I've used RedHat on and off since the good ol' days of 5.1 and am using 7.2 on my internet box. However I will switch to smoothwall (when I get another old computer) based on good reports here and at adslguide.org.

I can do whatever I like with RedHat but it has become increasingly more bloated over the years, the final straw being nautilus which vexes me.
I did try Mandrake 8.1 (my first Mandrake distro) out of curiosity before deciding to switch from RedHat (not to Mandrake!!) and it really made me a bit nauseous with the little stupid penguins on the command line. However I can see why people use it- the firewall config and hardware browser can make windows users feel right at home, and there's never really any need to touch the command line.

My decision is to go with Slack8. I am currently so sick of using windows that I am backing up all my data onto 20+CDs and preparing to be rid of it forever. I had been using it since my work requires Matlab and I only have the windows release.
I will let you know how slack goes, but I can't see any disappointment in my future because I get to choose which packages go on it, and perhaps more importantly, where they go!! the distro makers really need to work on standardising where files and programs live.

that's my two pennies' worth (I don't like cents - reminds me of the Euro)

Maybe the best flavour of Linux depends on *why* you're installing it.

To explain: I am fed up of the unreliablity of Bill's offerings (NT aside) and repulsed by the price that his empire charges. No one would buy a TV that for no apparent reason suddenly locks up, forcing you to switch off and back on to continue watching a program. However, that's that Wind*ws users regularly have to do. Then there's the bloatware issue (which slows the system down) and the ME/XP hand holding way of preventing you doing things any which way but Bill's. So, the long and short of it is that I want to get rid of Windows. Macs don't appeal, they seem to be arty types' favourites and some versions of the OS are apparently as unreliable as Wind*ws - all of which leaves Linux. I just love the world wide community of everyone helping each other out, it really appeals to my socialist nature. I *want* to get it working, but I want to use it as a tool, not as something to hack around with! I've got other things to do with my precious time.

Mandrake, therefore, was a dream; it installed quicker than any flavour of Windows I've ever done and I had Internet access and e-mail going within half an hour of slipping the installation CD into the drive. If Linux is ever going to appeal to a mass market that is surely the way it has to be.

There seems to be a price to pay with Mandrake. It is considerably slower that Win2k on my dual boot machine, I might well have a go with a Red Hat boot option to see if that's faster.

In the meanwhile, I've installed Slackware on a really old P166, (command line only) to run as a mail server/file server and hopefully ADSL gateway machine. A different, much more cut back version for a different purpose. I'd never have been able to get Slackware up and running if I hadn't had the Mandrake experience to get me up and running.

DiBosco talked about how he hated that windows won't let you do anything unless it's Bill's way. I think that Microsoft has gotten so hung up with trying to make Windows easier to use (which, admittedly, increases sales) that they have slacked off on what is really important: writing more efficient code (i.e. smaller) and less buggy code.
Linux has a distinct advantage in this respect. If someone were to write a driver for a specific peripheral and a bug was found in it, in many cases someone else would modify the driver to correct the problem. Try that with Microsoft.
Anyway to show how goofy Microsoft has become, they are suing the creator of "Lindows" because it sounds too much like Windows. And - not sure of the specifics on this one- it seems like they are trying to collect royalties for the use of the word "word" Go figure.

RHat 7.2 is now up and running great, the version I bought from Linux Central. The 6.1 wouldn't go at all and was bought from RH. Fine tuning required that I change video card. USRobotics full hardware modem still not working. model 5610A. Box says Lunix ready but a 'fax' modem that has voice and data. Is that the problem? Three different modem into this box. What modem does anybody - anybody have that works with this RH 7.2? I'll buy it! I'll buy yours. One of board/chip problems to be resolved (and this is going to save somebody a lot of time) is 'thunderbird-duron' issue that can be found with a support 'search' on RH site.
I'm going to put the Mandrake 8.1 on another box I'm building which will the home box - because it's so easy to get going and make root adjustments. I never did get the 3com modem working on that.
Hardware - all hardware and driver problems. It makes me wonder if 'buying the Lunix box preloaded' is the way around this and "then begin to play," try to get the premo custom cards and HDD in. What top shelf board is designed for Linux? Any info is appreciated. Thanks - gg

I had a similar problem with the iso-images of Redhat 7.2 that I downloaded. I did check the checksums with the cgywin version of mdk5sum for Win9x, and they were correct. My setup is also a non-Intel one ... 1.2 GHz AMD Thunderbird on a Gigabyte GA-7VTXH+ motherboard. Despite my best efforts, well 15 minutes worth of my best efforts, I couldn't get RH to install. I ended up just downloading the 3 iso-images for Mandrake 8.1. Mandrake installed without a hitch. I'm curious if there really is a problem with RH7.2 and non-intel chipsets????

