[wplug] Second round of questions from newbie...

[J Aaron Farr]

--- Anna McCullough <amccullg at bellatlantic.net> wrote:
> 
> Anyway, I have a RedHat 7.2 disc set that came with the book, Osborne's
> Complete
> Guide to Linux, 4th edition. Since I already have it I was thinking about
> installing IT, but as a matter of research, who uses what distros around
> here?
> Many of you, I've gathered (I lurk a lot), seem to have tried several
> versions.
> Any pros/cons to Redhat vs. Suse vs. Mandrake?
> 

Here are some brief descriptions (just my opinions of course):

RedHat:  most publicly known distro, good support, focused mostly on servers
until this last version (8.0).  Fairly user friendly.  Can graphically
configure most things, lots of software tested to work with RedHat.

Mandrake: originally RedHat + KDE desktop.  Known for very user friendly, a
good linux distro to start with.  Targeted at the desktop (and server). 
Mandrake was the first distro I seriously used and mostly I remember there were
lots of penguins everywhere. :)

SuSE: Targeted at both desktop and servers.  A very easy install and well
polished, but sometimes things are set up in very SuSE-ish ways.  Ran 8.0 on a
laptop for a while and thought it was great.

Debian: Considered the 'pure' linux distro -- all free software, no proprietary
add-ons.  Stable, easy to update (apt-get is a wonderful thing), but a pain to
install (last I used it).  Debian is not always "cutting-edge", the install
usually consists of tried and true apps, so it's stable, but can seem out dated
when compared to the lates Mandrake/RedHat/SuSE.

Slackware: Generally now considered "old school" linux.  Very UNIX like, known
to not be very newbie friendly.  However, if you master slackware, you've
mastered linux.  Used it and liked it.

Gentoo: if slackware is still to user friendly for you, use Gentoo.  Designed
developers and those who like to really understand what's happening.  Source
based install (ie- you compile your OS). Very nice *BSD-like 'ports' system for
packaging and 'emerge' system for updates.  Tried it a little but didn't have
the time to finish the install.


There are others, but these are probably the most popular right now.  I've used
them all (except gentoo, well other than a _really_ basic install) and they all
have their own personalities.  The best way to decide is to try them out
yourself if you can.  Currently I run RedHat 8.0 and I'm going to be testing
out the latest FreeBSD (okay, it's not linux, but it's UNIX).

Another really great resource is distrowatch.com 
Check out the top several distros there.  You get a very good explanation of
what each distro has.

jaaron

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