier for me...

KC

I love these "my distro rules" comments.

I can actually say that I have both

Mandrake 10.1 and Fedora Core 3

I downloaded both, and I am basically just an ex-windows typical user, I know absolutely nothing under the hood of either of these systems

Even though FC2 was driving me bonkers in the beginning, I got a Mandrake 10.1, installed it, liked it, but when I went to update it, I saw I had to pay for updates

End of story

I then got an FC3 and never looked back

if you consider my distro everything that isn't redhat based. I never said "my distro rules" I said which one I used and which ones I hated.

You don't have to pay for Mandrake upgrades. The updates are provided totally free of charge, but there are extra services that Mandrake provides that can be paid for or subscribed to.

hi

is there anyone who does CGI PROGRAMMING thro' perl.
i am quite a newbie and i need a little help.
can anyone send me tutorials on networking thro' perl.

i feel Mandrake is better than Fedora. i think there is more control on anything that happens.

can anybody tell me where i can download the 4th cd of the Mandrake 10.1.

thats all

bharath

If you are not a club member you can't get it. Its okay to install without it, you can always add more urpmi sources to you system and you will get more or less the same packages that are on the fourth CD.

Recommended for newbies (to be able to understand Linux): Slackware, Gentoo, Debian and so on.
Not recommende for newbies (you get nothing but problems, and don't get knowledge): All Red Hat like distros.

OTOH, kornerr, telling newbies to use Slackware, Gentoo, et.al., is "immersion training". I.e., you throw them into the deep end of the pool, and tell them to swim to the other side. They will either learn, and survive, or be overwhelmed, and give up.

My first *nix Administrator job was back in 1987. I was "immersed". Fortunately, I *wanted* to learn, and I quickly became the "guru". But I have seen a lot of people give up and "drown". People learn in different ways, and at different speeds. For many, Mandrake/mandriva is an excellent choice. Everybody's experience is different, but it is usually easy to install, easy to configure and run, and causes very few problems. It provides ease-of-use, with nice, gui-fied apps to manage most things, so newbies aren't forced into the "deep end" right away, yet the CLI tools are all there, for those of us who want to use them. I still recommend Mandriva to anyone who wants to start using Linux.

(And yes, I remember your early problems, and agree that, for you, Slackware was the best way to get to where you wanted to be. )

I Think everyone should try a lot of distros before they say that 'SuSE' is best, or 'Mandrake' is best. Understanding how everything works is most important, because weather you use Gentoo, which is now the only thing I use, or some all graphical GUI like SuSE, deep down everything is about the same when it is up and going. The famous 'its not the computer's fault, its the users..' applys in Linux. If you end up installing Gentoo and don't have a clue, then you will think it is the worst distro, because things wont work, such as your network card..etc. To match your experience, you choice to install Mandrake linux or SuSE linux and if it works for you, great, maybe its not the best distro in the world but it fits what the user needs. I think exploring is the best option in choosing a distro for you. When I may say that Gentoo is better, it may be for my experience, and there are hundreds more that can fit yours. What is better? You decide.