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I'm a Linux newbie,and have been doing a little research into what would be best for me.I've come to the conclusion that I should probably start with either Mandrake or Redhat,but don't know which one.What are the primary differences in the two?Which is easier to use?Which is better security-wise?What do you all use,and why?I found a similar thread to this,but a lot of responses left out why they use the version of Linux they use,and that's what I really need to know.
Hmm, im not to familiar with mandrake, but I can say that red hat is pretty good to start out on. 7.3 has a very nice installer, almost as nice as YaST on SuSe. It was the first version of Linux I ever used, and it was enough to get me hooked. Since your starting out with linux, my advice would be to go pick up a Linux For Dummies book, they usually come with a distro of linux on cd, and mess around with that. Hope this helps you out some, and good luck!
I had the same question when I first wanted to tinker with Linux. For the most part, the answer that I got was to download a few and try to determine it for myself. I have really only played with Mandrake, and I like it. The installs have been easy for me - user friendly. The way I understand it, it is one of the easiest installs of all distros. I'm sure that could be argued for or against. You will be the best judge since you will be the one using it for whatever purpose you want. Opinions only count for but so much when it comes to something like this. Much of it is preference. For example, someone may say that something has a great GUI, but you may not care because you only want to work from a command line. I plan to download a few of the others to play with. Also, you may like a certain flavor for a certain function. There are so many variations. It may not matter much to you if you plan on compiling your own kernel - I don't know much about this. My recommendation would be to download a few and see what floats your boat - RH and Mandrake are probably two good ones to start with. It seems they have somewhat set a standard. I hope this helps. Take care.
I personally like Mandrake, nothing against Redhat, but I found Mandrake a breeze to install and with software included, like Bastille and Mandrakes "msec" it takes some of the guess work out of hardening the machine for newbies.
Which ever distro you go for I know you will enjoy the challenges Linux will provide and you will be on the commandline before you know it.
Regards,
PP
as a newbie you really can't go wrong with either. personally i like mandrake, but redhat is still a really good distro. you'll pry get the most tech support from it.
http://www.distrowatch.com/ is a good place to get some descriptions of a lot of different distros.
Everybody has raised a lot of good points, but the decision ultimately comes down to personal preference.
My .02 is that I would recommend Red Hat simply because I have found it to be better tested and more bug-free than Mandrake. I recently went off on a little rant about the way Mandrake tests their product, and I stand by what I said in that thread. Mandrake 9.0 is scheduled for release early this week, and the things I've heard about the betas and RC haven't been particularly encouraging. :(
Why not download them both and take them for a spin? Or if you don't have a broadband connection, you can get the CDs from cheapbytes.com for simething like $2. Do a little experimenting and see what you like.
problemchild
I do agree with you on Mandrake - I try to avoid their .0 & .1 releases and go for the .2"s - most of the bugs have been ironed out by then, most but not all. Mandrake does tend to lean towards the bleeding edge and can rush the product sometimes. I have heard some good things about Debian's Woody release recently.
You have made a good point.
PP
As soon as I posted, I found a thread over at pclinuxonline.com on this very subject that may shed some light on things. Both Red Hat 8 and Mandrake 9.0 are due any time now.
http://www.pclinuxonline.com/modules...ticle&sid=3279
Mandrake is, I think, a great choice for a beginner. Either is good but, if I were starting with linux, I'd go with Mandrake. In a couple of years, when you've learned it, take a hard look at Slackware. It's the king as far as I'm concerned, but not for a newbie.
Ive played around with Mandrake and Redhat for a little while and I would say go with Mandrake. I havent had a very encouraging experience with Redhat 7.2+ but that may just be me. As for Mandrake, I dont have alot of good to say about anything above 7.2, just because of the bugs.
I use mandrake ,but I have installed both ...but i thend to go with mandrake because some of the development stuff for perl is better (more packages).red Hat is great but Mandrake is better( at leased in my head).
I've used both Red Hat and Mandrake for quite a while and while I must admit that while Red Hat has less bugs, Mandrake is the distro for newbies just starting out in the Linux world. It's GUI and wizard applications are far more suited to newbies than Red Hat...
I use Mandrake 8.2 at home and Redhat on our production servers at work. If your just starting out Mandrake is the way to go. It's very user friendly and similar to the redhat structure. If you go with mandrake go for 8.2 and stay away from 8.1.
Ya detoxsmurf your right 8.2 is better. the only thing that I found to sucks was nmap was a option in 8.1 and not 8.2...but other then that I love 8.2 I think I will set up a computer at work with linux on it..
"score on for linux" LOL
My preference of Linux has always been Slackware... ever since good ol' kernel 1.2.13. I never had a reason for starting with slackware, well I liked the name. Here is my thoughts on why I would still pick it if I started off. It's kinda raw, it won't baby you as much as some of the other distro's. To me it's the most unix like of the linux distros. This may or may not be your goal. If you aim to be a hardcore unix god, I'd go with slackware. If you're going for "i don't want to use windows, but i'm not that hardcore yet" either redhat or mandrake will suit you just fine.
final thoughts: If you pick slackware, you'll have a tougher time, but you'll learn more.
Since I started this post I have decided to go with Mandrake 8.2.It just feels a little more natural to me at this time.After a while,I'd like to experiment with slackware though.I've heard nothing but good things about it.I think you're right sargex,but I'd like to get at least a little understanding of Linux before jumping into slackware,because like I said I have very little experience using it,,and I tend to get burnt on learning things if I get in way over my head.Thanx everybody for your opinions.