Hello, these are the system specs of my spare pc:

AMD Athlon XP 2600+
256mb DDR (400mhz)
MSI K7N2 Delta-L NFORCE 2
MSI GeForce 4 MX440SE 64Mb
40GB WD (7200)

I would like to install linux on this box, but unfortunately I have a different predicament to others. I live in south africa, and am on a dial up connection (i get 3kbps downloads, so this is even slower than the dial up most get abroad!), so even if I download from a local server, I worked out it would still take me 27hours per ISO! This is a joke in the least, so I know I have to purchase my copy of linux.

I will be using the pc mainly for varsity work, and i might put wine on it to play some games (enter the matrix etc), but in general, I just want a linux system because its way better than windows (as all linux users have found out)

I prefer GNOME to KDE, and I was leaning towards buying Redhat 9.0, but isn't Mandrake 9.1 more updated? I wanted to then get Mandrake, but I read that it was mainly for KDE? Is this so? Is Redhat made for GNOME? How does this work?

If I want a GNOME system should I purchase Redhat? Also I want the latest distribution as I can't upgrade via the net, so I want something that wont need upgrading.

I know this question has been asked many times before, but they always ended up downloading and trying which was best for them.

Any help would be much appreciated. Thank you in advance.
Boggit

It might have been so a while ago, Mandrake was more KDEish and RedHat seemed to lean a bit towards Gnome. However, both now have the same features/functions in both environments.

I'd have to lean towards Mandrake on this one, mainly because if RedHat doesn't support your hardware (which Mandrake is renound (sp?) for it's hardware recognition) your are nearly SOL (out of luck) and will have to deal with shipping back the RH and getting the Mandrake (if that is even an option).

They are both pretty close to the same product, but I think if you aren't going to be using the internet much on the box, then Mandrake has much better internal tools than does RedHat (as the only feature I see worth a dime on RedHat is it's up2date feature, I know many users here use it though, so I'm not bagging on Redhat, just suggesting why I'd suggest Mandrake over Redhat ).

The flip side is that RedHat is a bit more "linux" like in that it doesn't have a fancy dancy tool for everything. They are sorta what sets the standard on many things, and this could be looked at like a huge plus for them. You will get your hands a little dirtier, but some might say that's a good thing. You'll learn the way things tick. Plus, when you do get on the net occasionally, you'll find more packages pre-mixed for RedHat where with Mandrake if it's not on a mirror, you'll have to get a generic binary/RPM or roll your own (source code).

Toss up really, but I do suggest getting Mandy or RedHat, and to look no further (I'm a huge Slack promoter normally, but in this rare case, I am suggesting against it simply for the amounts of packages available just on the boxed sets of those 2 distros).

HTH

Cool

Thanks so much MasterC. I think I will definitely go for Mandrake

Whoa! I'd hold out for some more response, give yourself at least a day for some decent responses to get more opinions first

Glad I could help though

Cool

Hi Boggit

My specs are similar to yours in some respects:

Intel Celeron 1.7ghz
256mb DDR (400mhz)
MSI 845 GE MAX L
MSI GeForce 4 MX440 SE 64Mb
40GB WD (7200)


Both Red Hat 9 and Mandrake 9.1 run fine on this system - both RH9 and M9.1 have KDE and GNOME - so you can choose either in either OS.

On average, KDE is integrated better in Mandrake 9.1 than in Red Hat 9 - vice versa - GNOME is integrated better in Red Hat than in Mandrake - but again youve got the choice in both.

I persoanlly prefer Mandrake 9.1 - I prefer KDE to GNOME - For me atleast the KDE Control Centre is better than anything equivalent in Red Hat - also in Mandrake you get Mandrakes own Control Centre which is also excellent for ceratain tasks.

I dont think you would be disappointed with either - thers a site affiliated with distrowatch in my signature called YourLinux - the 3 cd sets are dirt cheap so why not get them both.

(I'd have a quick check on Google for kernel compatibility with you specific motherboard chipset or scan through these forums - Mandrake 9.1's kernel is slightly newer than Red Hat 9's)

Thanks guys. You've both been a great help. I dont want to seem over eager, but i've had this box for over a week and I still haven't put anything on it (I guess im eager to see it's performance!) I run XP on a P4 2.4 ghz with 512mb and a Radeon 9100 128MB, and I wanna see if the linux system performance is a lot better.


