Prelude76 Posted May 1, 2003 Share Posted May 1, 2003 I tried Linux for first time yesterday!!! WOOHOO!!! i'm hooked already!but i tried the failsafe approach, with SuSE Live Eval 8.2 that boots off the CD. SuSE looked nice, had lots of features, easy to follow. my question: I have Mandrake 9.1 on 3CDs. I'd have to re-download full CDs of SuSE to use that one. so, which is better? pros & cons of each?Also, SuSE doesnt offer ISO images of 8.2,, only of version 7. With version 8, you have to download and copy the files it seems. anyone have a link to SuSE 8.2 ISO images?gonna repartition a drive and install either SuSE and Mandrake this weekend, so help me out follks. which is better bet . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GolfProRM Posted May 1, 2003 Share Posted May 1, 2003 I'm running Mandrake 9.1 currently, and am loving it. It's a very easy installation, and it's been running without too many hitches since I installed it a couple weeks ago. I've just been using Bruno's tips for Linux starters (I'm a newbie myself), and have had very good luck with Mandrake.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest ComputerBob Posted May 1, 2003 Share Posted May 1, 2003 I have Mandrake 9.1 on 3CDs. I'd have to re-download full CDs of SuSE to use that one. so, which is better? pros & cons of each?Ask 100 people, get 100 different answers. The best answer I can give you is:The one that works best for you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zox Posted May 1, 2003 Share Posted May 1, 2003 Also, SuSE doesnt offer ISO images of 8.2,, only of version 7. With version 8, you have to download and copy the files it seems. anyone have a link to SuSE 8.2 ISO images?There is no ISO images of Suse, unless you rip your own CD's.The only free legal way to install Suse 8.2, would be to mount their FTP and install over internet.That is the only drawback I see with Suse, but you can understand them.That is their way of pushing people to buy their distro instead.Mandrake gives you free download ISO, but if you want you can pay membership for their "Club" so you get access to bigger forum and lot's of support.My alltime favorite has always been Mandrake, but for some reason I am encountering problems with 9.1 (never problem before with same PC) distro so I ended up with Suse 8.2 and I really like it.Suse 8.2 also comes preloaded with commercial application "Mainactor" for DV editing.Just the price of that app if you purchase it separately, is enough to cover price of entire system.Also, Suse comes preloaded with Wine, so it is breeze to install and run plethora of Windows applications.I tested it and it works flawless.YMMV, try and see for yourself.I am trying different distros all the time, and there is something exciting every time when I am to load new Distro.Windows is pretty boring, you know what to expect Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bruno Posted May 1, 2003 Share Posted May 1, 2003 There is no ISO images of Suse, unless you rip your own CD's.The only free legal way to install Suse 8.2, would be to mount their FTP and install over internet.That is the only drawback I see with Suse, but you can understand them.That is their way of pushing people to buy their distro instead.Mandrake gives you free download ISO, but if you want you can pay membership for their "Club" so you get access to bigger forum and lot's of support.My alltime favorite has always been Mandrake, but for some reason I am encountering problems with 9.1 (never problem before with same PC) distro so I ended up with Suse 8.2 and I really like it.Suse 8.2 also comes preloaded with commercial application "Mainactor" for DV editing.Just the price of that app if you purchase it separately, is enough to cover price of entire system.Also, Suse comes preloaded with Wine, so it is breeze to install and run plethora of Windows applications.I tested it and it works flawless.YMMV, try and see for yourself.I am trying different distros all the time, and there is something exciting every time when I am to load new Distro.Windows is pretty boring, you know what to expect Nicely balanced Zox ! Have nothing to add to that.As for my personal prefs, I think everybody reading the posts on this forum knows I'm biassed ! Bruno Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prelude76 Posted May 1, 2003 Author Share Posted May 1, 2003 ive been reading a few reviews on the net about both SuSE 8.2 and Mandrake 9.1, and theres more positive reviews of SuSE 8.2. How does their FTP install work? seems confusing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zox Posted May 2, 2003 Share Posted May 2, 2003 You have two ways for installing Suse over FTP:-One is if you actually mount FTP site as your source and install over it and-Second is if you download entire installation, which is about 3-4 Gb in size and make it available over your home network to other computers, it becomes source.If you want painless method, just download Mandrake, it's well worth a try.If you are really persistant to install Suse, here is the info:ftp://ftp.suse.com/pub/suse/i386/current/README.FTP This SuSE Linux 8.1 installation tree is suitable for installation via