raymac46 Posted May 31, 2017 Share Posted May 31, 2017 Whenever I start exploring a new class of Linux distro, I always have the question: Do I begin with a derivative and popular distro (say Linux Mint) or go with the real deal parent (Debian?) In fact, with the latest on the rails install (Thinkpad 430) I chose Debian. Haven't been disappointed. So I thought I might do the same exercise with the RPM distros Mageia and Fedora since both have spiffy new releases out there now. Note this is in VirtualBox. I don't think I'm going with RPM as my daily driver, although I have run Mandriva in the past. The comparison is between Fedora 25 and Mageia 6 RC. Installation Both easy with graphics installers. Both fast but I think Fedora might have the edge. Guest Additions Mageia for sure is better here. Guest Additions work right out of the box. Fedora has a build process similar to Debian but at the end everything works fine. Desktop Pick your poison. Fedora default is pure unadulterated GNOME Shell. Mageia has a lovely customized Plasma 5 desktop. Call it even. Footprint These are heavyweight distros and you'll want some horsepower and memory resources - especially if you are running in a Virtual Machine. Fedora might have a slight edge here. Package Management On the command line Fedora had yum and Mageia urpmi. Now both can use dnf. Fedora has a GUI called Software and Mageia has the incomparable Mageia Control Center it inherited from Mandriva. I'd say Mageia would be my choice here. Non-free Software Mageia packages a lot of the stuff you need right in its distro. Fedora is more difficult and you might have to get stuff like Flash and VirtualBox from the developer. Edge Mageia The Future Mageia seems to have risen from the ashes of Mandriva and - although it takes a long time for a new release to come out - seems pretty stable now. Fedora won't be going anywhere any time soon. Edge Fedora. Bottom Line If you are OK with Plasma, Mageia would be the way to go. If you want GNOME in all its pristine glory and you don't mind a little geeking around to set it up, Fedora is a fine choice. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
securitybreach Posted May 31, 2017 Share Posted May 31, 2017 Thanks for the comparison Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
saturnian Posted May 31, 2017 Share Posted May 31, 2017 Desktop Pick your poison. Fedora default is pure unadulterated GNOME Shell. Mageia has a lovely customized Plasma 5 desktop. Call it even. Many other DE/WM choices available, in both cases. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
raymac46 Posted May 31, 2017 Author Share Posted May 31, 2017 (edited) Desktop Pick your poison. Fedora default is pure unadulterated GNOME Shell. Mageia has a lovely customized Plasma 5 desktop. Call it even. Many other DE/WM choices available, in both cases. Of course. Just looking at the defaults. In fact I used the Mandriva GNOME edition back in the day. However I had trouble with Mageia's GNOME implementation (wifi applet was buggy.) Edited May 31, 2017 by raymac46 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
raymac46 Posted May 31, 2017 Author Share Posted May 31, 2017 So far Fedora seems to be behaving in VirtualBox. This is with kernel 4.10.17 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
raymac46 Posted June 2, 2017 Author Share Posted June 2, 2017 Did a massive Fedora upgrade from the command line using dnf upgrade. This stuffed the Guest Additions because I upgraded to kernel 4.11.3. The system still booted OK - just no wide screen. A reinstall of the Guest Additions fixed things - so Fedora appears to be a bit more stable if you update the kernel on VBox. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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