The only reason I say I prefer GNOME is because KDE almost feels to similar to windows, is this my imagination? The only versions i've used of the 2 are from SuSE 8.0 as I ran this on an old beast I used to have. It was a really outdated version of both GNOME and KDE, but GNOME seemed so different to windows, thus the reason I probably prefer it. May I ask, which has better "Office like" applications? (mainly MSWord)

Well, again, they are both going to have abiword which would be what I'd consider similar to MSWord. Both will have the same or nearly the same version as well. I know that the Mandrake PowerPack also comes with StarOffice but the download version comes with OpenOffice (both are equivilents to MS Office sorta).

Both will come with Gnome, both will work equally well with Gnome. I personally think RedHat has tweaked Gnome up a bit, so that might be a point to consider (for better or worse) when deciding.

Good Luck!

Last but not least, download vs Boxed set.

Here's an idea:
If you've got some spare change lying around, enough to get the download iso's of each from some of the iso dealers (such as the one in Skyline's sig), do that first. Give them both a try, see what one you feel more comfortable with, then look into getting their boxed set as it will have more applications and also come with a guide.

I don't know what shipping is to South Africa from West Coast USA (Zip code 98277 if that helps ) but I might be willing to send you the iso's for free if it's not gonna cost me too much in shipping. Let me know if you are interested in that.

Cool

Hi Boggit, I would like to give my opinion...

It's true that Mandrake has a lot of eyecandy things on its system, but you will find that Mandrake rely on KDE's beautiful features, and I do like KDE a lot, it is the best DE for me, and I don't think that KDE is similiar to Windows, mine is configured to match MacOS-X. From some perspective KDE have many similiar features to Windows, but with way much more sophisticated things on it, and the part that I like most is, KDE is more customizable and have much more skins with a lot of patch, you can see them at http://www.kde-look.org

But as an administrator, I prefer to use Red Hat systems. Since Red Hat is supported by many developers and hardware vendors, it seems that you will find drivers for Red Hat system more easy than any other system. And since you'll have boxed version, Red Hat support is better than any other vendor, plus you can find that security updates are better and quite fast...

But the part that I hate from Red Hat after their 8 release, is that they configure KDE into their look and feel which very similiar to GNOME. I like GNOME too for its soft look and feel, but I like KDE the way it is, and KDE is losing its look and feel in Red Hat 8 & 9. I really hate that.

Again it's up to you who decide. I suggest you use which better suit your need. Linux is freedom, sometimes you should choose what the best for yourself, but hey.... that the way life is, right?

Thank you so much MasterC but I could never let you pay to ship me the ISO's. It's an awesome generous offer but I could never take you up on that

Thanks danny_kurniawan for your input. I think i definitely want a GNOME system but the new versions of KDE might look and function very nicely so I wouln't want to limit my options. I wish I could see both set up on a machine.

I found a website that is local to me where I could purchase CD's that I can get for a few hundred rand. Here are the details: Redhat 9.0 (either full - 9 cd set or Install - 4 cd set) and similar with Mandrake 9.1 (full - 9 cd and install - 4 cd)

Would these be the ISO's burned onto CD or the retail boxed versions? Maybe the 9cd set is the box set? I wish I knew which one to get, each one costs roughly the same price as 256MB ram.

Thank you everyone for all your help, unfortunately I'm still very undecisive!

Yeah, the 9 CD's sets are likely the boxed versions, however they could also be something else that the local manufacterer cooked up, something like documentation discs, maybe a few more applications, some sources, a video how-to thing. Unless they tell you it's the boxed version, I don't know if I'd believe it or not. However, I'm guessing for about the cost of a nice stick of 256MB of ram one could find a deal on the boxed versions of these 2, so it's possible.



Cool

Boggit, Howzat here from SAretoria, maybe we could help each other - my company has a good internet conn so I can download and burn what you want... mandrake 9.2 and suse 9.0 I can get :-)

I recently also bought the same mobo overseas and it seems broken (hangs on cpu test). I was wondering where u bought the board in sa - I cant find any distributors, maybe I can then replace mine because it is a beauty:-(

Also what have your experiences in native linux support for this board thusfar been? nforce2 chipset should be okay eh?

Thanks