Linux SUSE, Mandrake or RedHat?

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pecel

Golden Member
Apr 7, 2000
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Help me decide which one I should give it a try since I'm a linux newbie.
Also it seems Mandrake and RedHat more popular since I can find the book about both of them in local Barnes&Noble.

Which one has the best GUI and user friendly?

Thanks.
 
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Chooco

Banned
Apr 5, 2002
731
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i personaly LOVE mandrake 8.0, it's the ONLY distro of Linux which can use my ethernet card for some reason. i'm just to cheap to buy a new ethernet card lol

my friend loves RedHat 7.1 because it has tons of support. in download lists you will always see things like "23232_redhat7.x_i386.tar.gz" and then there is "23423_noname_linux_i586.tar.gz"
RedHat has like specialy made things or something, there's always 'redhat version' then there is 'other version' which supports all other distros.

i personaly like mandrake because of the easy to use control panel, and because it can actually use my ethernet card lol. i tried 8.2 but it was not able to load KDE for some reason.

RedHat has lots of support but Mandrake 8.0 is more GUI based instead of console based. just remember that if you choose to install Mandrake, choose the ADVANCED installation so you can choose to not boot into X. make KDE the default X system but make sure you do NOT boot in X. for some server applications or if you plan to run a Linux game you want to be in the console and use the command 'xinit' to bring a small non bloated X window to run the program in (such as Unreal Tournament for Linux).


as a side note, RedHat has put a......thing....where nobody can host a mirror or sell CDs that have RedHat installed on them which makes downloading RedHat just a bitch. the max i could ever get was like 7KB/s because there is only 1 place to DL it from. Mandrake has several mirrors, the best i found were the Pensilvania and Oregon sites.
Linux Mandrake Site
RedHat Linux Site
 
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N11

Senior member
Mar 5, 2002
309
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RedHat has lots of support but Mandrake 8.0 is more GUI based instead of console based. just remember that if you choose to install Mandrake, choose the ADVANCED installation so you can choose to not boot into X. make KDE the default X system but make sure you do NOT boot in X.


Does mandrake not have a form of inittab?

No harm in booting into X. You can always drop run levels.
 
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Chooco

Banned
Apr 5, 2002
731
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yes but i don't know how to do that, the guys at linuxquestions told me how but i have to check it again.

the only way i could get my ethernet card to work was through the advanced install for some reason. last time i got the ethernet card to work, it stopped working when the computer shut off........that is why i'm going to leave the computer on FOREVER.
 
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Barnaby W. Füi

Elite Member
Aug 14, 2001
12,343
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ethernet cards are not mystical creations, and mandrake doesn't write drivers. i'd be shocked and amazed if that card *really* only worked in mandrake.

its just a matter of *knowing* how to get it working ;) (usually a simple modprobe and /etc/modules edit....)
 
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japetto

Member
Apr 15, 2002
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Which one has the best GUI and user friendly?
Click to expand...
As far as the best GUI - its really a matter of choice, meaning they can all run the same GUI's (I would suggest Gnome or KDE to start). Between the three I would say that Mandrake is more geared toward newbie/windows migrants. :cool:
 
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Flatline

Golden Member
Jun 28, 2001
1,248
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I'd say the best distro for noobs is probably Mandrake (be prepared for Windows-style bloat, though), with RedHat coming in a close second. RedHat 7.3 is out, and it has the nifty new, prettier versions of Gnome and KDE; it is enormous, though...it actually takes up 3 CDs now. RedHat arguably has the best support, but Mandrake is probably the easiest distro to use, so you probably wouldn't need it as much.
Either way, though, you're going to get a pretty good OS.
 
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Chooco

Banned
Apr 5, 2002
731
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Fooey, it's a D-Link DFE-530TX PCI
my linux box also has a huge problem with extreme LAG. not like it boots slow or opens slow but i mean it has NO VIDEO SUPPORT. damn ATI piece of crap :(
when i exit KDE i can also see the last line:
(--) FBDev: No driver support for hardware acceleration

so whenever i scroll in text editor or in mozilla or whatever, it refreshes super slow. it looks like if you were in a helicopter looking down at waves on the ocean. that kind of slow. i'm not gonna buy a nVidia card just so i can have less lag......just yet.
 
