Mandrake 8.1 or Red Hat 7.2
 

I have downloaded RH 7.2 ( both enigma-i386-iso disks)
Have not even attempted install yet as I want to add a seperate hdd for linux. For a total newbie would I have more success with RH or Mandrake 8.1? I am going to be installing it to a Gateway PIII 450 currently running win 98. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

well,
things are about 50-50 here. either one is good in terms of hardware support, utilities, guis, etc. but 2 places where feel mandrake has the edge ( and remember i run both mandrake 8.1 and RH7.2), is its little configuration wizards, and the option to choose between a vriety of filesystems at install time. also i think the install stallation program for mandrake is better.but as far as user-friendlyness goes, there's nothing to choose. (Mandrake is based on RedHat, remember?)

**Mandrake is no longer based on redhat and hasnt been for some years now**

Mandrake is easier to install, easier to use and configure, and also easier to break :(

seriously, if you compile you own kernel and compile out all the useless junk in mandrake, you will break about 20 things

Thank you for the help
 

Well it sounds like RH is the choice for me. I am currently in my first year of an IT program and I want to learn the ins and outs of Linux, so I don't want everything configured for me. Are the two ISO disk of Red Hat all I need to do a successful install?

Yeah, the two Enigma CDs will do it for ya. That's all you need. Good luck with it, but things are so built ready-to-go with RedHat that it really is easier than installing Windows these days.

You'll probably have a problem with a sound card, or X-settings, or a NIC or something, but just post to the forum and these guys will help you straighten it out. Oh, and in about 3-4 months when you're beginning to feel comfortable, I recommend installing something like Slackware or Debian. Masochism breeds competence you know.

Luck,

Finegan

Thanks Again
 

Great...... sounds good to me!!! I have already been surfing these boards looking for potential problems and solutions that I might encounter. I plan to leave win98 on my existing hdd and load RH on its own 40gb 2mb cache drive. I'm sure you'll all be seeing more posts from me soon :)

Thanks for everyones help