Mandrake 8.0 Power Pack or RedHat 7.1 Profesional???

[]-Black-Ice9-[]

Help! Which would be the better distro for me to get? It would be my first time using linux and, of course then I am a NEWBIE (big time). Which has easier/better instal, which program has better graphical interphases (I think mandrake?) and which is just iverall easier to configure so everything works for me? Thanks a lot.

Which one looks best graphically, KDE, GNOME?? Others? Also what are good mp3 players?

[ 01 August 2001: Message edited by: ]-Black-Ice9-[ ]

[Marcel2008]

RedHat is the best choice i think. But mandrake is nice too. It just depends on your taste.

[]-Black-Ice9-[]

Well taste as in what? I mentioned that i like graphical interfaces and all that. I will be using it for a lot of art stuff. ANyway, i went to linux.org and clicked on applications. If i was to download something from there would it be compatable with any distro? thanks im really new

[MandK_10]

Both will be about as easy to set up both have the same RPM system for installing new software and both have good built in software. They both offer many Window Managers and file managers. You will find that the KDE and Gnome (desktop managers) that come with Mandrake are newer than what ships with RedHat. My opinion is that this is not necessarily a good thing. They seem to be slower. Some people like them though.

On my system I could not get the modem to dial my ISP correctly for some reason(with Mandrake). I have never had problems with RedHat from day one. Just personal experience.

Whichever you chose, read the install manuals through before installing. Then read any other documentation you can get your hands on. Familiarize yourself with the options available.

I will steer you toward RedHat but others may disagree.

My $.02

Mike

[ 01 August 2001: Message edited by: MandK_10 ]

[ 01 August 2001: Message edited by: MandK_10 ]

[Domin]

For MP3 players Xmms is THE way to go. I know Mandrake installs it by default, not sure bout RH though.

[TacKat]

I've never used RH, but I can say that I had no trouble installing Mandrake 8 as my first distro. I did take some time to get my internet connection working properly, but as I have a nonstandard LAN setup that shouldn't be too much of a problem.

[slayer17]

I loved mandrake till redhat 7.1 came out, it is cleaner less buggy than drake 8.0. I don't know why but I had a hell of a time installing drake 8.0 ( I know it is easy as hell but...). I have used linux for over 2 years now so I am good with most distros but I personally like redhat 7.1. You will have to try them all and find one that fits your style and personality. But redhat has a basic install that is easy to do.

[ratsalad]

im a real newbie too, but i just tried redhat and it was a disaster....it shut down during installation a few times and tehn when i finally got it in, it wouldnt let me run netscape or mozilla, and then crashed within minutes of start up, and then would not reboot with out some sort of manual fsk or something. it did this twice, so i say, nuts to that, ....tho i really did like the look of it more than mandrake

mandrake 8 give me a lil trouble reinstalling, like fuxoring up towards the end of the install a few times, segment faults,..file copy failures...but i got it up and running again, plus it recognizes my windows disks, automatically, which is cool, cause on redhat, i couldnt find them the lil time it was up, which i think you have to mount them manually which i read somewhere is a pain...

but then again, i burned the isos with nero on cheapee disks, so that might be a factor, plus my ram is generic, which i heard can mess things up, so i wonder if my experiences might be dif if i actually PAID for the package...plus, then i would get to yell at the tech support guys about it....

i just wish the fonts didnt look so choppy :p

[Dissolutus]

RH7.1 was a pain for me.
Because I have my "Boot Partition" (win2k) larger than 1024 cylinders, it was bein a TOTAL ***** about it. I had to manually fDisk the sonuva***** and THEN Lilo won't even recognize my win2k OS, so I had to go into RH and uninstall Lilo (after trying an hour or so to get it to find win2k, it just wouldn't list it)

Mandrake8 is easy to install and use. The fonts ARE crap tho, I don't get that at all..and then installing fonts seems to take forever too, but maybe that's just me?

[MandK_10]

That is true about the 1024cylinder issue. If you have a large harddrive you may have issues setting up partitions with Disk Druid in RH7.1.

If you have another tool for partitioning before you install you should not have any problems. I used Partition Magic. I set up all my partitions using this then mounted them during set up. I got a warning but everything installed fine.

So if you plan to dual boot and your harddrive is larger than 8 gig. You will probably want to go with Mandrake.

Mike

[j.harrison]

Happy Drake 8 user here. I dual booted it at home with WinMe, then I dual booted it at work with Win98SE. Both were super easy installs (easier than windows ever was). DrakX did all of the partitioning for me; all I had to do was tell it which partition I wanted it to use. Hardware detection was great (external CDRW, network card, etc.). It's my first Linux distro and I've been using it since the end of April. Drake 8 made my transition from Windows a snap, and now I'm spending more and more time in CLI, as I learn more about Linux.

So, while I have no experience in Red Hat, I can tell you this: The Drake is Great!

[pbharris]

i thought RH 7.1 had the new version of LILO, it automatically added a LBA32 in my lilo.conf file (although it did not need too, only one OS on the box :) , not inlcluding VMware )

[Gehenna_Gehenna]

Love that 'drake. I'm a big-time newbie myself, and I've tried a couple of flavors. Specifically Caldera, RH 7 & 7.1, but I finally settled on Mandrake 8.0. Easiest installation (on my configuration), and has all the bells and whistles you need, and a few that you don't need. In the begining stick with the names you know, RH, Mandrake, etc., and experiment. What you start out with may not be what you end up with. Have fun.