[PLUG] QUick Reccomendation

[Piet van Weel]

>> Okay, this is not intended to start a distro war.
>> I use Suse 9 and Redhat 7.3 and Suse 7.
>> I want to try Fedora core and Redhat's last*Free* distro.
>> 
>> What I want to know is if there are security issues to avoid with any
>> of the present distros or the older distros I'm interested in( Suse
>> 8.1, Fedora Core, Redhat 9.1, etc) and I'd like to know which distro
>> the plug group has found to be:
>> 
>> a) easy to install
>> b) simple to work from both command and GUI
>> c) available as ISO
>> d) Useable as both server ware and desktop ware
>> e) Full featured
>> f) Free

Ok... Having installed all of these... (at one time or another)
And basing my opinions on a freshly installed machine. (aka no mods)

a) Installation

SUSE: The initial install is REALLY easy. Even if you don't know linux.

Redhat and Fedora: Are about the same level of complexity. They seem to have
really adopted the ext3 file system. :(

Debian: After the initial set of menu's the installation goes pretty good.

Slackware: Recent slackware distro is actually harder to install then older
versions. Don't know why.

b) Command and GUI

Redhat and Fedora: This is the standard that everybody else gets graded by.

SUSE: From a GUI standpoint, SUSE did it right. You can transfer between
window/desktop managers and all your settings come with you. Very Nice.
Shell level. It all works, but SUSE has its own organization with regards to
the file system setup as well as some unique commands for configuration and
updates.

Debian: Matches up to Redhat just fine. Shell level nearly identical to 
Redhat. Major difference is all the apt commands.

Slackware: Various desktop mangagers can be frustrating; however, I find
slackware shell to be a tad faster than Redhat.

c) ISO

Redhat, Fedora, Slackware, SUSE, and Debian can all be obtained as an ISO. 
HOWEVER...

Redhat is getting out of distributing the ISOs.

SUSE is limiting the ISOs distributed.

Debian is best installed over the network.

d) Useable as both server ware and desktop ware

All of these distros can be used in either capacity.

e) Full featured

Fedora, Debian and Slackware: Definitely full featured. Downside is there
are several ISOs to download to get everything.

Redhat: Enterprise version has everything. ($179 -> $2500 depending on need)

SUSE: Professional version has everything. ($90)

f) Free

Ok. Ya want your free lunch... 

Debian, Fedora, and Slackware are all FREE. (as in air)

Redhat, well you saw the price.

SuSE. You saw it's price also.



I hope that this helps Harry. I didn't include distros like Mandrake, Yellow
Dog, Gentoo, Ubantu, SE-Linux or any of the myriad of others that exist. I
will say that the number of distros that have been reported lately is
considerably less then what there was several years ago.

The big players have their market share... and are beginning to extract rent
from us little people.

Piet van Weel