Redhat vs. Mandrake (vs. Suse?)

[Smurf]

If you don't know what they are, you don't belong here. So that leaves, what? dduardo? Okay dduardo here you go:

Now. Last time I installed mandrake because the only redhat download I could find had a broken link (it was a long time ago - leave me alone). I'm using windows XP at the moment but I'm going to reformat rather soon and want to go back to linux - Which one do you use? I guess this might belong in software - move it if you like.

 

[loseyourname]

I think he's running Gentoo. I considered installing a Linux distro so it would be easier to compile and run open source, but I've found it's easy enough with Fink and X11, so I've stuck with Mac OSX. The live evals I tried out didn't seem to work too well anyway.

 

[whozum]

I used slack 7 way long ago. Linux is fun to **** around with and setup but once you've got it running there's not really much to do, unles youre a programmer I guess.

 

[dduardo]

Yes, my workstation is gentoo, but my servers are debian.

I would recommend Ubuntu/Kubuntu depending on which desktop you want (Gnome/KDE). Hardware detection is good and you have access to the huge debian library.

Gentoo is great because you'll have access to the newest packages almost immediately and the whole system is extremely flexible, but the installation can be very daughting to someone who is new to linux. It isn't that hard, but you need to be patient.

In fact, gentoo is so flexible you can even install it on top of OSX:

http://gentoo-wiki.com/Gentoo_MacOS

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whozum, you might not find much to do, but many people, like myself find Linux to be an invaluable operating system. There are so many tools and applications that make it far superior to Windows in many repects.

 

[mattmns]

I have used ubuntu for quite a while and I think it is good. It is really easy to install the os, and it is easy to install software (synaptic /apt-get).

 

[loseyourname]

In fact, gentoo is so flexible you can even install it on top of OSX:

http://gentoo-wiki.com/Gentoo_MacOS

Hey, thanks for that duardo. I didn't know you could do that. I considered running Mac on Linux, but this should be easier.

 

[exequor]

Redhat? Mandrake? come on man, that's old school. it's fedora and mandriva respectively :D. I've always wanted to run gentoo but it's a bit too big for my liking. Right now I run Ubuntu on windows. With the minimum requirements that windows vista will be needing, I won't be using it for a long time. Time to take open source to a next generation.

 

[dduardo]

There is nothing Vista could offer that would make me want to switch. I'm running 4 virtual screens. Right now I have Tvtime on 1, Firefox with 5 tabs on 2, Texmacs and Maple on 3, and ngspice running various simulations and emerge recompiling glibc on 4. At the same time I've got apache and mysql serving up dynamic pages. I can switch from desktop to desktop without any hesitation. None of the apps even flinch. It is amazing how robust the linux kernel/subsubsystem is. This is on a machine with 512MB of ram and a AMD2600. Try and do that on Windows. It has enough of a hard time trying to keep the tv stable.

I don't need no stink'n 3d windows. What's the purpose? To force me to buy more expensive hardware?