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Mandrake 10.1 / Fedora / Suse

 
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Hello,

Should I focus on Mandrake 10.1 or Suse, or Fedora? I was told by a friend to focus on a Red Hat version of Linux since it is the mostly widely used. Is this true? How about Suse, is it also Red Hat based? I am confused since someone told me to start with Mandrake.

Maybe the question that I should also ask is which is the most stable out of Mandrake, Suse, and Fedora?

Thanks,
 
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It depends on why you're asking. Do you want to get job-relevant experience? Or do you want a desktop Java development environment? At work? At home? At school? Do you do multimedia stuff? Do you have one machine, or a thousand? Do you need to be the adminstrator of all of them? Have you ever touched UNIX before? Can you type? Do you know Perl?

No distro is intrinsically "best". Each one targets a different kind of user and market segment. If you tell us why you're interested, we could probably help you choose.
 
Jesse Torres
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Originally posted by Ernest Friedman-Hill:
It depends on why you're asking. Do you want to get job-relevant experience? Or do you want a desktop Java development environment? At work? At home? At school? Do you do multimedia stuff? Do you have one machine, or a thousand? Do you need to be the adminstrator of all of them? Have you ever touched UNIX before? Can you type? Do you know Perl?

No distro is intrinsically "best". Each one targets a different kind of user and market segment. If you tell us why you're interested, we could probably help you choose.



I want job relevant experience and I want a Linux Java development environment. This is for my own home personal use. I don't do multimedia stuff. I have 2 machines, they are not networked though. I have never touched UNIX before. Yes I can type; 50 WPM. I don't know Perl.

I have basically used Windows all of my life, currently XP Pro. I want to now learn Linux; however, I want to learn the Linux Dist. that is more widely accepted in the J2EE market. From what I understand, Red Hat is the most widely used dist, and Fedora is Red Hat based. Someone mentioned that it doesn't matter which dist. I use. That what matters is what kind of work I perform. Can I perform J2EE development or Mandrake or Suse?

Please help,
 
Ernest Friedman-Hill
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Originally posted by Jesse Torres:
Can I perform J2EE development or Mandrake or Suse?



Yes, absolutely. The thing to remember is that all distros are, when all is said and done, 99% the same. You've got a Linux kernel, all the UNIX utilities, an X/Windows server, office software, web browsers, etc. Pretty much every distro gives you the same set of choices for all of these.

Where they differ primarily is in desktop environment and system administration tools. Some distros are really aimed at desktop users, and some are designed for server use. They'll use different kernel patches to optimize performance for a certain pattern of use, or include extra or enhanced drivers for certain classes of hardware. For example, a desktop-oriented distro will have better USB support out-of-the-box. But you can run Java on every one, and in fact, use any distro as a desktop or a server, regardless of what it's primarily intended for, and it will work just fine. And if you want better USB support on RedHat, you can learn to compile and install the drivers yourself. It's not rocket science.

RedHat has recently dropped all the consumer products to concentrate 100% on the server market. They don't have the best products, but they do have the best market share. They offer a certification program, so if you're interested in that, then Red Hat would probably be the way to go, but otherwise, there's really not much to recommend it.

Mandrake and Xandros are both very user-friendly, desktop oriented distros which would help make a Windows user feel comfortable.

But remember, whichever distro you use, you'll learn about Linux, and you can do Java development and J2EE server deployment. Unless you're specifically intending to cough up the money to get a RHCE certification, then for you I'd recommend going with Mandrake or Xandros.
 
Jesse Torres
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Thanks so much.
 
Jesse Torres
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Originally posted by Ernest Friedman-Hill:


Yes, absolutely. The thing to remember is that all distros are, when all is said and done, 99% the same. You've got a Linux kernel, all the UNIX utilities, an X/Windows server, office software, web browsers, etc. Pretty much every distro gives you the same set of choices for all of these.

Where they differ primarily is in desktop environment and system administration tools. Some distros are really aimed at desktop users, and some are designed for server use. They'll use different kernel patches to optimize performance for a certain pattern of use, or include extra or enhanced drivers for certain classes of hardware. For example, a desktop-oriented distro will have better USB support out-of-the-box. But you can run Java on every one, and in fact, use any distro as a desktop or a server, regardless of what it's primarily intended for, and it will work just fine. And if you want better USB support on RedHat, you can learn to compile and install the drivers yourself. It's not rocket science.

RedHat has recently dropped all the consumer products to concentrate 100% on the server market. They don't have the best products, but they do have the best market share. They offer a certification program, so if you're interested in that, then Red Hat would probably be the way to go, but otherwise, there's really not much to recommend it.

Mandrake and Xandros are both very user-friendly, desktop oriented distros which would help make a Windows user feel comfortable.

But remember, whichever distro you use, you'll learn about Linux, and you can do Java development and J2EE server deployment. Unless you're specifically intending to cough up the money to get a RHCE certification, then for you I'd recommend going with Mandrake or Xandros.



In that case, which is easier to setup and run Suse, Mandrake, or Fedora?

