Mandrake or Red Hat?

Alright, I need some help deciding which to download and use. Currently, I'm downloading Mandrake 8.1 using WSFTP (using DSL, I'm at 13% and it's been 30 minutes for this first ISO). I've already burned Red Hat 7.0 from awhile back, but I know there's 7.1. I haven't checked what hardware is compatible yet, but I'm pretty positive everything will be since I bought quality parts to build this computer than my previous Packard Bell.

I can go to CompUSA and get something, but I wanna hear some feedback before I go. Should I get Red Hat 7.1 or Mandrake 8.1?

I'm a Windows power-user, but I want to try something new, and if it works better than Windows (which in fact has been pretty decent), I might stay with it. I have the software to dual boot (System Commander 2000, PartitionMagic 6.0), and the imaging software (Drive Image) that I've just saved for my current configuration.

<b>My Setup:</b>
Asus A7V133
Athlon TBird 850
256MB SDRAM PC133 CL2.5 @ 2
ATI Radeon 32MB SDRAM
IBM 75GXP Deskstar 30GB
SB Live! Value
3Com 3C905B-TX NIC
HP CD-Writer 9150i

<b>Partition setup:</b>
1 Primary (Windows 98SE) FAT32 - 5.84, using 760MB
2 Logical FAT32
·18.8GB, using 13.1GB for data (documents, download programs, mp3s)
·3.90GB, using 2.01GB for Windows Swap File, and Drive Image images

Kernel32.dll error...aw, son of a....

Out of those two, I'd take RedHat 7.1.

BTW, you might want to leave your RAM at its specced CAS latency. Linux tends to push your RAM rather harder than Windows does...

Kelledin

"/join #hackerz. See the Web. DoS interesting people."

nope. you can get away with those two partitions if you just want to see how it goes. The installer can deal with that stuff if need be.

between those two, i'd probably go for Mandrake 8.1. I think it'll be a lot nicer to use.

<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by rjb263 on 10/12/01 01:53 PM.</EM></FONT></P>

Hmmm....
I would recommend Mandrake 8.1

Its REd-Hat compatible, and the menus and conguration settings are more friendly than Red Hat. Its big, though, a normal install is like 900MB, and more advanced users find the degree of automation irritating, but it sounds like you're a newbie, so I'd gow ith Mandrake. Also, get Running Linux from O'Reilly

"If you teach a child to read, then he or her will be able to pass a literacy test" - George W.

Dangit! I'm ticked...are you supposed to download an ISO image as a binary file? I used WS_FTP LE 5.08, and it was auto detect. I followed the directions in the readme file on the server <A HREF="http://mirrors.secsup.org" target="_new">at the New Mexico Mandrake Mirror</A>, and it said that it should. I just wasted 3 hours for nothing! (Should I just try burning it to see if it works???)

Kernel32.dll error...aw, son of a....

I just downloaded the first ISO, and the 2nd one is at 77% with 16 minutes left. After they're both done, I'm gonna use WinImage to check it out, then hopefully burn both of them with a demo of Nero (I don't have EZ CD Creator...just the cheezy software from HP. Maybe download KeyGen or Serial from a warez site? Never...)

Thanks for telling me about WinImage. I'll do that as soon as I get back home.

Kernel32.dll error...aw, son of a....

(I got home later than I thought...)

I'm gonna try it really quick before I call it a night.

Kernel32.dll error...aw, son of a....

From what I could see so far, RH Linux is much more better for hardware detection and setup. MD 8.1 could not use my ISA US Robotics modem and basic SB sound card. Always told me that my card is configured all right, but no sound at all, and modem was "busy" all the time for some reason. With RH 7.1 everything worked right out of the box.

From first new tries (started to look at Linux from versions 5+) I can say that I still will not use Linux at this point (only when there was no windows, maybe), it is really buggy thing, when program crashes, it just sits there no matter how many times I click on the X to close it. Cant add or delete user in the right order, always some kind of errors, cant delete the group after the user was deleted, and so on and so forth, in MD 8.1 it completely lost root's password after I deleted a user. I could not get inside at all, it was dead for logon. So, RH is the best way to go for the Linux right now if you want to use it. But hey, I am the only one, at one point I was doing software testing for living, so sometimes I can see what others can't, and others might have a better "eXPerience" with it. I will not use it though, until fonts will be really, really readable (especially in the browser).

