<---First post---> Hello everybody!

I am trying to decide between debian and mandrake. It appears mandrake is a little more user friendly, however, debian has a lot of nice features aswell. I think my decision may come down to which is more cost effective as I have never used linux before and want to experience it for as close to free as possible. Hence this question,

Mandrake talks about its online updating service, but it doesn't appear to be at "no" cost. Do users recieve free updates through mandrake online or is updating a "pay" feature.

I am not saying that it is not worth paying for but I want to check linux out for about 3 months before subscribing to anything.

Thanks
Kezz

Just about all the distros have "live" versions you can download and use without actually installing or buying anything. This is a great way to see if Linux is for you, and if so, a great way to use different distros without installing, etc. All you need is access to a cdburner and a reasonably fast connection .
Hope this helps.

Thank you, but that doesn't really answer the question I asked.

DSLinux is what got me interested in linux to begin with. However, I want to install a more complete version of linux for my home pc.



p.s what is an affero button?

Both the Mandrake and Debian distros are available to download, in full, at no cost. Updates are also free. For Mandrake, check out EasyUrpmi.

Affero/Thanks buttons are used to express either with words or with money that a particular person's post has helped you. If you decide to go with a money option, the member youa re thanking will have set up how they wish the money to be split between several non-profit organisations.

And welcome to LQ

Like he said...

The repositories have more available than even what the commercial DVD supplies.

There are a couple of minor exceptions...

These include, prepackaged drivers and some "commerical" programs which are really the freeware versions of things like Realplayer and Adobe Acrobat Reader repackaged as an RPM for ease of use.

-ALL- of these are available freely as downloads, though this usually entails a couple of easy extra steps to set things up.

The "repositories" (see my signature) are like Debian's Apt-get, but IMHO a) Easier to use, b) More complete, c) Updated more often.

Once you've set up your URPMI sources after establishing an internet connection, you'll have a whole humongous library of applications free for the download with a signle mouse click or with the command line tool.

The web site in my sig shows you how to set up the sources and use the command line...

Mandrake also provides a much nicer GUI interface that you can also use once the sources are set up.

This gives you full descriptions and catagorizes the software.

Click and "install" the utility takes care of the rest.... it even installs any missing packages or related programs.

Okay, Thanks abunch, I just didn't want to have to download new iso's and reinstall for every update. That was turning me off on Mandrake. The Mandrake site states that updates are payment dependent. Debian doesn't require payment for updates. I heard Mandrake was easier to use. However, I have a degree in computer science and having been using computers for 15+ years so I was up to the challenge of a more demanding operating system if needed. I basically want to see what life is like on this side of the fence.

Well then, given your background and experience, I would suggest the oldest, most secure, distro (with free updates) ::
SLACKWARE!!!!!!!



/poster in no way wants to start a distro flamewar.
//dedicated Slacker since 3.5, therefore opinion might be tainted with familiarity.

Good luck whichever distro you choose and welcome!!!

/did I mention SLACKWARE kicks butt?

Slackware huh?? Me thinks you might be in the wrong forum

I looked at their page it was super vanilla and not very confidence inspiring. *sigh*

So many distro's

Do not be put off by the fact that www.slackware.com looks very basic and has no bandwidth murdering flash animations. Slackware is one of the oldest distros out there and Patrick, the owner/founder/maintainer, likes to keep things very simple. Slackware itself has a totally textual install, X does not start by default and it has a very basic packaging tool - installpkg.

Getting it to run is fairly simple and straightforward, but getting it to run exactly as you want it to takes some thought, research and editing config files.

Ah, but you hit the problem on the head...

Slack is great, but better for the more experienced.

Okay, I was talking to some debian people and they said I would be in dependincy hell with Mandrake. What are they talking about and is that true?