What's the best distribution?

[jasonaraymond at yahoo.com (Jason Raymond)]

  If you just want to try it, go with KNOPPIX, (a
bootable CD-Rom Distro)but I Have to agree that
Mandrake is currently the best distribution in concern
with ease of install, configuration, and general
usability.  
  By no means am I a zealot in this when I say I have
compaered several different distrobutions, and Red
Hat, although touted as the best is definetly NOT. 
Red Hat doesn't do much to optimize the code for 686
Architectures like Mandrake, and you may also find
yourself doing more configurating than Mandrake.  
  Mandrake has better ADSL setup scripts than RH ( who
leaves you to write your own) , and goes the extra
mile to please the "End User" .  What should be a
concern when comparing Distros is How valuable is your
time ?
  I may also note that Red Hat does not offer native
mode for ReiserFS at install (as of 7.3). This also
pertains to Software RAID features as well.  
  Red Hat's reluctance to acknowledge the End User
restricts the OS to more technically savy people who,
like Debian Users (no offense intended) , are usually
endowed with time, and are not always in an Enterprise
Class networking environment where Time Counts, and
one cannot be fiddling with all of the advanced
configurations of Linux elements while in a production
environment. That being said, Balance your needs.  Any
jr. high school kid can (and will) waste time tweaking
Vertical and Horizontal Frequencies attempting to push
their harware further, but to the Professional, Server
side Issues usually prevail.  The most efficient,
cost-effective, Distro will be the one to simplify
server-side configurations, and security issues.
  If you are just plain bored, idealistic, and closed
minded, then go for Debian and it's derivitaves.  If
you want immediate results , then go with Mandrake. 
Mandrake is Red Hat on Steroids, and takes all of RH's
features to the next level.
 
