Ive been using linux for like ... wow i cant remember how long , not more than a year but it feels like a while. I started with Mandy 9.1 which worked pretty well and was eazy to install. Then it went screwy so i went to 10.0 community. That works as well as can for beta, but it had a lot of bugs (like not shutting down properly when running kernel 2.6.?). I was going to go to official when it came out but when i went to get the CD from my neighbor who has been feeding them too me scince i dont have high-speed internet, and he said he was scrapping mdk altogether because 10.0 didn't work at all and he wanted to upgrade to the next KDE ver. He's been using mdk for a while so I figured if he was giving up on it, i wasn't even gonna try. He handed me a Gentoo CD, but that's not working because Im not that good yet and, like i said, i don't have a good internet connection.

So im in the market for a new distro. I don't wanna pay for Suse. I was thinking about Red Hat but that's now moving towards a server-oriented platform. Debian looked good but im not sure im ready to give up my RPMs yet (Gentoo scared me on that matter). I don't know that much about the rest of the distros, so i need some help.

You can download Suse personal for free, and then download the missing stuff if you want to compile your own stuff. Personal is good, it just doesnt come with the "experienced user" packages, but, as stated before, they are downloadable. You may also check the Novell website for the "Linux Technical Resource Kit". I had already bought Suse 9.1 Pro from BestBuy, but i signed up for this at the website and received by mail fully functional copies of Suse 9.1 Pro, Suse 8.2 Pro, Ximian Desktop 2, Suse Linux Enterprise Server 8, Nterprise LinuxServices 1.0, GroupWise 6.5.1, Red Carpet Enterprise Server 2.02, ConsoleOne, and Linux Resources. No strings attached.


enjoy,
-myk

sounds good, now ive just gotta find someone to download it for me (poor pitiful me w/my 56k modem)

im still open for suggestions though if anyone else want's to post

Try Slackware. It will never die. Simple, stable and secure. What you need more?
Fine documentation and nice gays for advanced help.
G'luck
Fred

The Debian Apt package system blows the RPM system away. It's just as easy to use and is more stable and powerful. You don't have to worry about whether it will work for your Linux version or not.

As for deciding on a distro, check out http://distrowatch.com and this thread.

Snigger

I use Slack. Was very impressed by 9.1, but have been sadly disappointed since upgrading to 10. Some annoying bugs I can't seem to fix, and it's slowed RIGHT down for no apparent reason.

Am working on LFS at the moment, but I doubt that'll tempt someone who wants to stick with RPMs...

Thanks for the help!!

I went ahead and got Debian, and it's great. I quickly found out that whoever said apt was better was right. deb/apt ROCKS!! Although im not sure which gui i should be using for it yet and if it will be better than Rpmdrake. (Rpmdrake was awesome ... albeit slow). The actuall packageing system itself though is much better.

System installed almost w/o a hitch (the hardest part was choosing a domain name - i eventually chose nagh which is Klingon for rock). There was a slight problem getting X to work w/my vid card but i only had to edit one setting for it to work.

The one thing i dislike is it uses an archaic version of KDE and most other programs. I don't know if I got old install disks (1,6,& 7 from linuxiso.org) of if that is just the nature of the distro. Also, i couldn't seem to find xmms on the install disks although all of its plugins are (maybe a burn error?)

All in all i like it and would reccomend it for someone who is just moving out of the total newbie stage and wants more config options and less bugs than Mandrake. It's definitely faster and I could even manage to recompile my kernel (something which evaded me in the past). I also like it's non-corporate-trying-to-sell-support feel.

I may try Slackware in the future but right now ive gotta go look for xmms on the Debian package repository. =)

Well done. I was going to put in a good word for Fedora Core2 and (if you can recompile a kernel) Slackware 10, but it looks like you're already home and dry.

it wasnt that hard actually (compiling a kernel) use make menuconfig then a bunch of other makes. it helped that i had my trusty cheapo-1000page Linux book handy ($19.99 at BAM - well actually i got it half of for some reason im not sure why) i was mostly scared of compiling my kernel cause it took 9 hours under Gentoo. Come to think of it, portage was why i was scared of leaving rpms behind too. (no im not bashing gentoo but it's no good w/o the net)

Synaptic is a good Debian equivalent of RPMDrake

apt-get install synaptic

Beatya to it! Synaptic's good, as is aptitude, kpackage, etc... im also starting to like the simple apt interface (it's nice not to have to load up the whole cache everytime u wanna find/install a package). wajig is pretty good too (it fixed what i would've complained about with apt - too many commands, but i was already used to apt by the time i discovered it so im stickin w/apt)

Yeah, I learned apt-get before anything else and thought that GUI front ends were a bit clunky. But after using Mandrake's excellent RPMDrake (from within MCC), I realised the advantages to a good GUI tool too. I still use/d urpmi for quick "I know what i want" installs, but if I was "shopping" for a package, I'd use RPMDrake, so I could browse the descriptions of the packages as I looked at them. I used to go to the Debian package lists on www.debian.org and browse/search for what I wanted before apt-getting it. Then I discovered synaptic, which was nice for the browsing. I still use it because it skips a few steps that way, but usually its "apt-get install, whatever". Perhaps that's what appeals to me about emerge as well.

Didn't like emerge b/c i was trying to use it on a 200mhz machine w/no network connection. (UGH!!) however, i think i would appreciate it more if i was using a faster machine with cable inet or the like.

I'm a sucker for punishment. I ran FreeBSD almost exclusively for about 2 months (and NetBSD for a while in the same manner) on a P-133 (48mb ram) with dialup. Been there. Feel for ya. If you want to keep the updates to a minimum, waitn until September when Sarge is released as stable and then install it. Then you'll only really get security updates for the next year or so. It'll save you downloading 100's of mb's like i did when using Sid on dialup (lotta overnight apt-get upgrades)

That's what im planning on doing - sticking to the stable releases so i dont get stuck w/a bad package until i can get inet access next. I dont think i really even need the security updates w/no network and me being the only one really w/physical access to my machine.

P.S. I feel ur pain w/the 133 - that's what my other comp is (It's running Windows cause i've got to many projects on there to wipe down the disks- it doesn't even get turned on except to retreive said projects and do windows programming when i feel like having a headache =) )