It took all of about an 2½ hours to download all five CD iso-images (RH's 2 and Mandrake's three.) I burned them using Nero 5.5.6.4 (also downloaded gratis ... and removed from the registry and re-installed every 30 days) I occasionally buy Open source software ... but I'd rather spend my limited funds on hardware and paying my exorbitantly high 1.5Mb/s DSL bill.

Why don't u do the following:

1.) change the date of your CMOS to about 10years forward
2.) install Nero
3.) restart
4.) change the date of your CMOS to the current date and time


this way, you'll have that eval version for 10 years...

A study about distos:
http://www.dhbrown.com/cffiles/doc_v.../ex010807a.pdf

I think that I will give that a try. It will take some coordination though, as I have so much ripped-off software on my computer ... I don't want to disturb all of my other evaluation share-ware ... If it works ... it sounds plausible ... then I'll do this trick with all of my software in one fell swoop ... WinZip, Nero, paintshop pro, Boot IT, et al ...

Thanks!

Paul Sterrett

i don't think nautilus belongs to redhat... it seems to be more of a gnome package. and i agree that it's terrible bloatware!

IMHO, you won't regret it! and there are enough people here at the forum who are willing and able to help with it. just make sure u are okay with setting up stuff from the command line and from tarballs... and don't forget lynx! (in case u have trouble setting up X if u've never done it from the command line or hand tweaking the XF86Config file before)

Mandrake is nice. If your hardware will support it, it has advantages. It has several nice GUI based tools.

But there is some hardware that Mandrake has trouble with, that Red Hat handles without argument.

Perhaps my experience is because I was insatlling onto /dev/hdb, but on a Gateway 4300 I found that after installing Mandrake 8.1 (7.0 had worked fine) the computer refused not only to boot into Linux, it wouldn't go to Win95 either. Even fdisk /mbr didn't fix things. What I eventually needed to do was remove the SCSI card, reset the crom, reboot (to Win95), re-install the SCSI card. Then with everything working, I could install either the older Mandrake or the new Red Hat.

OTOH, Mandrake went onto my ThinkPad without problems, so clearly YMMV.

Mandrake is clearly (slightly) easier for a newbie to use, and if it works, it's v. good. But if it's broken it can be difficult to recover from. Also, it's idiosyncratic about things such as where the icons that represent programs need to be installed. So it's a bit harder to learn how to configure it (or at least, it doesn't generalize to other systems).

That said, remember that over 97% of all the action is the same. Basically all that's different is a few small utilities, and the location of a few files. And the default screen backgrounds. Nothing major (unless you use something like reiserfs, which a newbie should probably avoid unless he has professional support).

You can say that again!, i installed RedHat 7.2 before and i was wondering why it is so SLOW on my super-fast amd computer. Well i figured it was just the way linux works. A little voice in my brain told me to install Mandrake 8.1.

The Next day, i fufilled my brains promise and installed Mandrake. Poped in the cdrom and rebooted. Saw the cute penguin logo which is already getting old but still cool to look at rather than the "windows" logo. Pressed enter and installed. Couldn't believe how beautiful the installer was. Better than the RedHat installer in some ways, but maybe "alittle" but bloated. Ok, installed and rebooted. The graphical boot loader is nifty, choose my Mandrake distro and booted into it fine. First impression after altering my personal settings and such...oh my how FAST is this thang!!!. It may be more bloated than redhat but it is FASTER on AMD machines, or so that was the case for me. CD2 with the extras i downloaded was bad, but it was no problem becuase all i needed is 2 .rpm's from that cd which can be downloaded from rpmfind.net.

I know you guys will battle with me so here are my system specifications becuz the redhat slowness may be some weirdo hardware error.

Therion's Current Rig Below:

EPoX 8KHA+ KT266A DDR
Athlon XP 1700+ @ 1900+
Crucial PC2100 256Meg
Gainward GeForce 3
Linksys LNE100TX revision 4.
SB Live! X-Gamer
Sparkle 400Watt PSU & Antec 1030B

I don't like Nautilus, which is part of gnome 100%, but it's very easy to remove, and just use gmc instead.

to say it's bloating it... well i think it uses too much mem etc.. but it's got to be worthwhile developing if it'll make linux easier to use for windowsesque newbies

I still haven't gone to slackware yet (my girlfriend was here for a little while..) but today will probably be the day.

In reply to other posts...
I use lynx more than x-based browsers anyway;
I don't think nautilus is part of gnome, but redhat doesn't let you remove it without removing gnome entirely either, which is what sucks a$$!

Thanks for the words folks.
I will be back......

you can easily remove nautilus, just let the deps fail on the rpm, it doesn't do any damage

Okay then fair enough. I would have assumed that nautilus was standalone anyway (since installing it before and knowing the deps) but didn't bother to give it the time to try letting the deps pass by. Anyway if the deps are lying, surely RedHat is trying to force us into a choice-free state, installing pretty apps like Mandrake (vein attempt to get back to thread).

Anyway.... back to slack...... soon, very soon. time is precious.