ftp,http, nfs, smb or hard disk.System requirements You need at least 96MB main memory. To install on a machine with less memory a (linux) swap partition is necessary.Preparation o booting from floppy Download the floppy disk image disks/bootdisk as well as the module disk image files you need (at least disks/modules1 and likely the network modules from disks/modules3). Write the images to floppy disks using the 'dd' command: dd if=[path_to_image] of=/dev/fd0 bs=36b On non-linux systems, use the rawrite utility from the dosutils/rawrite directory (rawrite.exe). o booting from CD Download the iso image disks/boot.iso and burn a CD with it.Installation Boot from CD/floppy and at the bootpromt enter the installation source: linux install=ftp://ftp_server/directory Remember to substitute 'ftp_server' and 'directory' with the appropriate values (e.g. install=ftp://ftp.suse.com/pub/suse/i386/8.0 if you're installing from the SuSE ftp server). Alternatively, choose 'manual installation' and configure the network in the installation program.Preparing your own installation server Just copy the whole installation tree to your local disk and make it available via network. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prelude76 Posted May 2, 2003 Author Share Posted May 2, 2003 by the way, what is the legality of SuSE or other Linux Distros? I thought it was all freeware. I understand by paying $40 you get all CDs + manuals, and i *could* install SuSE thru FTP, though a bit painfully, for free. What if I knew someone who had the CDs, could I load it legally? or are the CD versions copyrighted, and the downloads are free?Don't get me wrong, as soon as I start to use SuSE, i'm getting the full blow copy for $40 coz, well, its just $40, but what I might want to do is load up Mandrake and SuSE and see which I like better and then choose whose manuals I wanna buy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prelude76 Posted May 2, 2003 Author Share Posted May 2, 2003 as for the original question, I read up some reviews about SuSE 8.2 and Mandrake 9.1, and I get the impression that Mandrake 9.1 seems too rushed to the market and some of its MCC areas are hard to follow and non-descriptive and its anti-aliasing is weak in some areas. But its easiest to install.With SuSE 8.2, the installation is good most of time, but theres reports it chokes up at times. And it has older versions of Mozilla and Galleon than it shoul have, but it got big praises for its YSAT2 hardware detection.But someone (lil'bambi) mentioned that Mandrake is in bankruptcy protection, so despite the fact its easier to get ISOs of Mandrake instead of SuSE, that Mandrake may be biting the dust soon.from all Linux gurus on this board, especially Mandrake and SuSE users, what are your thoughts on all this?I know theres lots out there like Debian and Slackware but in terms of ease of use/install, it seems SuSE and Mandrake are way ahead of the pack. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bruno Posted May 2, 2003 Share Posted May 2, 2003 Just a short note from a Mandrake fan: Mandrake will stay forever ! They are French, and do you remember how self-willed and hardheaded the French can be ?? Bruno Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prelude76 Posted May 2, 2003 Author Share Posted May 2, 2003 and SuSE is german.so the two best distros an American Linux newbie would want is French and German. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zox Posted May 2, 2003 Share Posted May 2, 2003 Legaly, if you got the CD's from your frien, I think you should be able to install Suse.The only thing you are not getting is their support which you will have to pay for.They give away their system for free anyway, just not in the form of ISO images.Regarding Suse vs Mandrake, I think it comes down to personal preference.You will find people (like our own Bruno) who swears by Mandrake, but I've read a lot of reviews and concluded the same thing that you pointed out.Mandrake is under "Bankruptsy Protection" which doesn't mean they are bankrupt already.What it means is that while they are under protection, nobody can ask for money from Mandrake (simlified version).Lot of companies have been under same protection, and came out ok.That time under protection, companies usually use to get out of debt, consolidate finances, shuffle employees, etc..Streamlining business is what it is.I hope for the best as that protection can not last forever.I am not sure under French law how long that protection can last but soon we will know if Mandrake will survive or not.I can tell you something else though, no matter what distro you use, they all change, some every six months, some annualy, etc..They are all very similar.What it counts is when you learn to use Linux proper way and if you get accustomed to certain GUI such as KDE or Gnome, in every distro you can change your environment to default to original KDE or Gnome.That is the beauty of Linux.For e.g. Suse comes preloaded with Mplayer which handles most of the video and audio formats.However due to some patent issues, default installation of Mplayer under Suse does not play Xvid or Divx or Windows Media files.I uninstalled it, downloaded