Have fun.

..this is very useful and helpful place for information...

I'd have to disagree too. My experience was that RH couldn't find cards (NIC/Sound) that Mandrake could.

Re the other stuff:

I think a lot of the problems people have are due to the excessive number of tools these distros ship with. Some are inevetibly broken, and I mean, most people don't <i>need</i> 6 email clients (where's my mailbox again?)! Or 5 user management tools (did it delete the user's home dir or not?). etc. Which is why the command line and basic *nix tools are good.

Sometimes it's not as sensible as it could be. Gnome should have some XKill it for example, so that when you click the "X" to close broken program, it does an xkill if the program doesn't die the first time (not unlike win2k's "end task" dialog).

Personally, I think that Linux <i>is</i> useable on a daily basis. I use my box for day to day web surfing, software engineering, mp3, dvd, and games. I prefer it, as the schools nt pc's/novell network are always having issues. Even my lat flatmates win pcs gave them grief, but my box didn't unless I broke it. Day-to-day it was/is sweet.

I'm an Linux geek from a few years back. Debian on floppies on a 386 lappy was my first effort, so I've seen things evolve too, and I'm confident enough in it to put in my folks business running their database, and providing their employees desktops.

I guess everyone just has different experiences with this stuff.

Fords or Chevs?

The excel for Linux is Gnumeric. Gnumeric is INCREDIBLY close to excel, even the printed output matches.

Try freshmeat.net to check for stuff you want. A good mpeg player is xine.

Use rpms to update files. If you don't know how they work, I would recommend getting "Running LInux" from O'Reilly. It costs 40 bucks, but the book cavers everything (yes, everything) except for GNOME and WINE. Its the best Linux investment I've made.

"If you teach a child to read, then he or her will be able to pass a literacy test" - George W.

I found out about Gnumeric. I associated the .xls files to it, and checked it out. I don't think I can print, because the Xerox DocuPrint M760 isn't supported. So, I don't know what to do.

I'll have to download xine, but maybe I should get mplayer.

In regards to SunOffice, I think I'll just wait the 6.0 is out of beta. I kinda wanna be safe, but then again, me getting into Linux is in itself an adventure.

Thanks for that link to get mplayer.

Kernel32.dll error...aw, son of a....

Find and install the InfoZIP utilities; most distros should come with them. If "which unzip" tells you anything, then you've already got the InfoZIP utilities installed.

Run an executable? You mean a Linux executable? Well...if it's in your PATH (see what "echo $PATH" tells you), you should just be able to type its name. If it's in your current directory, you should be able to run it by just typing "./<executable-name>". Otherwise, just type the full path to the executable. If it gives you a "Permission denied" error, make sure the file has execute permissions (though most executables should already have execute permissions...)

If you want to run Windows/DOS executables, I'd suggest either WINE or NetraVerse Win4Lin. The setup of either of these two is better told by HOWTOs.

Kelledin

"/join #hackerz. See the Web. DoS interesting people."

geez man, do you get a commission or something?

most sane people would just use tar -zxf <tarfile.tar.gz>

If you spend some time, most of those "how do i...?" questions are answered in the how-tos, the man pages (type xman to browse or use online help), system-installed help, and the distro-providers docs.

basically, follow your nose. if you think it's a common question, it probably is, and it'll be in one of the above sources. Mandrake has a couple of gui based unzippers.

Edit: Also, the Xerox DocuPrint M760 uses the PCL/3 language, so try <A HREF="http://home.t-online.de/home/Martin.Lottermoser/pcl3.html" target="_new">this</A> ghostscript driver.

Mandrake may well com with it installed. Check for pcl3 in the printers set up list - maybe a similar hp printer will work?<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by rjb263 on 10/15/01 03:46 AM.</EM></FONT></P>