[Wylug-help] Now: Distro wars

[Ricardo Campos]

> What differences did you find in ease of installation, if any? It
> would also be interesting to hear what your systems of choice are now
> & for what purposes.

I started with Mandrake 7. something-or-other (yep, I haven't been a Linux =
user for that long). The installation was a breeze, it set up my printer, m=
odem and X properly. Sadly, I found the system as a whole a bit bleeding ed=
ge i.e. buggy. So I went up to 8.0, which was more of the same.

I found Redhat 7.3 to have a fantastic installer, I didn't identify any gut=
-wrenching bugs, but I disliked the auto-update registration thing they use=
. Also, RH use very custom scripts for certain things, and I found this a l=
ittle daunting when I wanted to customise the system.

Both of these systems suffered from bloat- there were apps that I just didn=
't use installed, even when I deselcted them in the install process. That's=
 one of my pet hates (i.e. I have no use for apache on this system, for exa=
mple).

I then moved to Debian, which I use on my desktop computer. started with Po=
tato, and with the glory of broadband, updated to Woody, with only one glit=
ch- X, which I had to do some manual magic to install the newer 4.x series.=
 I did an absoloutely minimal install with the installer- deselected practi=
cally everything, and then installed the things I use (by this time I knew =
which apps I liked for what). apt-get is a wonder, the only downside, perha=
ps is that you don't have to learn where the config files are stored, which=
 can make it tricky later. Please no flames, but I found the Debian install=
 just awful- it took 3 attempts until I knew what I was doing. It'd probabl=
y seem a breeze now, since I'm comfortable with compiling my kernel.

I use Gentoo on my laptop, because I wanted to eek out as much performance =
as I could out of it. Previously I had Redhat 7.3 on it, and I have noticed=
 a significant performance difference, esp. with Mozilla and Open Office. I=
 learnt ALOT in the Gentoo install- I used 1.2, as the 1.4rc seemed horribl=
y broken (no pcmcia drivers, for example - fat lot of use). However the Gen=
too docs are wonderfully written, step by step, and understandable. I also =
found that Gentoo has far more up to date apps, but hasn't (yet) shown any =
major bugs or instability. It is a hideously slow process, however, I would=
n't attempt it without broadband and a lot of spare time (it took a day for=
 the base system, then overnight, then perhaps another day and night. I'm r=
eally impressed by Gentoo, and perhaps I'd switch to Gentoo for my desktop,=
 if it wasn't for the awfully long time it takes to install/compile.

I think I would probably use Debian for internal servers (in fact I do) tha=
t need to be stable but not necessarily need maximum performance or the new=
est bells and whistles, Gentoo for servers where performance *really* matte=
rs. Gentoo as well for desktops, esp. if you need up-to-date apps, but don'=
t want to risk having a Debian testing or mixed system. But the choice is m=
uch of a muchness, since I really like both! And ipcop makes a groovy firew=
all. ;)

But for a newbie, I would say Redhat.

> I'd forgotten about the RH compiler fiasco.

It was fine until you had to compile anything from source. Actually, I firs=
t experienced that problem with Mandrake 8, which also used 2.96 IIRC.

>> Vive la difference!
> Agreed. Which system would you recommend to a newbie who wanted to
> learn unix/linux?

If they were from a non-unix background, Redhat. (See above)


> > And yes my line wrap's broke. Working on it ;)
> Dodgy webmail isn't it? ;)

Yup!
--
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