source code from Mplayer web site, changed on line in configuration file, issued one command to compile it and voila, I had fully functional Mplayer, optimized for my PC with all the support to play Windows Media files, Quicktime, Xvid, Divx, etc..It's the same on every distro.So find your base, play with it, install it and decide for yourself.Just to let you know I am not any kind of Linux geek, I am very experienced Windows user, but Linux is new to mee and I am trying to get away from Windows.Linux still has it's annoyances but it's getting there.I hope I helped you a bit in your quest Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zox Posted May 2, 2003 Share Posted May 2, 2003 so the two best distros an American Linux newbie would want is French and German.You can get Canadian Xandros, it's probably the easiest distro, but no free install, you have to pay 99 bucks or something to even take a look at it :)Red Hat- US, free download, professional distro, works great, I just don't like their policy towards KDE.There was problem where one of the main developers, Bero left Red Hat and accused them of intentionally crippling KDE in Red Hat distro.Bero started his own distro now, and it looks promissing.Lindows is another option, but it's just too cheasy for me, even though it works great.You can make Apt-get work under Lindows so you don't have to pay for their Click-n-run warehouse.Lycoris is another option and it is free download, bit slow for my taste...Linux=Choice Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prelude76 Posted May 2, 2003 Author Share Posted May 2, 2003 so if i understand it correct, the main difference in distros is the way they install and are configured, and their default themes, but all those things can get tweaked further down the road, right?and about GUI, KDE looks nicer than Gnome IMO, but theres a lot of talk about Bluecurve from redhat being a mix of both. Can I install SuSE and then add Bluecurve to it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zox Posted May 2, 2003 Share Posted May 2, 2003 Sure thing.You can tweak it to your liking.Just look at one of the links in Bruno's signature, Yolinux www.yolinux.com.You will find buch of links for easy tweaking and stuff.One I like a lot is www.trylinuxsd.com , where everything is nicely and visually explained.The guy is configuring KDE under mandrake 9.0, but I assure you , it is the same under Suse, and any other distro with KDE.You can install Bluecurve on any distro and on both Gnome and KDE but I think that is custom Red Hat theme, so it might not be called "Bluecurve" on other distros.By the way "Galaxy" theme that comes with Mandrake 9.1 is awesome and IMHO much better then "Bluecurve".As I said, it's all personal preference.Besides confiduration and install routine, main difference in distros is also in included packages, such as version of Kernel, Xfree, included drivers, package managers such as RPM, Apt-Get, ... included applications, and yes themes, etc.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prelude76 Posted May 2, 2003 Author Share Posted May 2, 2003 i know what to do nowi'll split up a free 6gig partition i have into 2 x 3gig, and load Mandrake 9.1 on one, and SuSE 8.2 on other.i'll post my thoughts later about what i think of both, from a linux newbie's perspective. which is easier to install and use in its default setup.(thats if my gf doesnt make me do more spring yard work this weekend) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bruno Posted May 2, 2003 Share Posted May 2, 2003 so the two best distros an American Linux newbie would want is French and German. i'll split up a free 6gig partition i have into 2 x 3gig, and load Mandrake 9.1 on one, and SuSE 8.2 on other.Looks like a good plan Prelude76, that is if your *American HD* kan handle it :) Bruno Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prelude76 Posted May 2, 2003 Author Share Posted May 2, 2003 actually, i'm a Czech-Canadian, and my HD is from Malaysia ps - is Amsterdam as great as it sounds? had a stop-over once in Amsterdam... all i remember is lots of red roofs looking out the airplane (in Canada, its all ugly grey/black/brown roofs )pps - isn't DJ Tiesto from Amsterdam.. he's great ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bruno Posted May 2, 2003 Share Posted May 2, 2003 actually, i'm a Czech-Canadian, and my HD is from Malaysia ps - is Amsterdam as great as it sounds? had a stop-over once in Amsterdam... all i remember is lots of red roofs looking out the airplane (in Canada, its all ugly grey/black/brown roofs )pps - isn't DJ Tiesto from Amsterdam.. he's great !Prelude76:Amsterdam is a nice town, have a look in my sig, I've got a red roof myself, a small garden and a big community lawn at the front of my house, but then, I'm one of the lucky ones. not everybody lives as nice as I do.Tïesto is exelent, but from Breda, a bit more to the south ! He's got his 'gigs' here very often though ! We have many more exelent DJ's and producers here in Amsterdam, Dutch trance music owns it's fame to all of them. ( didn't you see the headphones on my avatar ? he's listening to trance right now ! )If your HD is from Malaysia I guess you'll do just fine with it ! Bruno Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
