I have used Mandrake 9.2 and 10, Fedora core 1 (could never get 2 to install), SuSE 9.1, Debian, and Mepis. IMO Mepis is the best. I would recommend it to any newbie or experienced user. But, it's the personal opinion of the individual user that really counts.

so what is it that you like about mepis rather than the others?

It's Debian with all the user friendly goodies one could want without disempowering the user. I would have to say it's more finished than any of the other distros I've used. Check it out, it's a live cd and if you like you can install it to your hard drive by following a link on the desktop. Very slick.

i will look into this... sounds like a pretty nice build... how is it with updates and packages>? YaST isn't that gr8 for me.. and i hear with gentoo it is mostly compile it ur self... so how is the package management there?

well my fav is mepis, but suse is a close second

It installs via apt. Just think of it as gentoo, only the packages are precompiled.

It's Debian based so you use apt for software installation from the Debian and Mepis repositories. It works very well.

precompiled is good. i will eventually move into the compile it yourself era... but as of now i will tak things a step at a time and just have at it this way. i appreciate the input.

No prob... they just posted the new version of Mepis: SimplyMepis 2004.02 at http://www.mepis.org/book/view/1462

Just voted to see if slack was winning

it's good to see the polls are still goin eh? and thanks for the link... will check it out after i get out of work.

suse with kde reminds me of windows...............its a good distro, one of the oldest

mandrake tries hard with kde and gnome..............but if fails and strikes out, unstable

debian---------->no updates------------>iso download not the best.


fedora ------>better installer------------>gui (forgetaboutit) --------------->stability (with the kernel update, problems, but never takes the other one out)--------------->price: FREE


against Slackware--------->(dont know, never tried it) --------------->seems popular----------->most moderators and members use it----------------->but
----------------->last book they wrote about it was 10 years ago---------------->
slack fans migh say "by the time of updates, book is outdated"

Fedora has updates too--------->and its on paper everyday.

wonder why that is--------->red hat name ????

I use Debian as my main distro

Considering you are a newbie asking, I've voted mandrake. It's the one with the smallest risk of discouraging you.

My choice is Libranet, which is a very reliable debian derivative with useful additional features.

Mandrake like in terms of features but working better.

yea i have tried mandrake and it just doesn't seem to be a distro that is interesting or even remotely exciting to me. i have also looked into slackware since this post, as well as cAos, and debian 10. i didn't install them yet. as i have a nother computer which is dying for linux to be thrown on...