Re: [Pan-users] Mandrake 9.0 RPM also works for Mandrake 8.2

[John J. LeMay Jr.]

** Reply to message from Duncan <address@hidden> on Sat, 23 Nov 2002
07:44:40 -0700


> If I may ask, what are you thinking about bailing to, and why.  Mdk has been 
> my first distrib, and I've thought about switching to Debian, in particular, 
> due to its mantainability and the fact that so many Linux developers use it 
> as their platform.  Thus, any thoughts on the subject, particularly from 
> another Mdk user thinking about switching, would be useful.

I have SuSE 8.1 running on my "old" machine right along side this one right
now. I'm tired of the issues I have with Mandrake such as font support, 3D
support, strange package naming conventions, and a ton of other generally small
issues that just add up. SuSE has really come across as an advanced system
suitable for users of any experience level, at least as far as I can tell.
Right now the only thing in Mandrake that I don't have in SuSE (at least not
that I can tell) is urpmi. However, I'm playing with what I believe is a "you"
interface in KDE on SuSE that seems to do a similar function. Right now I'm
running the ftp'd version which seems to be on the light side. I'm awaiting the
full 7 cd Pro version so I can eval it properly.

I didn't pick Debian because of the install issues, although apt-get is
awesome. I am not going back to RedHat (used it from 4.1 to 5.2) because they
are taking a MS attitude in providing a "simplified" system in a "we know what
you need better than you do" kind of way - I'm sure to cut support costs.
Slackware seems to be spinning it's wheels for the past five years or so - not
making any real headway into securing itself a place in the market. Gentoo
seems nice, but I just didn't have the patience to play with that one.
Eveything else seems geared to a specific market segment, and I honestly don't
think any of them do anything I need better than SuSE seems to be doing..

-- 
John LeMay
Senior Enterprise Consultant
NJMC | http://www.njmc.com | Phone 732-557-4848
Specializing in Microsoft and Unix based solutions