Which linux to use?
 

Hi,
I currently have winXP installed and want to install linux.
I have redhat 7.3 and mandrake 8.2.
I am putting it on a laptop and am familiar with unix, so i'm not too concerned about things - other than knowing some of my hardware won't work (winmodem & soundcard).
I probably would install suse or mandrake 9 if I was able to get it, but I only have dial up modem, so that won't happen. In this case, can someone suggest redhat 7.3 versus mandrake 8.2?

Thanks

Welcome to LQ.

To be honest, there really won't be much to choose between them. Mandy does more hand-holding thant Red Hat, but since you're familiar with other unices, neither should be a problem for you. If your main reason for installing Linux is so that you can try your hand at another server type OS, then I would suggest that you go for Red Hat because there are some things that RH does in a very RH kind of way... and since the majority of Linux based servers will be RH, it's got to make sense. If, however, you want to install one just to give it a go... install both!

Hi,
Thanks for that.
I think (from the Mandrake web site) that it allows you to partition the hard disk when installing.
Can anyone tell me whether redhat will let me partition the same? I need to do this since I have xp and want to dual boot.

Yes, during the install, perhaps. Both are quite capable distros and both allow you to set up partitions and filesystems the way that you want. They both have similar levels of the kernel -- albeit, each is customized differently. Try each and see which of them handles your platform better.

Yep. Mandrake uses DiskDrake whereas RedHat uses DiskDruid. Both are more than capable disk partitioners. One quick questions, though:
Since you have XP, does your XP partition(s) currently take up all the space? If so, you may run into problems. Personally, what I would do is this:

• Boot the install CD of either.
• Repartition your harddisk so that you have room for both XP and Linux, completely trashing your XP partition too.
• Install Windows.
• Install Linux.
• Install any software you may want.

The reason that I would do it like that is because if you have Windows XP residing on 1 partition that takes up the whole harddisk, you are likely to trash it if you try and resize it... unless you use something like Partition Magic. If you have nothing to lose, however, then the above method should be fine.

HTH and Good Luck.

I have a 30 gig hard disk, it's partioned (by windows) into c & e - which are about 15 gig each. C currently has 5 gig free and e about 12 gig free. I was just going to move all files from e to c which will leave e empty for linux.

Sure. That's good. It seems that too many people these days don't see the benefit of having a partitioned harddrive, even when you're only running one OS. You should have no problems with installing from that setup. Good luck.

I installed Mandrake 8.2 - I tried redhat and got to the partition tool , but didn't feel comfortable with it, there didn't seem to be a straightforward way to partition up the disk. So I installed Mandrake and was able to do it easily.
I think all I have to do now is install kde3 and I'll be ok. Just a pity about winmodems - because I have to come back to win xp to get on the net.