Linux Distro Pro/Con
 

I've just completed a comparison between Vector Linux, Fedora Core 2 and Mandrake 10.

Before I get deep into this subject, let me first point out a few things. I am a gamer, a game developer, a person who prides computer programing as a hobby and a unpaid volunteer network and web admin. The distribution I would want would satisfy each and every one of my interest with the most least headaches. As unlikely as it may be for Linux to offer me such, I continue to seek a distribution out for the reasons of pacifying yet another hobby I have: the thrill of power and stability.

Vector Linux:
Well let me first begin that Vector Linux is really good if you want to start off with nearly nothing but a working computer(.) This also means the installer, which many users may find difficult to use. In fact, when using the installer, I discovered more then 5 bugs which caused the installer to crash. To add, some of these errors were found while partitioning. This is not something I would consider secure or even recommended for dual boot users. I believe many people have a great use for Vector Linux, but unfortunately I am not one of them.

Mandrake 10:
When I first used Mandrake 7.0, I was very impressed. When comparing Mandrake 7.0 with RH7.2, I found a greater love for the Mandrake system then I originally did with RH7.2. Unfortunately, Mandrake 7 was by far behind with drivers, and Mandrake's payment requirement for downloading updates easily turned me off.

Since then, I've been a RH lover and had no reason to leave, until now. With Fedora Core kicking in development seemed great. Yet, there also seemed to be loop-holes, or areas of which I feel were missed or skipped by mistake. These area's made it difficult for any user (including myself) to use the distribution the way I desired. Then I heard about Mandrake, and it's awesome plug'n'play support. So I gave Mandrake 10 a chance.

To begin, I was very impressed with how it worked and how easily things took. On my first usage, I loved it, and thought, "this distribution is now my distribution". Unfortunately, it took a few days passing to realize I jumped the gun. Mandrake 10 seemed to have several loop-holes as well, and some are so serious, they threaten the stability of the OS. One of the major ones was GnomeMeeting automatically starting up on each and every boot. When uninstalled, it broke the totem player's video support. And to add, since I installed Mandrake 10, KDevelop 3 is unable to compile C++ programs because of a error in the BASH scripting shell. In addition, the update server is broken and packets do not even reach the local loop back even though I could be browsing in Mozilla.

In a nut shell, with all the things breaking, my only hope is a payment to receive updates with an updating program of which does not work to begin with. Now as much as people would like to comment on this, the point is, I installed this distribution with the packages of which should have done the job. There is nothing else required or the distribution failed to satisfy me. So please don't reply regarding how to fix, I'm not interested. As helpful as you may be trying to be, I do to much as it is, and I am not interested in supporting something that did not support me to begin with.

Fedora Core 2:
A distribution I previously liked, but left with regret, I have once again returned to. My experience with Fedora Core 2; free updating, constant updating, performance, ease of use, compatibility and stability and a stale mate with programs offered were factors of which I believe Fedora Core 2 was the best choice for me. Although I do not receive everything I would want from Fedora Core 2, my comparisons provided me enough facts to make it clear that my job would be much easier with Fedora Core 2, and with at least the same amount of benefits or more at no cost.

Because of how satisfied I am, I am now going to test Fedora Core 3.

Final Note:
What is this topic about? I have tested several distributions of Linux and found pros and cons to them all. A person who has the same interest as myself, and is looking to Linux to help pacify there desires, should use my notes. If they desire to use a program which works on Linux, but must have an environment of which is broad and suitable for reasons much like mine, they could use my notes to help reduce the time they spend trying to find the answers they seek. I truly hope my information helps someone, and thank you for reading.

You may want to post these comments in the LQ Distro Reviews. -- J.W.

I considered it but the point of the topic was to provide information regarding a special need for people who want to use special software on a distro. It seemed to weight more on software requirements then it did with distro reviews. At least, this was the motivating factor to why I choose to submit it under software.

Your more then welcome to do what you would like with it. I only submitted it as helpful information.

Hi,

since you seem familiar with diffrent distro... why don't you take a look at Slack? Not as fancy as the others during installation but definitely the best for me, especially with the release number 10. Mandrake 10 give me too some strange problems. Fedora is slow on older computers and more memory consumming. At least slower than slack... I also give a try to knoppix and different flavors. Cool for fast booting OS

:-)

Just a point as a Mandrake user:

Why does everyone think they have to pay for updates? Mandrake is free. Updates are free. Updates are timely. I have never had to pay a dime to update my Mandrake system (and I check for and install updates at least once a week).

As for the problems you had .. I don't have a good answer. MDK 10.0 was solid. MDK10.1 is even more solid. I haven't had any insurmountable problems. My worst situation is I have to boot with the "noapic" option to allow my Palm to hotsync. :rolleyes:

I think the most important point in this thread is to try several distros until you find the one that is right for you. :)

Hi Padma,

You're right when you mentionned get a distro that match your needs and feelings... ;)
I tried Mandrake for free too, but feel it tried to do too lot of stuff. Maybe I prefer to know what was going behind and it's the reason I prefer Slack.
Anyway, mandrake is surely one of the best distro with good wizards for beginners. At least, this is what we can see on distrowatch.

:)

FA-9

Twenty-five years ago, when I was playing with *early* home computers, I felt the same way. I loved getting "under the hood". :)


These days, I just want something that works. ;) It's nice to know I *can* get under the hood, but it's also nice to not have to. I like Mandrake for this. I can get inside and tweak to my heart's content, but at the same time, out of the box, it "just works". :)

Another one to try is Arch. I tried it and was really impressed. The only problem I had was I didn't like it installing software to /opt. It just didn't seem natural :-)

mandrake broken
 

i'm really surprised at how so many people love mandrake. I've installed 7+ different distros on my computer such as Suse, Mandrake, Fedora, Ubuntu, Debian, etc and out of all of them... i found Mandrake to be the most difficult.

First off the default LILO booter would just NOT WORK (I think this was a SATA problem) so you'd have to go grub. It would be nice if they provided the correct default installer so this wouldn't happen.

Then after that problem... the fstab would sabotage itself and make all my drives read only. Mandrake would just refuse to boot. It took me a day and a half of messing around to FINALLY figure it out (I'm no linux pro, fstab was new to me. I thank mandrake for teaching me many things... but only because it's so broken =) ).

I think i'll post something about this in the mandrake forum to look for some feedback =)

ALpHsTeR

Everyone's experience with any given distro can be different. I have been playing with Mandrake since Version 4.0. It has always been very good to me. :)

For instance, the default LILO bootloader has become my preferred bootloader, because it works so well. ;)

(I think your problem stems from the SATA drives. I will admit they have been problematic in Mandrake, so far, although some have had good results. :)