whats Mandrake, Gentoo, and Debian
 

?????????/

those are different forms of Linux, with slightly different modifications on certain capabilities, and commands.

do they have the same GUI?

They can have the same GUI if you want them to, it's all about choice, if you want to make then all look and feel the same you can.

whats the best?

That's debateable. Too many biased opinions there. The best answer you'll get is Mandrake.. I mean, try them and figure out which one you think is the best.

Mandrake has urpmi to help with dependencies. It's RPM based and was developed upon redhat, so there are alot of similarities and compatibilities.

Debian is pure volunteer. It's packages are easily installed with it's apt-get tool. It handles all the dependencies for you alot like urpmi.

Gentoo is a source based distro. This means the packages for it are compiled to optimize the distro for your system. This also means it takes longer to install though. Gentoo handles dependencies and package install through an system called emerge.

HTH

Cool

Really depends on what you want from it...

Mandrake = relatively easy installation on
standard hardware plus a reasonable set
of preconfigured applications ...
sofa with cute cushions, on big casters :)

Debian & Gentoo = ultimately versatile,
highly optimizable, not necessarily easy
to use if you're not willing to learn :)
anything from a city-hopper to truck ;)

For more info I'd recommend to just search
for threads with the words best distro :)

Cheers,
Tink

well i just got interested in linux yesterday so the easier one to learn would be best. Is there other ones out there that are good 4 newbs?



(edit) also it needs to be FREE

For new users Mandrake, RedHat and SuSE
are probably the best suited distro's ....

SuSE, however, doesn't offer ISO's for download.
If you have a fast enough connection you might
want to try their FTP install, though.

If you have good discipline (the will to learn)
I'd recommend Slackware ;) ... our little community
here on LQ offers very good support :)

Cheers,
Tink

can they use GNOME?

All of them give you the choice between
several Window Managers / Desktop
Environments, KDE and Gnome being
the biggest (both in popularity as weight ;})

Cheers,
Tink

All major distributions have both kde and gnome (the big 2 desktop environments).

Redhat is more popular, so more people are familiar with it.
Mandrake is next, considered by many to be newbie friendly
SuSE is mentioned as being newbie friendly.
Gentoo and Debian have a geeky install and you may need more Linux knowledge before you try those (although you learn a hell of a lot installing them).

# Linux Distribution links:
Distrowatch
LWN distro list
elinux Linux Distributions

How To Check MD5sums On A Linux Iso Image
# Cheap CDs
Discount Linux CDs
Linux Central
Cheapbytes
TuxCDs
ComputerHelperGuy

You might want to check out Knoppix as well as it will run off the CD.

and try here for a list of almost all distributions; most
have reviews on them you can read to compare.