🚀 go-pugleaf

(Simo) writes:

>I'm looking for peoples opinions on the diffrent disbutions of linux
>for someone who has little experince with linux but wishes to get 
>into using it

>just wondering what people thought of them

>it seems to me that Red Hat and Slackware seem to be most that 
>are around ..... also is there any general consenus on which are more
>buggy  ??

My purely subjective ranking has them at:

My top three, mostly because they have addressed the issue of Configuration
Management pretty well and seem to be the most professional of the lot.

Debian		I recommend to people with a real interest in the technology,
		the purists and the developers. It is GPL and more
		idealogically appealing to me. It probably has a little fewer
		software packages than RedHat but easily has enough that the
		exceptions are trivial to deal with. Debian-1.2 includes a
		neat utility that converts RedHat Packages into nearly working
		Debian packages. The Installation process has been known to
		be a little tricky at times, but nothing you can't work around
		easily with some help.
		http://www.debian.org/

Redhat		I recommend to anyone, especially those new to Linux.
		Lots of prepackaged software, but I think that they've
		gone a little over the top in trying to make it easy to
		configure to the point that it is difficult to diagnose
		problems for. As with Debian, the initial installation process
		has caught people out here before too, no more or less buggy
		than Debian.
		http://www.redhat.com/

Caldera		I strongly recommend to commercial users in a Novell
		environment. It offers all the advantages that RedHat has
		to offer (it is based on RedHat) but has some commercial
		packages added on that add real value in typical commercial
		environments. The Novell client is excellent and because
		it has 4.*/NDS support edges out the GPL ncpfs in many
		environments. Note also that it is Caldera who are managing
		the Linux WABI port and other products such as WordPerfect
		etc. Caldera seem to have fixed some of the RedHat installation
		problems, the installation I tried was flawless. I'm looking
		forward to trying their latest offering.
		http://www.caldera.com/


I haven't had the opportunity to try the POSIX certified Linux distribution(s)
but the certification will be a valuable assett in environments where standards
are important.


Without wanting to become engaged in a flamewar:
I don't much like Slackware. While there was a time where it was clearly
the best distribution around I don't believe that it has kept pace with the
development of the requirements of the Linux user base. In my opinion its
biggest failings are quality control and lack of solid configuration
management. Still, it is popular and like your first car is probably a
good hands on learning environment if you have a penchant for learning the
hard way.

regards
Terry

-- 
-- ObSig --
Terry Dawson, VK2KTJ, terry@perf.no.itg.telecom.com.au, Sydney, NSW, Australia
-- Linux: standard and fully integrated support for Amateur Radio protocols --