Morning ladies and gentlemen, I'm planning to make a move into the linux world but can't decide which way to go RedHat Fedora or Novell Suse. Please I need as many opinions as you can provide on the pros and cons of each O/S, and any longterm issues that I may have to consider.

thanx

SusE 9.1

Rock stable
Very easy graphic interface.
I'd say 2nd largest community support

SusE 9.2
Some reported stability issuse (my laptop crashed once)
Very easy graphic interface.
I'd say 2nd largest community support

Redhat/Fedora
FC3 supposeldy had stabilty issues
FC2 was stable
Redhat/Fedora has the largest community support


-- Both have --
A "auto-update" program to keep you computer up to date.
Can use the same programs, window managers, scripts, etc...

The only reason I chose SusE over redhat/fedora is that I don't like the idea of using someones "test" platform as my main OS. That said, there are so many people who do use it that bugs are reported so fast that things get fixed immediately. If redhat would have stayed redhat(not fedora) and not charged the update subscription, I'd still be using it today. Now, SusE 9.2 being taken over by Novell has me concerned to the point that I am looking into other distros. I will not use fedora, so if Novell doesn't get their act together, I'm not going to be promoting them anyone.


I hope that helps a little, but it probably doens't

SLACKWARE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Everything and more

thanks for the advice, I take it that most linux enthusiast, especially the pros, prefer Slackware due to its simplicity, stability and a larger user community that can provide support whenever needed and costs less. I was looking into purchasing SuSE 9.2 Professional, just for its looks because I don't much other than that however, if I'm correct SuSE 9.2 Pro is just a workstation. No server applications such as web, ftp, database, e-mail etc..etc. But with Slackware I can configure it into a server or workstation? How about applications? Does Slackware community develop apps such Office productivity tools, multimedia and internet etc or do they depend on SuSE or RedHat for such tools. Basically I feel that going for Slackware maybe the right think to do but would like to know what I may be missing. Does Slackware come with the following applications or can I add them if I choose to? And how about YaSt, would it work on Slackware or does it have its own setup tool program.
Once again thanks in advance.

Mobility:
Improved WLAN support and configuration with YaST (including Centrino)
New YaST configuration modules for IrDA and Bluetooth
Bluetooth support with autodetection for synchronization with Bluetooth cell phones and handhelds
Improved power management Suspend-to-disk functionality
Enhanced data synchronization with the new KitchenSync and Kpilot

Graphical Desktop Environments:
KDE 3.3
GNOME 2.6

Multimedia:
RealPlayer
Versatile players amaroK and XMMS
Music manager JuK for large song collections
Movie players Kaffeine, Xine and Totem
Various synthesizers and drum computers
Ripping and recording tools CD- and DVD-burning utility K3b burns data, music, and movies on CD, DVD and VCD
Video-editing software MainActor 5 (demo version)
Digital video recorder vdr, technology of tomorrow for the upcoming digital TV

Office Software:
OpenOffice.org 1.1.3
Ability to read and write .doc, .xls and .ppt
PDF file creation with a mouse click
Integrated HTML editor and drawing application
Adobe Reader
TextMaker and PlanMaker
Quanta and Nvu Web-page development (HTML + wysiwyg)
Rekall—free graphical database application
Kontact and Novell Evolution—personal information managers
SEP Sesam backup software
Spell-checking

Graphics:
Inkscape, the new vector drawing program
Photoshop alternative GIMP 2 Tux Paint (drawing application for kids and newcomers)
Scribus desktop publishing with a wide range of features
Development:
KDevelop
Eclipse
Mono

Internet Networking:

