Hi guys,

I was just wondering if Redhat 9.0 or Mandrake 9.2 is more suitable for a complete newbie like me. I'm just starting out.

Can you also give me your reasons why? Thanks.

Firstly, a warm welcome to LinuxQuestions :)

And may I please direct your attention to
the search feature ? The question you just
asked is one of the most commonly asked
ones around here.

Cheers,
Tink

that is possibly the toughest question i faced in a while .

2 months ago i would have said RH 9 without even thinking, but right now Mandrake seems quite good.

As for reasons:
They both install easily, Mandrake being easier, a bit, imho.
RH loses in terms of look too; it does not run latest window managers.
RH wins a bit on software availability and support, although i do not really know the depth of Mandrake support as of today. I would guess that RH has teeny bit more packages awailable to it, but do not quote me on this. If i am wrong, thats from ignorance, i did not check.
Cosidering that RH will discontinue its free RH family, i would recomment going with Mandrake, it seems good.

The other 2 being 'my CD does not boot' and 'partition i created using partition magic does not work.'

Go with Mandrake 9.1 for a trouble free install. 9.2 didn't come with the source kernel which makes it a bitch to install drivers and such. Plus there are a couple bugs, that while easy to fix, can be a pain also.

I have had very good luck with Mandrake, i.e. only had to install it about three times before I got it to work. It's the only distro I know, but I have found it very stable.

You forgot the nVidia ones ;)

Cheers,
Tink

oh, yeah, i do not use Nvidia cards in any of my machines so i tend to forget about 'those' questions.

nvidia suckss

i love mandrake.. redhat 9 sux so bad.. When i installed mandrake.. it took 20 mins.. runs smoothly and all my sound, video, mouse, keyboard and everything else all work with no problems.. It also has a built in permissions program so its easy to set permission to a folder now.

buut i am having problems with my fonts.. i installed a ton of them and now its messed up.. i posted a thread in here for it but no one seems to want to help me

I haven't tried RH since 7 and 8 because RH doesn't find everything on my system. I have tried download versions of other 'out of the box' distros as well and they have been even less successful. I've tried also tried the hard ones - Debian, Slackware, Gentoo - but I must be too stupid or impatient for them.

I have used MD since 8.1 because it finds everything, and even MD8.1 was better looking than RH8 in my opinion.

I only used MD9.1 very briefly between 9 and 9.2 and I think there's not much in it for looks between 9.1 and 9.2 - they are both beautiful!

The 9.2 download version was I think a bit restricted, but I think there's commercial sense in that for a company that we all know is struggling and wants users to put their hands in their pockets.

I had 9.2 download on board for about 3 weeks before I got the Powerpack DVD and there is a LOT of software on that!

I think MD is the only commercial challenger for MS and I bought the DVD to support them. I wish I could afford to join Mandrakeclub but can't.

Ok guys, thanks for the replies.

I'm now downloading Mandrake 9.2 ISO (1) ... Couple of questions:

1) I'm using these hardware:

- AMD XP 1700+ CPU
- Single 40GB IDE Hdd (Currently partitioned into 3 drives)
- Primary Partition: Win2000 Pro
- Extended Partition: Both are data drives
- NVidia GeForce 2 MX 400
- HP CD-Writer 9100+
- LinkSys LNE100TX(v5) Fast Ethernet Adapter
- Creative Sound Blaster Live!

Any problems with these?

2) I read some threads about PartitionMagic here. My question is will it be fine if I format my last data drive as FAT32 and free from any data and let Mandrake Installer configure and do everything by itself? (I need to dual-boot Win2000 and Mandrake 9.2)

3) How do I get LILO to be installed at the beginning of the hard disk instead of the beginning of the Linux partition? (That's where it should be right?)

4) What's the easiest and most comprehensive way of preparing my hdd and partitions for Linux? (This has always been my biggest barrier to installing Linux)

Thanks in advance!

- AMD XP 1700+ CPU
- Single 40GB IDE Hdd (Currently partitioned into 3 drives)
- Primary Partition: Win2000 Pro
- Extended Partition: Both are data drives
- NVidia GeForce 2 MX 400
- HP CD-Writer 9100+
- LinkSys LNE100TX(v5) Fast Ethernet Adapter
- Creative Sound Blaster Live!

Any problems with these?

###you might have a problem with nvidia, or you might not.

2) I read some threads about PartitionMagic here. My question is will it be fine if I format my last data drive as FAT32 and free from any data and let Mandrake Installer configure and do everything by itself? (I need to dual-boot Win2000 and Mandrake 9.2)

###use PM to resize your data partitions to free up about 5 GB of space, it should be sufficient for now. (do not forget to backup your data, just in case). Do not format that space just leave it as unpartitioned. Use Drive formatter in installer to make partitions out of it.

3) How do I get LILO to be installed at the beginning of the hard disk instead of the beginning of the Linux partition? (That's where it should be right?)

###Its iether default, or you get a choice of making it so.

4) What's the easiest and most comprehensive way of preparing my hdd and partitions for Linux? (This has always been my biggest barrier to installing Linux)

### Read my answer to your point #2.

i think you need at least 6 gigs to be happy.. i had 4 and i ran outta room so now i have 8 gigs on my linux partition.

When you are installing MD you get (3, I think) options of where you want lilo installed and the first is at the beginning of the hd.

When it comes to the partitioning stage in the install you choose manual (or expert - can't remember exactly what it is called) then you should be able to choose autopartition and MD instantly and easily does the partitioning.

I have to say I haven't done it quite like this - when I created the space on my hd I created a linux partition equal to that space (I use cfdisk) then in the MD partitioning stage you have to click on the partition you want to use and I clicked on and deleted my new blank partition then chose autopartition.

Someone else may be able to say whether you should defrag your drive before you start - I don't know W2000 and I also don't have Windows split between partitions. It is essential to do so in my situation where I had 98se on one partition to compress my data to one 'end' of the disk to leave the rest free for repartitioning.

i go with mandrake linux 9.2 or 9.1 becuase mandrake is very simple to use but i did not go with redhat recently becuase they annonce that if you use redhat at home you should switch to windows, it is very strange to belive this but is is ture.