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Kai4Linux

Member
Apr 28, 2002
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I used to use Redhat with RH 7.2 and Skipjack. It was ok, problem was 0pen Office woulnd't work, so t basically just killed a lot of my productivity. Also, i had to rebuild the kernel to get my audigy to work which was a bitch too hehe. Mandrake ervything worked sweet. Both are still pretty easy to learn, but for me, I had a horrible experience with RH. tons of stuff would break so fast, and code wouldn't build right, but so far MDK 8.2 works fine. Sure its newbish, but its learn as much as you want. you can use different tools if you want. Its still linux at heart.
 
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EmperorRob

Senior member
Mar 12, 2001
968
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I'm a RedHat and KDE man. But I actually prefer it when RH doesn't release special versions. But it's all good.
 
cleverhandle

cleverhandle

Diamond Member
Dec 17, 2001
3,566
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Originally posted by: Chooco
Fooey, it's a D-Link DFE-530TX PCI
my linux box also has a huge problem with extreme LAG. not like it boots slow or opens slow but i mean it has NO VIDEO SUPPORT. damn ATI piece of crap :(
when i exit KDE i can also see the last line:
(--) FBDev: No driver support for hardware acceleration

so whenever i scroll in text editor or in mozilla or whatever, it refreshes super slow. it looks like if you were in a helicopter looking down at waves on the ocean. that kind of slow. i'm not gonna buy a nVidia card just so i can have less lag......just yet.
Click to expand...

That's just because that installation of X uses the frame-buffer driver by default. This is easier for newbs because it requires less video card info to get running, but doesn't run well in some cases (like yours). The non-frame-buffer ati driver in XFree4.2 works just fine for regular use, and supports DRI as well - the only time nVidia is better is if you're trying to run WineX.
 
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Chooco

Banned
Apr 5, 2002
731
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actually i read that WineX is still a bit buggy, my friend uses the codeweavers distribution of Wine and it works FANTASTIC. i like it too, i install and run both Half-Life and Unreal Tournament.

about that buffer thing, how to make it lag less? don't tell me to buy a new video card just yet.
 
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BlitzRommel

Golden Member
Dec 13, 1999
1,529
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SuSE is the best for n00bs IMO, it's how I got started and there's a lot of wizards to get you started. Ain't free, though
 
Shamrock

Shamrock

Golden Member
Oct 11, 1999
1,441
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since when does Linux cost money?
Click to expand...

that's simple, when you have 56k and can't download it, you gotta buy it in the stores :p

I was gonna download Mandrake, until i saw 3 FULL CD's of 650mb each, that woulda taken 3 weeks easy! Unless of course someone wants to ship me Mandrake ;)

I "HAVE" to learn Linux, because NeverWinter Nights is coming up, and I abelong to a huge gaming organization called HomeLan Federation and we are gonna try a windows version, and Linux version, and I am co-creating our world :)
 
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Chooco

Banned
Apr 5, 2002
731
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omg omg omg i am so happy, i have just had my first leap in Linux :)

i launched a TFC server (it's a mod for Half-Life) with Neo-TF and HPB bots :D :D :D
it's on a celeron 500 but holy crap it is FAST!!!
it's in KDE and the processor monitor says it's only running at 30% CPU power, that is when it's running about 5 humans at 7 bots! my AthlonXP 1700+ processes at about 60% in WindowsXP when it has 5 humans and 9 bots. the strange thing is the memory, the monitor said that not all my ram was taken and that box has 384 in it. my WinXP box has 512mb RAM and it says only about 117MB is free.......

great thing, i run game server on a different desktop so my family doesn't accidently shut her down, that happens sometimes on this Windows box :(

man i'm starting to love Linux.....just today (or was it yesterday?) i find out that i can unzip .zip files in Linux so transfering files is a breeze....tomorrow i'll setup the Apache server then i'll really be kickin it :D
 
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Flatline

Golden Member
Jun 28, 2001
1,248
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If it's the big black book, then most of it is basic networking foo. Doing simple (and some more complex) things with Samba can be surprisingly...well...simple :)
 
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