Fedora, SuSE And Mandrake Compared

gmuslera writes "This weekend 2 comparisions were made between latest Fedora, SuSE and Mandrake Linux distributions. The first one was done by FlexBeta and in general goes deep, done by people that seem to know Linux, and good around its 9 pages. The later one was done by The Washington Post (yahoo news link) and shows another view of those 3 distributions, from someone that seems to dislike Linux and don't know enough about it. In what of those extremes are the average new user experience with those distributions?" Update: 07/06 01:01 GMT by T : Note that long-time Washington Post tech writer Rob Pegaroro doesn't seem to dislike Linux -- far from it; he's just writing what he sees as truth.

A little late for me

[bluekanoodle]

Where was this last week when I was looking for this exact comparison?

Re:A little late for me

[DarkHelmet]

It was in that "Mysterious Future" box that us subscribers get ;)

Re:Festivix?

[Wehesheit]

Yes, thats exactly what I was thinking. MORE distro's, thats the answer!

yast is good.

[DRWHOISME]

Did have a winmodem ?

Suse never got mine to work.

Washington Post knows about English, though...

[pyrrhonist]

The later one was done by The Washington Post (yahoo news link) and shows another view of those 3 distributions, from someone that seems to dislike Linux and don't know a enough about it.

This article submission was written by someone that seems to dislike English and doesn't know enough about it.

Re:command line is bad?

[Anonymous Coward]

you can get the same behaviour with bash. just press tab.

Re:It's come a long way, I'll admit that....

[NanoGator]

" It literally blew me away... "

How long did it take you to walk back?

Re:Festivix?

[NanoGator]

" They never comment on that fact that open source means you can mix and match features for the perfect distribution."

I doubt you're the only one bothered by it, but obviously you're also informed enough on this topic to go get what you want. To those of us not using Linux, too many choices is a right pain in the ass.

A couple of years ago, I installed Redhat. It was nothing but a pain in the ass. I bitched about it on Slashdot and everybody told me what an idiot I was because I used the wrong distro. Never mind that I was a total uninformed newb trying out what Slashdot had been beating into my brain, no no no, I missed my "in the know" Linux brain implant.

There is a need for newbs such as myself to be able to start with the friendliest distro. It's tiring to those of you that know, but surely you all want for more people to use Linux. The more the numbers grow, the better commercial support it'll recieve for new bits of hardware coming down the line.

I understand you're point, not trying to shoot it down, just trying to point out that I don't think the article was directed towards you.

Re:Festivix?

[93 Escort Wagon]

Lemme guess... before installing you'd have the airing of grievances, followed by feats of strength? Would it's logo be some sort of pole, perchance?

P.S. If you've never watched Seinfeld, don't bother to mod this. :-P

Re:It's come a long way, I'll admit that....

[Anonymous Coward]

The only Linux based distro I've tried recently was Suse ... I don't think I've seen anything better than YAST at this point

Um, if you only tried one, of course you haven't seen anything better.

I Screwed Up Bad!!!

[ONOIML8]

" Unfortunately, to install any of these versions without wiping out most Windows installations, you'll need to buy a third-party program to partition your hard drive."

Nobody told me that! I've installed Mandrake 8.0, 9.0, 9.1, 9.2 and 10.0 on computers with pre-existing Windows 95, 98, 98SE, ME, 2K and XP. Not once have I ever required anything but the Mandrake and Windows CD's.

So now I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop. I guess all those computers are going to burst into flame or something because I didn't purchase a third party program?

Re:Literally, dude

[0racle]

Thanks man, I almost literally spit pop all over my keyboard.

Re:He could be right.

[Anonymous Coward]

What, you didn't think there was a Linux alternative? Here's one for all the happy vi noobs out there:

Vigor [sourceforge.net]