Just purchased very inexpensive suse 10.1 and wanted to know why I may or may not need fedora 5 or mandriva ? What do these 2 programs actually do that suse 10.1 does not or indeed if it does something better-what? The advertising for suse says this is the complete package for open source although I realise very hard working people are working on it all of the time!

please use useful titles and post in suitable forums. moved to Linux - Newbie.

Well fedora and mandriva are other linux distributions, not simple "programs". There are hundreds (err thousands) of linux distributions available. SuSE, Fedora, and Mandriva are 3 popular ones, and all three are usually pretty easy for linux newcomers to get used to. When I first started using linux I really liked the YaST control panel that suse provides. Which you use, and which you like most is really just a matter of personal preference.

Suse, Fedora and Mandriva are all distrobutions of linux. Each has the same ( more or less ) operating system. Kernal versions vary for each.

What is different are the tools for each. That includes things like a package manager for installing software, tools for configuration etc.

Each distributes various versions of common software. Each has its own philosophy on when to put in a newer release, and how to test each.

As a user this gives you lots of choice. Try one, if you don't like it, try another. This is different than windbloze, you get one system, like it or lump it. You get to pay for all your software, of course you don't illegally copy it, do you.

Is one better than the other? That is up to you. I have tried several, and I settled on Mandriva. I also like Ubuntu. I lke the choice. The more I learn, the more likley I'll move to Slackware some day soon. My