[Jubei]

Hi.

I was thinking of installing linux on my home computer, but I don't know which version to download. I'm running winME now. I want to install linux and make a dual bootup system.

Mainly, I'll be using linux for school purposes (compiling and running c, c++, perl, etc).

Should I download red hat linux 8.0?

Thank you in advance.

Jubei.

[pvc9]

Which distro of Linux to use is all user dependant. If you're a newbie SuSe and Mandrake would be good. Redhat is a good distro but for a newbie it could be a little extra. If you can use the manuals and do the things, then Redhat is definetely a good choice IMHO!

[vpn]

if you go with redhat, (for what your wanting to do, i would) you should go with 7.2, or 7.3... 8.0 is brand new, and having some problems... if your going to go with 8.0, wait till an 8.x comes out...

[Jubei]

Ok, I heard that suse and mandrake are more friendly user than red had, but is red hat better than them? Can you do more stuff with red hat? What is the basic difference between red hat and mandrake forexample?

@ school, we use computers with UNIX OS. I would like the linux i'll get to be able to handle most of the stuff you can do on UNIX OS.

Thanks guys for reply.

jubei.

[pvc9]

There is not much difference in the distros except a few GUIs and probably installations...

Check this link here -

http://www.silentc.org/tech/distros.html

Linux Distros (Redhat VS Mandrake) 05/07/2002 - 2:26pm
I've gotten into many heated discussions lately regarding different flavors of Linux. The arguments mainly concern which distrobution is better, Redhat 7.2 or Manrake 8.x. There's pretty much "teams" involved here. Myself and one of the network engineers believe Redhat to be superior and the lan manager and the other network engineer believe Mandrake to be superior. It's gone on for quite sometime. It's really pretty ridiculous and I'll explain why

At the lowest level every single linux distrobution is the same. They all use the linux kernel and can be configured to be exactly the same as another distrobution. What your favorite distro is would be determined by how smoothly the install goes and how closely the default install matches your preferences. Redhat 7.2 does almost exactly what I need directly after installation. I can make mandrake do the same, but only after hours of fighting and hacking.

By default Redhat 7.2 installs almost all programs I need and the correct versions also. I could manually and painfully go through the Mandrake installation selection but that would take hours and it's very tedious. This is wasted time, in my opinion.

Redhat does not offer the pretty programs and GUI's for getting your work done that Mandrake does. I'll explain why this is good. Redhat forces you to learn how the gears and gadgets turn and make the system work. It forces you to graduate and move away from newbie status. Mandrake walks you through getting your work done barnie style. Someone can be a network admin of many services and not even know how they function. This is fine until you encounter a problem. Then you'll need to reinstall and pray it works. If you know how the service worked in the first place, fixing problems is quite simple usually.

Honestly, I don't even care what distro or OS I use. I can make any system do what I need it to do. I can work efficiently in windows XP, windows 95, linux, dos, etc... I just have preferences. Different OS's have their advantags and disadvantages and you can say the same for different distros. As for different distros, the bickering is ridiculous. We're all on the same team. Linux kernel...

That was just an opinion(debate). The bottom line is, there wont be HUGE differences between the distros and it all depends on user's opinion.

[lynch]

Linux is basically a clone of Unix,so aside from a few commands and switches,you wont see a lot of difference from the CLI.The desktop in Unix is CDE,is it not?I have never used it,but I am sure you can load KDE on Unix so depending on how you use Unix at school,you shouldnt see much difference from the GUI either.
A download version of any Linux distro is going to be limited(I just replied to a post where RH didnt include support for ntfs .But for your stated purpose,any of the 3 distros mentioned will work.
Note:SuSE only offers FTP installation and a live on cd evaluation iso from thier site.
lynch

[Jubei]

Thank you for the opinions guys, I realy appriciate it.

pvc9, as i read from the article, red hat forces you to learn more and that is always good.

I'm a newbie, I don't know a lot of fancy commands and ways to play around with linux. But i'm willing to learn more and want to become just as good as any other guy. So what would be a good move for someone like me.

I know i'm still asking the same question as before, but i just want to make sure. These files are huge to download and they take time (from a newbie like me atleast) to install.

I'm thinking, get Mandrake first, in a few months after I get use to linux, then get red hat. What do guys think?

Thank you once again.

[pvc9]

Thats a good decision! Go ahead with Mandrake and once you are familiar with the basics/fundamentals of Linux Redhat would be the next distro to experiment with

IMHO you're doing the right thing

Lets wait for lynch's advice too and after that you can explore the better part of computing(OS wise) i.e, shift from Windoze to LINUX

lynch,
Thx for the info, I didnt know that KDE or GUI could be added to Unix. Thats cool. Now I wonder why we are using Linux instead of Unix(with KDE). But just an off-topic q I learnt that Unix costs approx 5K US $ is that true?

Have a great day!

[vpn]

lets make this simple,

mandrake is more like windows/mac,

redhat is more of a production system


simple comparison

[pvc9]

Yes, thats much better!

I agree with vpn!

[lynch]

I agree with pvc9 and vpn:Go with Drake to get your feet wet and try RH later.
Thats a pretty consise take on those two distros,vpn.
You can get one of the 'BSDs fairly cheap,pvc9.FreeBSD cost a bit more than Linux(free )but comes loaded with stuff and decent hardware support.
FreeBSD Powerpak . Its a business OS for sure.I'll give it a try sometime
lynch

[pvc9]

Great!

So there you've it Jubei, go ahead with Mandrake and things will be fine!



lynch,
I saved that link, will check more later. Thx

[Jubei]

Thanks guys.. I've installed mandrake now and see how it goes.

I would like to ask one more question slightly off this thread's subject.

Now when my computer starts, it lets me choose which OS to load (linux or windows). The default is linux, and it gives me up to 8 seconds if I want to choose loading windows.

How do I change this? I want the default to be windows, and the wait time to be 3 seconds.

jubei.

[lynch]

Look for either /etc/lilo.conf or /boot/grub/.menu.lst and post back.
lynch

[Jubei]

I found /boot/grub/.menu.lst and here is the contents:

timeout 10
color black/cyan yellow/cyan
i18n (hd1,1)/boot/grub/messages
keytable (hd1,1)/boot/us.klt
altconfigfile (hd1,1)/boot/grub/menu.once
default 0

title linux
kernel (hd1,1)/boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/hdd2 devfs=mount hda=ide-scsi quiet vga=788
initrd (hd1,1)/boot/initrd.img

title linux-nonfb
kernel (hd1,1)/boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/hdd2 devfs=mount hda=ide-scsi
initrd (hd1,1)/boot/initrd.img

title failsafe
kernel (hd1,1)/boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/hdd2 devfs=nomount hda=ide-scsi failsafe
initrd (hd1,1)/boot/initrd.img

title windows
root (hd0,0)
makeactive
chainloader +1

title floppy
root (fd0)
chainloader +1