Mandrake vs. RedHat

Here is my 2 cents in this discussion.
I am newbie in both Linux and networking. I built a PC from parts with sole purpose for it to be a server on my LAN at home ( I have 3 PCs and iMac). I didn't know anything about Linux (except the name itself), I chose it because it was cheap. So, I bought RedHat 6.2 packaged with Domino and DB2.
I am not going to describe all the strugling I went thru, it was pretty bad.
So, about 3 days ago I bought Mandrake PowerPack 8.0.
In a couple of hours I got it installed, LAN up and running, Apache, FTP services, today after I get home I will bring up Samba. It is the best distro for beginners like me. I spent like a week in RH (I got 7.1 at the end) to figure how to set up Masquearading, never got it to work. Mandrake just asked me if I would like to share my Internet Connection with PCs on my LAN, I clicked "YES" and that was it. WOW!
Even my Hauppage TV Card works (I don't get sound at this point), Java JRE comes loaded by default ( I could never get it to work in RH) and so on.
Mandrake rulez (at least for me!)

Ainars

Yeah Mandrake is based off of Redhat but they seem to know how to make it more user friendly especially with people first transistioning to Linux. For new people, Mandrake is the way to go.

...course, how many threads are there out there that say something like "i put the mandrake cd in my computer and now nothing works..."

the more user-friendly something is, the harder it is to fix when it does break.

Originally posted by isajera ...course, how many threads are there out there that say something like "i put the mandrake cd in my computer and now nothing works..." the more user-friendly something is, the harder it is to fix when it does break.

Hey, that sounds like Microsoft with its line of OS's...

I started with Redhat 5.2, then I got into Mandrake 6.0 etc... back then Mandrake and Redhat were so much a like. I always like Mandrake releases because they came really well setup with KDE and Redhat was more around Gnome. I use Redhat at school and I still prefer Mandrake. I have continued to use Mandrake just because I enjoy the package they put together with development tools and lastest KDE releases they include. Mandrake Frequency realeases have a lot of the lastest things just out for KDE 2.2 for example. I rarely use all the little easy to config features with Mandrake cause I find most of them just make life more difficult, editing scripts is better for me. Althought I can see how these tools make life easy for a newbie to Linux. I think my next distro will be Slackware for all my boxes, but right now I'm love Mandrake for development.

I'm down with the Mandrake....been using it ever since I turned to Linux...Once I get proficient with Linux then I will probably switch over to Slackware or Redhat; but for right now Mandrake is the one and only.

Not wanting to put anyone down or anything but a small piece of advice for you 'newbies' thinking of switching to slackware:

make sure you REALLY know how to configure a linux system, slackware doesnt come with any nice GUIs like DrakX. Also, it has no automatic package management or update system - its all done with source code and C compilers!

Originally posted by Infra-R3d make sure you REALLY know how to configure a linux system, slackware doesnt come with any nice GUIs like DrakX. Also, it has no automatic package management or update system - its all done with source code and C compilers!

Thats not completely true, Slackware does come with RPM and it native pkgtool but no one ever uses either, namely 'cos pkgtool isn't that great, and all your RPM packages want to put things in strage Redhat like locations.

cheers

Jamie...

Oh well, my mistake. But you have to admit that Slackware is *relatively* hard to configure compared to distros like SuSE and Mandrake.

I like to think of Mandrake as "RedHat for newbies". I find that RedHat gives me more control over my system than Mandrake, without going to Slackware-like extremes. I started out with Mandrake 7.2, but after making the switch to RedHat, I'll never go back. Most RPM packages out there are built and tested on RedHat machines, so if there's going to be any problem with an RPM, it's going to turn up on Mandrake, not RedHat.

Of course, I was a DOS monkey for ten years (ages 6-16) before I got ahold of Windows 95, and I still preferred DOS right up until the release of Win98. Primitive interfaces don't scare me. I <i>like</i> to work in xterm. On the other hand, I find Mandrake's abundance of the color purple distasteful, and the cutesly little penguins irritating. I like Tux, but the Mandrake penguins are just <i>ugly</i>.

All the pro-RedHat stuff being said, when I'm trying to convince a 'doze user to install Linux, I don't offer them RedHat, I offer them Mandrake. It <i>is</i> a lot easier. RedHat appeals more to geeky types like me; I want power more than I want pretty pictures, and even if you can do the same sort of thing using X and xterm, my years at the bad ol' C:\ prompt make me think of a command-line interface as more powerful than a GUI like Virus95.

As said before, slack is relatively difficult to configure, unless you have someone moving from a different *Nix (AIX, Solaris, HPUX, etc). In these situations, slack makes you right at home, it is the shitz for these sort of users, who know where all the files are, and such.

I must disagree with the fact that slackware is really hard for newbie

here's my story

there was a little guys (6' actually who was bored with life.
then he have an idea ! i will install linux
He looked at all the distro, and finaly chose slackware. The reason were simple. it's the first distro he founded and friend telle him to use it even if it was hard. so he read and burn the cd.

So the depressive guys do a format c:
Then fdisk all is hard drive, without even doing a backup

Then he install all the stuff, doing a full install cause he was a newbie.
No problem.
he do an xf86config. no probleme ether.
he do a startx. no probleme. he downloaded the rp-pppoe and installed it, no probleme, he even do a gateway for a windows computer a friend brought ... no probleme.. 2 day later he was recompiling is kernel for the version 2.4.5 and everything was working fine

So i must do an objection ! slackware is not so hard if you take some times to read the INSTALL and README and HOWTO files. I dont come from a msdos background, i was used to the GUI of windows, and i think the console mode is way better.

As for mandrake , i tried it, and i find it more harder to change think or install thing than slackware.

My 2$

(please forget my bad english)

get slack...you know you wanna

I must agree with you as I too have had both Mandrake and RedHat and found Mandrake the easier of the two to work with I also tried SUSE but found it too hard to use when I first started about 4 years ago now. So I went with RH, but I would never go back to either of them now that I have Mandrake.

...whatever became of Stormix?