seeking opinion from experienced ones
 

ok, i've got mandrake 9.2, mandrake 10 beta (the rc one), suse 9 pro..

now i cannot decide which to use, for example, comparing mandrake 9.2 with mandrake 10 beta, which is better? 10 is in beta so there are obviously bugs, but i've used 9.2 and i've also experienced quite a few bugs... which one?

suse 9 pro is good as well, but i kinda like mandrake for some reason even though its way buggier than suse 9...

i guess the choice is between mandrake 9.2 or 10
also, how's redhat and fedora? i heard they WERE the most popular but now days their popularities are decreasing

the question is sort of like "which is better, levi's or wrangler?"

well,
they're both trousers, and as trousers they do the job that trousers do

the rest is down to personal taste

personally, I like mandrake a lot

i've tried suse 9.0 personal and various redhats and slackware

but mandrake is just excellent

9.2 is buggy but the patches on the update site take care of 99.9% of them

i have 10 beta1 but it doesn't work with the i810 chipset and I avent got round to getting rc2 yet
9.2 does everything I need (except make my tv card work)
and so i probabloy wont change till mandrake release a version that does

mandrake is home to me now

but others will disagree and say that other distros are their favourite

keep going till you find the one that fits

I'd say stick with Mdk 9.2 for now if your new to the whole linux thing. Like Salparadise said, once you add all your source mediums through urpmi and update your system then 99.9% of the problems with that release are solved.

Remember Mdk 10 is only at rc1 at the moment so the guys at Mdk are still receiving a lot of bug reports from the community. Best to wait until the final is released :P

Can't wait myself.

I installed Mandrake 10 Beta 2 on my computer on a spare drive, and kept Mandrake 9.2 Installed. I can boot up to either one, but I prefer Mandrake 10. I guess I like KDE 3.2. The new X-Windows is snappier. However, Mandrake will go back to the previous X-Windows version due to the XFree86's new license.

Mandrake is the perfect choice for newbie who is from windows platform. But if u want something more adventurer, u can try fedora/RH, slackware or even LFS! u know, there are people who dont like easy things but always find some adventures. heh

curious

i've also heard mandrake described as the bleeding edge distro

and suse seemed to me the perfect first step

well, a lot of the rpms of programs are for mandrake 9.2 and i've seen none thats for mandrake 10... so if i DO i get mandrake 10 will i be able to use those rpm of programs for 9.2?

i've used 9.0 and 9.1 rpms on 9.2 with no apparent problems

but

i'm no expert

The important thing here is which distro works best for *you*. Just because I might think "A" is the best, that doesn't mean that you should use "A" just because I say so. Maybe "B" would better fit your needs, preferences, etc. Give each candidate an honest tryout, then go with the one that you think is best. -- J.W.

I personally think Mandrake would be perfect for someone who is pretty new with Linux coming from a Windows environment. I started out with RedHat 8 and 9, then tried a few different distros over the last few months. It seems pretty natural to try out different options after getting your feet wet in with linux. I used RedHat and Fedora for about 6 or 7 months, then tried out Mandrake at work. I found that it was a little too buggy for my taste so I switched to Slackware at home and work. The setup is a little tough at first coming from a "hold your hand" distro. In Fedora and Mandrake, a lot is done for you through GUI tools. Moving to Slackware has tought me a lot more about Linux itself and made me much more comfortable. After the initial setup I have not had to modify a single thing, it is speedy and simple. I reccomend that you start with a distro like Mandrake until you feel like you need more of a challenge and then maybe take a look at something else like Gentoo, Slackware, or LFS. That is just my humble 2 cents worth :)