Why different distro's?

[neocytrix]

Hello everyone,

I am extremely new to linux. I tried to do redhat 9.0 and had problems with it so went to mandrake it is working just fine. I was wondering what makes one Distro better than another? Now I know all you advanced users are looking down on me as an idiot but thats the stage I want to get out of. So im asking, What makes Mandrake better that Redhat, or Suse better than Gentoo?

 

 

-Neocytrix

[tyme]

-----> http://www.mandrakeusers.org/viewtopic.php?t=7764

[fuzzylizard]

Absolutely nothing. There really is no best or better distro. There is simply different focuses for each distro and which focus best matches your own.

 

Mandrake - focused on the newbie desktop home user, also tends to be very cutting edge in terms of included software versions

Red Hat - focused on the business desktop market, and goes more for stability than cutting edge versions (although that is changing some)

SuSe - focused on just about everyone

Gentoo - focused on the do it yourself user

Debian - focused on the totally secure stable server/desktop market

 

And each distro do some things better then other distros and other things worse. I personally use both Red Hat and Mandrake. Mandrake on my desktop server because I really like the more cutting edge features and the urpmi packaging system. However, Red Hat is the only distro that I can time after time install with out a problem onto notebooks, so that is what I use on my laptop.

 

The best advice is to try each of them that interest you and stick with the one that you like best. That is the true strength of open source software -- choice.

[jlc]

Welcome to the board, and we try not to look at anyone like they are in idiot! We are were noobs once. :wink:

 

It mostly comes down to prefernece. Almost all distro's have there advantages/disadvantages to another one.

 

MDK/RH/SuSE are all good RPM and starter distro's, (advanced users use them too)

Gentoo/Debian/Slackare are considered a little more advanced than the others there easier to keep up to date, but take some work to learn more about Linux.

 

There are about 150 Current Linux distro's so it would take to long for me to go through and spell them out for you, instead I will point you to here.

 

10 Major Distributions

 

The rest of them here on the right hand colum will give you a short description.

 

Most people tend to stick with

 

MDK

RH

SuSE

Debian

Gentoo

Slackware

[Guest anon]

Linux above all, is about choice, choice, choice, and personal preference. Every Linux distro will offer you say, four browsers, five wordprocessors, three bla bla bla. Its up to you to decide which is best for your needs. Which Linux distro is best?? Again, its up to you to decide. The Mandrake version is generally considered the easiest for people new to linux to handle. (especially if you come from a windoze background). Red Hat is the most well known Linux distro, but is ( this is changing) mostly aimed at corporate users. Get to know Mandrake first, then try out some others, would be my sugestion.

[neocytrix]

For now im going to learn mandrake inside out before I try any more distro's. Ive been to the sites. After I am done Mandrake I would like to take a look at SuSe. Then once im really good I want to give Gentoo a shot. You've all been so helpful :lol: Thanks.

[Guest JaseP]

Each distro has a different bent as others have described. Fuzzylizard's descriptions are pretty much right on.

 

As far as ease of administration, Mandrake and SuSE are probably the better of the two. My nod goes to SuSE because they don't try to be as bleeding edge with stuff. SuSE focuses on being a complete desktop distro with an emphasis on reliable setup and stability. Mandrake focuses on user-friendly setup with all the latest bells and whistles (whether working or not). That said, getting windoze stuff (with Wine or WineX) to run in SuSE isn't as easy because of the way that they compile glibc... Mandrake is better that way. SuSE can be had at your local BestBuy (if in the USA), while Mandrake tends to be wishy-washy in terms of distribution channels. Mandrake is in financial trouble, SuSE is pretty much geared for future growth (which they tend to botch from time to time).

 

You may decide that after getting your teeth cut with a distro like them, you want more of a challenge. I'd say Debian is more the route to go there.

 

You can also try bootable CD distros like Knoppix. Many are pretty cool in terms of what they can cram on one CD, and it won't nerf your exisiting setup.

 

But by and large, Welcome. You'll like being a Linux early adopter. It'll give you a head start when the rest of the world converts over.

[Gnubie]

I'm surprised no one has mentioned Lindows, Lycoris, or Xandros. They are (supposedly) the easiest to use, but I guess if you have to use something that close to windows you might as well just use windows. :lol:

[Gowator]

Hmmmm.

Actually any of them is better than Windows.

 

Lycoris comes from the RPM family (RedHat-Mandrake-Suse) and Xandros and Lindows from the APT family (Debian)

 

Lindows in particualr has some security issues but I believe these are now sorted out. These are all NON-FREE distro's and one common aspect is the hardware detection is WAY better than Mandrake.....

 

But - You also have less choice in apps without 'hacking around'.

Lindows for instance concentrates on one package per task. Its an exception to anon's rule.

This is IMHO both good and bad.

My mother doesn't want a choice of 5 browsers installed - she wants a Internet Icon.

 

Now I use different things ..... so I prefer the choice. More than one DVD player etc. Lindows actually has a SH$T HOT Xine (apparently) which allows LIVE recording .... and it comes with encrypted playback as standard. (So Im told).

 

However, if I prefer mplayer in Lindows I need to hack it about. Ultimately I can use a Debian version but because Lindows hacked the Debian APT so heavily I also stand a chance of breaking it.

 

Another thing to consider is the use of the distro.

Is it a server, workstation or both.

Do you want to interface with WinBlows machines or NOT.

 

Mandrake does server but possibly not as well (corporate wise) as RedHat or Debian Stable but does bleeding edge desktop too.

 

It has some easy config tools that work a lot of the time but personally I don't like these or any distro-specfic tools outside of packaging (RPM and DEB). These lock you into one distro and one mindset. Linux has 1000's of distros' but it is a part of a bigger family of UNIX like OS's.

 

Some people argue linux would be stronger with a single centralised distro and others that its diversity is is strength. However certain common tools SPAN all of this.....so my main criticism of Mandrake is that they use distro-specific config tools that don't prepare people to reuse their knowledge elsewhere.

If you bear this in mind when learning it you will come out better.

At least mandrake allows you to use these common tools without breaking the distro. This is a problem for the commercial distro's. (However you do need to install them ... Check out WEBMIN and LINUXCONF)

 

Several of the people here don't use Mandrake anymore at least as their primary distro but they are encouraging you to.

 

This is for good reason....

 

Mandrake is IMHO the best place for you to start your journey in Linux. It has a good balance between ease of use and configurability.

 

I'd suggest you use the Mandrake wizards until you get confident but use say WebMin or LinuxConf to monitor what they did and at a later time to customise it should the need arise..