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> Today's Topics:
> 
>    1. What's the best distribution? (Glenn
> Burkhardt)
>    2. Re: What's the best distribution? (Mark J.
> Dulcey)
>    3. Re: What's the best distribution? (David
> Kramer)
>    4. Review of Evil Entity Linux (not a joke)
> (David Kramer)
> 
> --__--__--
> 
> Message: 1
> From: Glenn Burkhardt <gbburkhardt at aaahawk.com>
> To: discuss at blu.org
> Subject: What's the best distribution?
> Date: Sun, 3 Nov 2002 20:00:08 -0500
> 
> Ah, yes.  The perennial question.
> 
> I stayed out the last time someone posted this
> question to the list, but I 
> can't hold back anymore.
> 
> I like Mandrake.
> 
> But I didn't have any basis for comparison, which is
> why I bowed out before.  
> And I just ran across several reviews...
> 
> But before I quote them, there are two items I do
> have personal experience 
> with.
> 
> - Mandrake has supermount for removable media. 
> Correct me if I'm wrong, but 
> the other distro's haven't adopted it.  It's a
> little thing, but makes my 
> computer more friendly.
> 
> - Red Hat has had a habit of releasing code before
> it's ready for prime time. 
> I use Linux commerically, and just don't have time
> for it.  There was the 
> fiasco with the 2.96 gcc compiler.  And as soon as
> Gnome could compile, it 
> was installed as the default desktop.  But the Gnome
> folks had decided to 
> re-write anything that wasn't GPL'd, and they made
> mistakes and omissions. I 
> found that they had re-written xdm, but forgot to
> install all the standard 
> entrys in .Xauthority, so I couldn't run X
> applications remotely.  That's 
> when I switched to Mandrake.
> 
> - Mandrake has included more window managers,
> filesystems, and applications 
> (e.g., xemacs) than other distro's.
> 
> I found these notes on www.extremetech.com, who, in
> the end, rate Mandrake a 
> 9 (10 is highest), RedHat an 8, and SUSE a 7.
> 
> "Mandrake, Red Hat, and SuSE each have complete
> Control Centers. I personally 
> find that Mandrake does the best job of simplifying
> and streamlining the way 
> that their tools are used during installation.
> Mandrake's daily 
> administration tools are organized in categories,
> (such as networks, 
> printers, etc.). SuSE organizes their tools very
> well for day-to-day 
> administration, categorizing and organizing each set
> of features together. 
> SuSE keeps the same organization and displays an
> almost identical Control 
> Center to configure the system during installation.
> While this is great for 
> consistency, I believe it puts too much burden on an
> inexperienced software 
> installer."
> 
> "SuSE also needs work with the overall GNOME setup.
> SuSE is easy to install, 
> includes a great disk resizing wizard, is easy to
> set up, has a lot of useful 
> software, and very good documentation. But it's just
> not as good as the 
> others."
> 
> I stand ready to be flamed.
> 
> 
> --__--__--
> 
> Message: 2
> Date: Sun, 03 Nov 2002 22:14:56 -0500
> From: "Mark J. Dulcey" <mark at buttery.org>
> To: Glenn Burkhardt <gbburkhardt at aaahawk.com>
> Cc: discuss at blu.org
> Subject: Re: What's the best distribution?
> 
> Glenn Burkhardt wrote:
> > 
> > I found these notes on www.extremetech.com, who,
> in the end, rate Mandrake a 
> > 9 (10 is highest), RedHat an 8, and SUSE a 7.
> > 
> > "Mandrake, Red Hat, and SuSE each have complete
> Control Centers. I personally 
> > find that Mandrake does the best job of
> simplifying and streamlining the way 
> > that their tools are used during installation.
> Mandrake's daily 
> > administration tools are organized in categories,
> (such as networks, 
> > printers, etc.). SuSE organizes their tools very
> well for day-to-day 
> > administration, categorizing and organizing each
> set of features together. 
> > SuSE keeps the same organization and displays an
> almost identical Control 
> > Center to configure the system during
> installation. While this is great for 
> > consistency, I believe it puts too much burden on
> an inexperienced software 
> > installer."
> > 
> > "SuSE also needs work with the overall GNOME
> setup. SuSE is easy to install, 
> > includes a great disk resizing wizard, is easy to
> set up, has a lot of useful 
> > software, and very good documentation. But it's
> just not as good as the 
> > others."
> 
> SuSE is indeed not the distribution you want to run
> if GNOME is your preferred desktop; they tend to lag
> in adopting new versions, and haven't gotten
> everything right. On the other hand, if KDE is your
> favorite, you'll love it; since SuSE is a major
> supporter of the KDE development team, they're
> always ready with everything first. The other thing
> I like about SuSE is that it upgrades cleanly; you
> can usually just upgrade a working system without
> having to manually tweak anything.
> 
> Red Hat 8.0 is nice if you like the idea of a
> unified look for KDE and GNOME; their defaults
> change the default look of both. If you prefer the
> "native" looks of those environments, on the other
> hand, you might prefer to look elsewhere. Red Hat
> does seem to have tested this release well, unlike
> some past releases. My experience with upgrading Red
> Hat is less positive; you usually have to put some
> configuration files back to rights after an upgrade.
> 
> Mandrake is also very nice, but my personal
> experience with it is limited.
> 
> The ExtremeTech review downticked SuSE mostly for
> two reasons: their poor support of GNOME, and their
> closed testing process. (They don't have open beta
> versions, nor do they routinely involve the Linux
> community, other than a selected few, in their
> testing.) If those things aren't important to you,
> I'd say that Mandrake and SuSE are about equal, and
> I'd put Red Hat behind both of them. As always, your
> mileage may vary.
> 
> 
> 
> --__--__--
> 
> Message: 3
> From: David Kramer <david at thekramers.net>
> To: discuss at blu.org
> Subject: Re: What's the best distribution?
> Date: Mon, 4 Nov 2002 00:34:36 -0500
> 
> On Sunday 03 November 2002 08:00 pm, Glenn Burkhardt
> wrote:
> > Ah, yes.  The perennial question.
> >
> > I stayed out the last time someone posted this
> question to the list, bu=
> t I
> > can't hold back anymore.
> 
> http://www.distrowatch.com/
> 
> 
> --
> DDDD   David Kramer         david at thekramers.net    
>   http://thekramers.=
> net
> DK KD =20
> DKK D  Secret hacker rule #11: hackers read manuals.
> DK KD =20
> DDDD  =20
> 
> --__--__--
> 
> Message: 4
> From: David Kramer <david at thekramers.net>
> To: BLU Boston Linux Unix group <discuss at blu.org>,
> 	geek at thekramers.net
> Subject: Review of Evil Entity Linux (not a joke)
> Date: Mon, 4 Nov 2002 00:42:12 -0500
> 
>
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> 
> --
> DDDD   David Kramer         david at thekramers.net    
>   http://thekramers.=
> net
> DK KD =20
> DKK D  Secret hacker rule #11: hackers read manuals.
> DK KD =20
> DDDD  =20
> 
> 
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