Red Hat or no hat?

**Chris H** · 07-18-2003

Been using the penguin for about 18 months now and have tried Suse, Mandrake and Red Hat. Out of the 3 I feel most comfy with Mandrake. I think it's cos I'm a bit of a gui kind of person. However, so many people use Red Hat that I'm getting a bit concerned that I'm missing out on something. I've installed Red Hat 9 recently but soon overwrote it with Mandrake 9.2 as running RH9 seemed to be running in treacle (Celeron 1300, 128Mb). Another thing about Red Hat 9 is that unless you're willing to get involved with the evil command line then it seems to be a bit of a straitjacket. There's guis that tell you what's mounted for example, but no gui to actually mount a device. Am I giving Red Hat a chance? Should I re-install and delve into the command line or should I stay with Mandrake?

Thoughts?

(no distro wars please

)

**jasonlambert** · 07-18-2003

To really get the best of any linux distro you should learn command line.

Most of the stuff in redhat can be done on the GUI, but, as always, the command line is the strongest point providing most power and flexability.

If your looking for another distro, try Debian.

Personnally redhat's RPM system pisses me off to another level, the fact that you need to register to use the "up2date" tool is a complete windup as well.

I cannot think of anything special about redhat, apart from newbies seem to get on with it quite well (some exceptions with rpms

)

Jason

**Chris H** · 07-18-2003

Ta for that Jason. Next question is will Debian bring anything that me mandrake doesn't? Haven't tried Debian yet but it's tempting.

**jasonlambert** · 07-18-2003

Ive never tried mandrake so i couldnt say for sure.

Jason

**Chris H** · 07-18-2003

Originally Posted by Jaguar

Ive never tried mandrake so i couldnt say for sure.

Jason

Doh!

**QuickDraw** · 07-18-2003

I use RH8 and plan on installing 9 when i get home this weekend. I can see how the rpm system can piss people off, cause i have found myself toget upset at those Darned things as well. but i stick with Redhat because as of yet, there is much more when it comes to help, availability, and things like that. Redhat IS a good distro to use for new people to Linux who want to dive head on into the Konsole and prompt commands. Mandrake ticked me off cause it seemed like i was always having dependency discrepencies and just about everything else under the sun. it is up to you. I have heard gentoo is good too. i might be looking at that here shortly.

**flw** · 07-18-2003

Should I re-install and delve into the command line or should I stay with Mandrake?

A question I always ask users when I'm aproached is what do you want to do or try that you can't do now ? Then make a recommendation.

BTW you can delve into the cmd by just using a Terminal window.

**Giro** · 07-18-2003

Yeh its called APT its the main tool if you want to install apache just type "apt-get install apache" and it will install apache and also install all the dependant files as well. The installer is a bit more diffacult to use you have to patition your disk with cfdisk (No disk druid). But all you have to do is create one big partition and mount that as /. And i never run tasksel or deselect which is the minimal setup if i need more stuff i apt-get it. I love Debian so i would say give it a try.

EDIT: I agree you must learn the the command line i use to like using GUI's and think it was stupid to use the command line. But the command line is quicker and you normally have more power over the program then a GUI which misses alot of switches out.

**big_k105** · 07-21-2003

well im goin to say that you should really try to learn atleast all the basic commands in linux. but if you are using mandrake and everything is working great for you then i wouldnt change. and you can use the terminal and practice the commands in there.

well i know that i am more or less jst reinforcing what everyone else is pretty much saying but i figured i would say it one more time. well hope this helps

**Chris H** · 07-23-2003

Mdk 9.1 was working very nicely so I decided to overwrite with RH9

Thought it was probably the best distro to learn some of the evil command line stuff.

Next question is whassa good reference/n00b book? Looking at Sams teach yerself RH9 @ £22 and RH9 Bible @ £34 down the bookshop. Can't wait to order online cos I'm impatient and there looks like some excellent toilet reading material in those tomes.

Anyone recommend one or t'other?

Ta.

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