henderrob Posted May 2, 2003 Share Posted May 2, 2003 My 2 cents worth? I have Red Hat 8 and like it. I had Mandrake 8.2 which worked well for me. Now I've upgraded to 9.1. I haven't had any major problems other than having to unmute the sound in a mixer and turn it up in AUmix. I find that it's desktop provides me with the most familiarity with the Windows desktops. This is important to me as i gradually switch to full time Linux and learn the command line, etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bruno Posted May 2, 2003 Share Posted May 2, 2003 Good man yourself, henderrob !The commandline is a very usefull and powerfull tool in Linux. Looks complicated at first, but as you go it will show it's evidence. Bruno Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
imranj Posted May 3, 2003 Share Posted May 3, 2003 Yeah i agree with Computer bob, take ride on all distro's and see which has the best feel of yur fav car Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bjf123 Posted May 4, 2003 Share Posted May 4, 2003 I went into my local CompUSA today, ready to purchase my first Linux OS. I had pretty well decided to go with Mandrake, but they only carry RedHat 9 and SuSE 8.2. The price is the same, but SuSE seemed to include more, like Palm and media (CD / DVD) support. Does SuSE really come with more, or is it just marketing on the side of the box? Then again, RedHat is what one of the IT guys at work is experimenting with. Decisions, decisions. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bruno Posted May 4, 2003 Share Posted May 4, 2003 bjf123:Don´t tell me you left the shop without buying any distro ? :o Suse does come with more ( more CD´s too ! ), but I would bot want to start a war here pushing you in a certain direction. . . . . On the other hand there is some excelent RedHat knowledge here on the forum, Peachy and LilBambi are the ones that can solve any problem you might encounter. Then again you could just order Mandrake on-line . . . . . . . . or find the address of a specialized software/book shop, they would have more choice . . . . Decisions, decisions. . . . . . Bruno Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bjf123 Posted May 4, 2003 Share Posted May 4, 2003 Don´t tell me you left the shop without buying any distro ? Yep. Sure did. Since I couldn't remember reading that much about Suse, I wanted to come back here and read up before taking the plunge. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bruno Posted May 4, 2003 Share Posted May 4, 2003 bjf123Good man !! Read the doc´s first that´s the way to go !Thanks for the trust you have in the forum ! Bruno Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest ThunderRiver Posted May 5, 2003 Share Posted May 5, 2003 SuSe definitely. I am more impressed with the technology from SuSe than from Mandrake. But that's just me.I have been trying to install FreeBSD on my machine, and I find it very very very very difficult whereas OpenBSD is 100 times easier to install. As for me, my choice is between Gentoo and OpenBSD .. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest genaldar Posted May 5, 2003 Share Posted May 5, 2003 I personally like mandrake (I've got 9 currently, but it had some problems). The company has had some financial problems to boot. Redhat is nice but its not quite as easy to integrate with windows, it doesn't give windows partitions a mount point on install unless you tell it to. My favorite distro is an old one, Caldera e-desktop 3.1. It integrated wine automatically. Of course debian is great because its easy to update. Suse comes with so much stuff the price is worth it, especially since you can find it on ebay.Of course if I'm paying for a distro I'd go with Xandros since its debian based and the $99 distro comes with wine and office crossover. They also have a great student discount.I'd like to say that linux isn't freeware. It's liscense only calls for sharing of source code. And since suse and other distro's charge for the cds making copies of those distros would be illegal. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bjf123 Posted May 5, 2003 Share Posted May 5, 2003 Will I need anything to partition the drive on my Win98 PC before installing Linux, or does SuSE include something to do that? I plan to dual boot, since I still have a lot of things I use on the Win box that I can't afford to lose. I will certainly back up (multiple times) any critical data before doing anything. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest ThunderRiver Posted May 5, 2003 Share Posted May 5, 2003 Will I need anything to partition the drive on my Win98 PC before installing Linux, or does SuSE include something to do that? I plan to dual boot, since I still have a lot of things I use on the Win box that I can't afford to lose. I will certainly back up (multiple times) any critical data before doing anything.Both SuSe and Mandrake offer partition resize, but I trust SuSe more just because it is more user friendly Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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