[Cheshire80]

I have been a Linux user since late 2002 and started out with RedHat 7.2 for the simple fact it ran a program called "ShowEQ." Any EverQuest user(who has seen or heard of it) will tell you its a great thing to have. This was my first taste of Linux and for the past 2yrs that I have been using Linux was only for this program. Now the game is getting old and so is RedHat. Since RH 7.2 I have had several other Linux operating systems on my machine. I have still wanted to use ShowEQ when I play my game BUT the problem that plagues me is that ShowEQ runs ONLY on RH and I think Mandrake. There are others who are really good and were able to get it to run on Gentoo, SuSE and Debian.
I want to learn linux in a business like environment now. Linux has made me want to get into networking in general and Cisco to be specific. So my question is what is the most common flavour of Linux out there in the business world? I have read that RedHat has Enterprise but to get direct support and RHN you have to pay. Yeah go MS of the Linux world.
With all that said and done, here is my question: What flavour should I go with now???

I do not want RedHat and most other flavours I just can't seem to understand. I will list OSes I have and problems I been running into.
1. redhat 9 - the one I am using now but, don't want it for reasons above.

2. Slackware 9.1 - extremely hard, and I run into lock up problems on install. Its been a while but I can't even get to a point to select install packages. I have also been told this is the hardest of the flavours to run.

3. Gentoo 1.4 - If you can understand that web install guide then you are GOOD! I spent 6hrs a day on several different tries and it gets all the way through the download and install of all that it needs and it doesn't boot grub or anything when it is finished.

4. Mandrake 10 - Installs perfect BUT, after a few reboots it seems to either lock up or slow to a crawl after I enter login and pw for KDE.

5. Suse 9.1 - Works great, looks great I want to hug it but it doesn't use RPMs which sadly I am dependent on and does not run yahoo Messenger like RedHat which there are only RPMs for. I also have a firewall program(firestarter) I use that doesn't run on SUSE(its NOT RPM, it is ".tar.gz") and I need it to route my 2 other systems to the Internet.

So you can see my problems with these few that I have tried. So I guess the FIRST question should be: Where do I start(or what do I consider) before I even choose a Linux flavour?
I must mention that I have no money and can not afford support for an OS or even buy a book.

If you want to see the system I am using there might be some hardware issues. I have not heard or read up on any but maybe you know.. :)
http://h18004.www1.hp.com/products/s...370/index.html
I use the regular ML370 G4 ...NOT the high performance one, however, I bought a second Proc so it is dual now

[Whiteskin]

There'sw obviously something serious going on if you are running into performance issues on a dual 3.2.

When installing gentoo, are you sure you followed the install to the letter? Especially the kernel build part, as you should be enabling SMP.

SuSE is great, and most systems can install RPMs, however, I have to say the further away you get from RPMS the better.

Right now, in my head, I'm leaning towards a debian install. I think that would work best for you, who obviously prefers to stay away from source, and wants nice managment features. I'll warn you, getting debian up and running the first time may be a little more of a hassle than MDK or SUSe, or even RH, however, in the end, it's worth it. Once you have run debian for a while, and begin to see where it loses performance, then i'd say move on to gentoo. We have a couple of people here would would be quite glad to help on a gentoo install.

[dago]

For specific applications, I would recommend other distros. For example, Debian fits better for servers: web, mail, dns servers...

Nevertheless, Debian lacks support for hardware. I could not get my Via ethernet card working, only unstable releases gave support.

As a general consensus, Suse is the very best distro -- and Suse does use RPMs!!
But Suse is now owned by Novell and those morons took DVD support off.
Here comes a differentiation: people developing things. You may find a lot of tools in sites like http://linux01.gwdg.de/~pbleser/index.php and http://packman.links2linux.org/

I don't know Whiteskin's experience with RPMs, but my experience shows me DEBs are good and RPMs are best. That simple.

Don't expect RPMs be a solution for all problems, they help but there is no magic here. Source code is different, you can compile it in almost any distro available and Suse permits you right clicking -> selecting "install with Yast" -> everything done!! almost magic...

We have other nice distros spread along the world. Major problem is application support as there is no many people developing for them. One example for that is Conectiva, Red Hat based and very friendly Brazilian distro. (They made Synaptic and ported apt support for RPMs)

My advice is: you're going in the right direction, be patient and search the web.

[nic0teen0212]

http://www.blagblagblag.org/

i cant tell you how much i love this distro!!!

[Cheshire80]

Thanks a lot for the info I did read on SuSE and it does run RPMs..I think I was trying to install the RedHat 9 yahoo messenger on it and it wouldn't work..well DUH, wrong Linux hehe...I may have given Debian a shot if it wasn't 7 CDs even on a fast cable line that will take a LONG time to D/L and I only have 2 CD-Rs left. I really want to use Gentoo. I have heard good about it. Like I said though, that online guide is hard to understand and in the end I can never get it running. The other down side to me not installing Gentoo properly is that I need a large time frame to work with. I use the server with RedHat 9 right now and use it as a firewall/router for my other 2 systems. I may have time somewhere within the next week or so to attempt to get a printed copy of the install guide and see where it takes me and IF I may have missed a step before. I don't think I did. It was back in March though so memory if hazy hehehe
Thanks again for info and I will be patient and search around more

[Whiteskin]

You only need one cd. Not even that. For debian, that is.

You can do a net install, and install only what you need off of the internet! (It helps to read the manual)