Browsers:
Konqueror, Epiphany, Mozilla, Firefox, Opera and more
Automatic firewall activation Kinternet to toggle network connections with a mouse click
Mail/Personal Information management: Novell Evolution, Kontact
Additional e-mail managers: KMail, Pine, Mutt, Thunderbird and more
E-mail importing from Outlook Express
Microsoft Exchange Integration
Configurable spam wizard Instant messengers: Kopete and Gaim: provide support for a variety of chat standards including those of AOL, MSN, Yahoo!, ICQ and IRC VNC
Atomic clock time on your computer through preconfigured time servers
Apache, the world's most popular Web server
FTP, DNS, DHCP, Samba, NFS, SLP and NIS servers

Core Components:
Kernel 2.6.8
GCC 3.3.4
glibc 2.3.3
X.Org 6.8.1

I tend to go with Fedora over Suse for the fact of the large community behind it. Also Fedora has always required less tweaking afterwards to get my hardware working properly.

I will say however that nothing comes close to slackware for speed and performance.

This is probably not much help but it's my two cents.

SusE 9.2 pro has all the server apps included.
Slackware doens't have dependancy checks, so you have to do research if you want to install a program to find out what that program depends on. Swaret (a slack package tool) does some dependancy checks. Slack has a package management system that uses .tgz extension. I believe their software repository is www.usrlocal.com

If you can find the source code for Yast and its dependancies it would work. I highly doubt your find all that.

Slackware generally stays just behind the technology thats out there in order to be completely stable. KDE and Gnome versions will be at least 1 step behind the newest release.


I'm not exactly sure what that list is for. Are you asking if that stuff works on Slack?

I'm currently using both on two different machines and each have their advantages. I have Suse 9.2 on a laptop, which has been running rock-solid, and Fedora Core 3 on a box, which has also been running fine.

What hardware setup will you have?

Another Vote for FC3!!! ran it until I found Mepis, like said in previous posts it has a huge user base and support, I never had 1 problem with it, I can't say the same for SuSE. Maybee Suse just didn't like my machine but it ran slow as $hit, wouldn't detect my printer, and any software I didn't install from yast didn't work right, Including gtk-gnutella, firefox, thunderbird. (my top 3).

I'm currently running SuSE 9.0 Personal Ed. 2.4 kernel but it does not support my modem. It dials out and tries to estabish a hand-shake and abrutly disconnects only to redial on and on and on. Can I download 2.6 kernel and upgrade SuSE 9.0 And please point me to a site where to get detailed info on how to upgrade the kernel. Though I'm a new user, I'm good with DOS and Linux commands won't be a problem.

LQ HAS EXCELLENT KERNEL INSTALLATION (shilo's) GUIDE HERE: http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...5&pagenumber=1 Actually that thread is about Slackware, but I don't think kernel recompiling differs much among distros (if it differs).

why don't you try to get hold of a suse 10?? the thing about linux is that you can buy a original copy which comes with a lot of extra stuff. but you can also get a free edition from file sharing places as well but that copy won't have lisenced softwares with it.

it is available free for download and includes almost 10 GBs of software if you do a full install .
it also includes many games.

Has excellent Hardware driver support .

Easy to use and has own control panel (YasT) like windows

Please try and refrain from using this phrase when talking about Linux.

Although Fedora Core is a testbase for RedHat that doesn't mean FC isn't rock-steady. I don't want this to sound like a windows coparative, but compared to my windows experience (about 10 years of use) FC is twice as stable! But as with anything (even slack ) if you really want to it isn't too hard to break it. As long as you install only stable rpms from the official distro and maybe use 1 set of additional repos (i.e. not install anything you get your hands on) it's as safe as a house.

it is harder to break windows but the chances of viruses and hack is extremely high it can happen by visiting a website. but in linux it is much more complicated as the bugs are fixed asap and everybody's suggestions get in.

back to main topic:
me as a beginner like suse only because the yast was very easy to understand and work with. at first i hated to read ten pages to fix a small configuration bug which needed only one line (i am not like that anymore). but yast is really fast to start with linux. although there are things that it can't do (in my case ati + vnc).
i heard a lot of good things about FC but i was lost when i installed it. probebly yast was too addictive