Thanks again
 
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Originally posted by Jesse Torres:


In that case, which is easier to setup and run Suse, Mandrake, or Fedora?

Thanks again



Mandrake and Fedora were both built on the Red Hat RPM base. If you're pallning to get a job in Paris, Mandrake may be useful. In the US, Mandrake has faded somewhat - though I have a set of install CDs in case I ever want to try them. SuSe is more popular in Europe and has been favored by some of the big vendors like IBM (most of them also support Red Hat).
 
Jesse Torres
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Originally posted by Tim Holloway:


Mandrake and Fedora were both built on the Red Hat RPM base. If you're pallning to get a job in Paris, Mandrake may be useful. In the US, Mandrake has faded somewhat - though I have a set of install CDs in case I ever want to try them. SuSe is more popular in Europe and has been favored by some of the big vendors like IBM (most of them also support Red Hat).



Which is easier though to setup and run between Suse / Mandrake / Fedora? Also which is more stable and easier to update?
 
Jesse Torres
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I know that the following question that I am about to ask will seem obvious to many. Nevertheless, I am going to ask. Can I setup a tri-boot environment to run XP Pro, Mandrake, and Suse?

Thanks,
 
Jesse Torres
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I have narrowed it down to Suse, Fedora, and Mandrake. Which one is more stable, easier to setup, and easier in general?

Thanks,
 
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Go for Mandrake.Its the only one distro which will support songs in MP3 format.
 
Jesse Torres
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Originally posted by Arjun Shastry:
Go for Mandrake.Its the only one distro which will support songs in MP3 format.



Are all Linux dist. really 99% similar. Also is Mandrake Red Hat Based?


Thanks,
 
Arjun Shastry
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From Tim's response it seems its Red Hat RPM based.You can do J2EE development/write C/C++ programs and listen to songs on Mandrake.Hence go for Mandrake.
 
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Hi Jesse,

You probably already understand that every person will
give you a different answer. I am different. I will give
you none (though mine would be different too). I think the
best think to do is to read some reviews. I would
also recommend trying a livecd distro so that you know
that your machine does not have any aparent problems with
linux. If it does not then probably all of the mentioned
distros will install and run just fine. Only remember that
it is unlikely that all packages you need for J2EE development
are a part of the distributions.

Best regards,
Petr
 
Jesse Torres
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Originally posted by Petr Blahos:
Hi Jesse,

I would also recommend trying a livecd distro so that you know
that your machine does not have any aparent problems with
linux.
Best regards,
Petr



I downloaded Knoppix and had no problem(s). I actually loved Knoppix, it gave me a preview of Linux. Unfortunately, it was slow since it is a livecd.

The question now is, should I focus on Mandrake, Suse, or Fedora. I mainly want Linux for J2EE development. I performed a search on various job sites randomly. Suse returned more results. I know that such a search might be irrelevant. Nevertheless, it showed that Suse is widely used.
 
Ernest Friedman-Hill
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At some point, this question becomes just like asking "is Coke or Pepsi better?" Each will have fans, and lots of people can't tell the difference, and a few people will tell you "RC Cola is better". The truth is it just doesn't matter that much -- you have a drink, and get on with life.

Painting with a really broad brush: Fedora is for people who themselves are interested in fiddling with and hacking Linux. Mandrake is for home users coming from Windows who want a soft landing. SuSE is for serious business users. Pick one, and get on with it. Remember that you can pretty much turn any distro into the equivalent of any other distro by installing and uninstalling various bits and pieces.
 
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Originally posted by Jesse Torres:
Can I setup a tri-boot environment to run XP Pro, Mandrake, and Suse?


You may setup a lot of boot-environments - I used up to 7, but don't know whether there is a limit at 16, 65000 or MAX_INT or whereever.

Of course you need some diskspace and partitions.
You may even boot the same distro in multiple different ways.
[ October 14, 2004: Message edited by: Stefan Wagner ]
 
Tim Holloway
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If you're using grub - and for that matter, I think LILO - the number is probably how many you can get to list on your initial boot screen before they run off the bottom and you can't see them anymore.

If you kept each distro in a separate partition, you can have up to 4 primary partitions and each primary can hold up to 4 secondaries, I think, but you can also share filesystems between different OS versions, and in some cases, even different OS's.

At some point of complexity, you'll probably go insane though.
 
Jesse Torres
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I decided to go with Suse. It is intuitive and easy to setup.
 
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I use Linux Mandrake 10 for all my work as J2EE architect. That is, UML modeling, development, testing technologies, application server, db, and so on.
I just wrote a few tips and a small article on this topic on my website to share this experience. Feel free to comment.
 
Jesse Torres
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Originally posted by Bruno Collet:
I use Linux Mandrake 10 for all my work as J2EE architect. That is, UML modeling, development, testing technologies, application server, db, and so on.
I just wrote a few tips and a small article on this topic on my website to share this experience. Feel free to comment.



Great site. I will read tonight and post comments tomorrow.

Thanks,
 
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