On a scale of hardest and easiest of linux distros what would slackware, mandrake, redhat, debian, suse, ect rank?

I'm curious to know..

I'm a Slackware man myself, which most people see as one of the 'hardest' to learn. I think that questions/statements like this can be misleading though. It's not that its harder, it just does less for you; meaning that you have to get your head around the system and learn it for yourself. Having to do this at the start can make it a damn site easier to resolve problems later on. I understand that Debian isn't as friendly to get going as say Mandrake or Redhat.

If you've got time I'd suggest you download ISOs for all the distros and give them a go just to compare the installers. It amazing what a different there is.

cheers

Jamie...

So far i've downloaded these in the past few days:

Redhat9, Redhat8, Mandrake9.1, Slackware9, Debian3, Knoppix, College Linux

COuldn't get keyboard to work in college linux (But it's almost the same as debian i heard) And i can't install slackware, since it's pretty hard.

I just want to know what the rankings are for, personally i want to start off with a pretty hard OS and do alot of work on it to learn it, because starting off easy isn't always the best way to go.

I agree. I was told Debian was too hard for me, being a beginner. I installed it because I know people who use Debain and the Debian-Guide is a HUGE help. I'm up to the part on Advanced-Files. I'm taking notes of every new thing I come across, if I forget it, then I don't need to go searching on the internet for how to fix it.

I learnt about permissions that way too.

Well, i would like to ditch the newbie aproch and take it easy, and just charge right in and learn it that way..

I'll buy stock in keyboards, i'll smash them so much if i have problems

In my opinion, RedHat and Mandrake are the easiest to use and maintain.

From easiest to hardest:
Mandrake
R H
SuSE (since it does everything ass-backwards)
Slack/Debian are about the same

However, is it ease of use, ease of installation, ease of understanding config setup, ease of... What?



Cool

I'm going to say Mandrake is the easist to use because it does most of the configuring for you and its got the mandrake control center that " greatly simplify the use of the system, notably by avoiding the use of the evil command line.". I think slack was slighly more difficult than debian because in slack you have to do a lot of work and configuring.

Since the start I used Red Hat, back when it had good support from their Web page. I stil use it as my primary Linux distro.

I've used:
Slackware (don't remember the version, tho). Easy enough if you were accostumed to DOS-only programs, configs, etc. Which I was. What I did not like the most was that back then I could not connect to the Internet due to a WinModem problem.

Then used (former) Corel Linux, based on Debian (the WinModem problem was still there). Easy to setup, easy to use, but for some reason I did not like it... Never could point out why, tho. I still use it (some times as my rescue OS). I'll have to try Xandros one of these days (when I buy a new HD)

Gave Gentoo a try, nice tailored OS, but it's install was a hell! not complicated, but tooo lllloooonnnnggggg (if you know what I mean) still I like it, though it lacks IMHO some powerful admin tools.

Also used Mandrake, although I found it to be a little messy. By this I mean that it wanted to do thing it's way and not my way, which lead to struggle between us... so I dumped it. I like it's interface and it's graphical boot and all, but... I just let it be.

I must say I use Red Hat the most may be for sentimental reasons (it was the first distro I got to use entirely) and as a general rule, if I get an RPM package it is aimed for RH, not for any of the others (alghough they may support it). Debian has it's .debs also which save you lots of trouble.

For learing porpouses, IMHO you can pick any distro you are comfortable with, and then dig up the intrisics of Linux. The only problem I found with Slackware (which btw has nothing of Slack-ness in it) was its directory architecture which though almost exact of that of System V, I never got to understand as quick as I did Red Hat's. Anyway as in alsmost everything else, what distro you choose is based more because of your taste than anything else.

PS: I like RPMs, btw. They are intended to avoid you problems, which I think for the average Joe is a great help. Even if you know how to install from source and everything, but by this method (as with .debs) if not entirely, you have more control over the programs installed. By control I mean you can just issue a command and know what excact package you have installed, and do not have to keep the source/original package if you want to uninstall.

Hardest: Slack, then Debian, and then the rest.