Stephen Furlong wrote:
-----Original Message----- From: Sid Boyce [mailto:sboyce@blueyonder.co.uk] Sent: 10 April 2005 00:41 To: suse-linux-e@suse.com Subject: Re: [SLE] SuSE 9.2 vs Mandrake 10.1 Advanced
Felix Miata wrote:
George Stoianov wrote:
Does anyone have any experience or advice about Mandrake? Any comparison comments.
SuSE is the first Linux distro that I had working and is my favorite one but I would like to try something else as well. I have struggled with Debian install and have installed successfully Ubuntu but it did not compare to SuSE everything is so much easier to set up on SuSE.
Mandrake seems to be a good competitor and maybe worth a test.
I have several versions of SuSE & Mandrake installed, plus Fedora & Xandros. SuSE to me is most polished, less buggy at release, but the Mandrake support community seems better, meaning if you have a problem with Mandrake, you're more likely to get helpful and/or quick support, while with SuSE, you're less likely to need help in the first place. Xandros is more tightly aimed at windoze converts, and comes with less software and more of a windoze look and feel.
I do a lot of messing with new kernel.org kernels and other stuff on both Mandrake and SuSE, building the latest stuff from sources and using checkinstall. I only ever had one problem with Mandrake which I fixed myself, it was after a motherboard change and networking got partially screwed where normal internet access worked, but Mandrake online updates couldn't contact the mirrors - problem in /etc/sysconfig/networking-scripts/ didn't match the new hardware. May be I'm lucky, but both run pretty trouble-free even with constant abuse I subject them to. Regards Sid. --
Ran/am running both of sorts (I was moving my mailserver from suse to mandrake but stopped because I hit problems) and to be honest I prefer suse. Mandrake has too much of a "xp" feel to it in my eyes, its more aimed at the beginners end of the Linux market. That's not to mean that its not as powerful as suse, its just that it takes longer to find what you want to fiddle with.
That's where you have the drop on me, I'm not familiar with XP, I may have seen an XP screen once, but Mandrake side-by-side with SuSE doesn't look too different to me, the background, kdm login and the Start icon apart, they look the same. YaST/Mandrake Control Center both do their job. I don't see a beginner having any more trouble with SuSE than Mandrake, I'm a long time SuSE user and I didn't experience any horrors when I first installed Mandrake 9.2 and upgraded right through to 10.1, stuff is as easy to find, usability is equally good on both. I mess them around and they are still robust using the same basic hardware on both, but the Mandrake box has the DVB-T card and SCSI disks extra.
Mandrake has got a better support architecture, both with the mandrake experts website and the inclusion of two mailing lists for general help (i.e., newbie and expert) it means that you have a better set of tools on hand in case something does go wrong.
You get as good support for SuSE on this forum so I can't mark SuSE down on that.
I wouldn't personally switch my server full-time from suse to mandrake, proven by the fact that my mandrake box is sat power-supply-less and cpu-fan-less, having stripped both out for other machines I class as more "important".
I don't think I'd switch from one to the other just for the sake of it either, I'm happy with both.
But by all means, give it a go. You'll never make your own mind up based on other peoples opinion ;)
Good luck :) and I may well see you in the mandrake mailing list :) hehe
Well said. I've only once needed to use their mailing list, but sorted the problem out myself. I find their apps are pretty much up to date like SuSE's, where something on SuSE needs a new co-req package, Mandrake has needed the same. The other huge dislike that many people have mentioned is bittorrent to download their distro CD's, bitdrip I call it - the SuSE ftp install is much quicker.
P.S.
Mandrake have recently gone through a name change - its now called Mandriva Linux (www.mandriva.com for more info :) )
They are supposed to be switching to some Connectiva tools and connectiva packages seem to shoehorn into SuSE without problems, so lets hope there is even more common between them and SuSE. Regards Sid. -- Sid Boyce ... Hamradio License G3VBV, Keen licensed Private Pilot Retired IBM Mainframes and Sun Servers Tech Support Specialist Microsoft Windows Free Zone - Linux for all Computing Tasks