Mandrake vs. RedHat

[eXtremist]

I'm currently using RedHat 7, but I'm having some problems with it. I'm thinking about trying Mandrake, because I hear its focused on the newbie user.

I don't want to start a distro war, but I have a few questions to help me decide...

RH has up2date, a (usually) good app for updating installed packages. Does Mandrake have this kind of thing also?

I'm used to the RedHat configuration programs (control-panel, Xconfigurator, sndconfig, printtool, etc.).. Will I be lost trying to figure these things out in Mandrake, or is it basically the same thing?

RedHat 7 has a nice graphical LILO which really helps my computer-illiterate family.. Does Mandrake? (for some reason they can't use the text-mode lilo...)

How's the future of Mandrake looking? RedHat is doing fine, making profits and all.. Is Mandrake gonna be a contender also?

There are a bunch more questions but I'm gonna figure those out after I install Mandrake (if I install it). For now these answers will be enough.

Thanks for reading.


::EDIT::

I also want to add that the reason I'm thinking about ditching RedHat is the mountain of problems I'm having with it. I can't install the new KDE, nor the new GNOME. When I run up2date, more than likely when it's finished something will not work. :(

Does Mandrake usually have these problems? I am very busy with school right now, and I don't have time to be troubleshooting.

Also, what happens when a newer version of mandrake comes out. Will it be easily upgraded?

[ 10 April 2001: Message edited by: eXtremist ]

[Molecule Man]

Mandrake has DrakeUpdate. It is a nice gui tool to download security updates or if real adventurous, packages from Cooker, the devel version of Mandrake. So far it has been fairly easy to update to a new version. Also with 7.2 you can update from within, without having to reboot. They ahve also come out with a cool new idea, DrakeFreq. It is a comboniation of their latest stable Distro,, and update several the packages to the latest versions, so you don't have to wait for the next release, which is usually 4-8 months. I would suggest getting DrakeFreq if you can't wait for 8.0.

Version 8 is going to have RPM 4 Glibc2.2 and severall other features that make the new rpms binary incompatible, much like RH 6.2 and RH7. So far from what I have seen, it should be really good when its done.

From its expansion, it must be doing good. I haven't heard any rumours that say they are doing otherwise finacially.

[Molecule Man]

Oh, and there is a graphical menu for Lilo. You can also choose grub if you so desire.

[Big_daddy]

Grub rules but I'm waiting for Mandrake 8. 7.2 has just not been velly velly good to me.

[africanpekin]

Originally posted by Big_daddy:
<STRONG>Grub rules but I'm waiting for Mandrake 8. 7.2 has just not been velly velly good to me.</STRONG>

Hey all,

Just downloaded and installed the mandy 8.0 RC1. So far it is very stable and I am using it right now. Using Konqueror for web browsing and the kernel ver is 2.4.3. Is that not cool? If you have fast access invest in the 1hr and 20min download @ least that is how long it took me on my media one connection.

Have fun.

[eXtremist]

Will it be too much trouble if I want to upgrade to 8.0 later (from 7.2)? Will it screw my system not doing a fresh install?

[Nutrageous]

I am a newbie so I can speak as one. I installed Mandrake, the only distro of linux I have tried. The only trouble I had with the install is it did not recognize my KB. So , "insert root password" comes around. Uh oh... You can picture what happens :). So I got a new KB and I'm just fooling around with it now. I am trying to get my @home cable to work with it, but I am having a bit of trouble with it. So, good luck!

[milanuk]

Originally posted by eXtremist:
<STRONG>Will it be too much trouble if I want to upgrade to 8.0 later (from 7.2)? Will it screw my system not doing a fresh install?</STRONG>

Generally speaking, it isn't a really good idea to 'upgrade' your disks from one distro to another. The possible exception to this would be if you partitioned /home of on it's own, separate from everything else. Then it is (relatively speaking) much easier to preserve your user data i.e. mail files, browser bookmarks, programming files, whatever whilst changing distros. The rub is that most distros install a whole bunch of dotfiles in user's directories, and they may conflict w/ what you had set up or just outright over-write yours.

The other problem that makes upgrading really interesting is different distros start assigning different numerical user id's. Debian (I think) starts assigning user (non-system) uid's over a 1000, and RedHat (and I think Mandrake) start at 500. I think some older systems (early Slackware) started at 100? Anyway, the problem pops up when you back up your /home directory, have it all on a separate partition, and then just reinstall everything else. Suddenly when you log in as a new user, even w/ the same name you had before, you may not have all the stuff in your directory that you thought you did. Example: I use KRUD (RH based) for now, and I had everything in /home, and decided I needed to re-install, and I opted not to update, as I've heard waaaayy too many gotchas w/ updating, even from one distro to another version of the same. Fine. I start the reinstall, opt not to format /home, and everything is off and running. Problem is, when I login, I find out that since the second time round I installed snort, which got a userid and home directory just ahead of me, it got my old directory, too! What a PITA!!

Probably didn't help much, but at least now you're somewhat aware of the hazards of upgrading. Knowing that they exist is 80% of the battle.

BTW, I'd say stick w/ RedHat. Mandrake is pretty, and slick, and all, but some times it works like a champ, and sometimes it takes candy from babies. RedHat is not near as flashy, and you have to learn a little more to get things done. Depends on what you want. If you want results _now_ w/o knowing the details, use Mandrake. If you want to learn a little now, and get results a little down the road, use Redhat. If learning is a real priority, try Slackware, or Debian.

Monte

[Molecule Man]

BTW He was talking about upgrading MDK from 7.2 to 8.0.

In the past it has worked very well. I can't speak about the future, but it should work fine, particularly if you do it by booting ot the CD.

[Tyr-7BE]

I'm not sure about changing major release numbers. In the past, upgrading from 7.0 to 7.1 to 7.2 has worked nicely, as it has with the kernel. 8.0 seems to have major changes, and i"m not sure whether or not it'll let you update. I'd recommend going for 8.0 myself, as I hear pretty good things about it.
Also, whatever RH has, Mandy has. Mandy IS RH with a few extras thrown in for the newbie :)

[redline]

All I have to say is...


:cool: Redhat 6.2 :cool:

redline