Desktop Linux Distros to Microsoft:"Give us your n00bs!"

[lazygamer]

Yay now I can finally post something from the register.

Suse 8.1 review

Sadly, I will not try it out. Getting a distro is alot of hassle even with a burner and DSL. I felt Redhat 8 was very promising though. Good to know that Linux is on the way!

[ October 24, 2002: Message edited by: lazygamer ]

[ October 24, 2002: Message edited by: lazygamer ]

[Crunchy(Cracked)Butter]

I've actually purchased this version of SuSE and will be testing it on my laptop in the coming days, maybe tomorrow if i am lucky?

But at the same time i am downloading the 8.1 live cd for my friends so they can see what they are missing out on.

RE:  The artictle, there are right, it does surpass 98 and ME and maybe XP to some extent, the problem is, this distro is not going to be in any machines from Dell anytime soon so its impact on MS will only be from people who know about OS'es and word of mouth.

Its just one of those choices people do not know they have.

[lazygamer]

Hey have you tried Mandrake 9 and Redhat8? I would be interested in reading a post on Mandrake 9 VS Redhat8 vs Suse 8.1.

I do notice that Redhat 8 is significantly more optimized out of the box then Mandrake 8. I don't know why the vendors don't realize this, but a newbie  distro SHOULD be optimized out of the box. It takes quite a long time to learn how to greatly tweak Linux so you can take any "slow" distro and make it blazing fast. Anything the developer gives the n00b, that n00b will be stuck with for quite a long time.

I also worry about problems out of the box. This is a very big no-no. Like slow optimization, problems are slow to fix. Sometimes a problem is big. What's really bad is that you don't always know whether you can find people online who can solve it for you. However, it seems that alot of problems are solveable simply by being told what to do. Not a function of OS buginess(like in wind0ze), but a lack of knowledge on your part.

Makes you feel that the vast majority of Linux problems you want to solve can be solved if you knew some secret button to press. Wind0ze problems lack this button.  

[Crunchy(Cracked)Butter]

Well i have read your posts re: Redhat, i was interested in the OS itself but with it not coming with any sort of multimedia proggies kinda put me off.  Mandrake was also something i was interested in but i hate their website more than SuSE's and i don't like bloatware so i was put off by it, but i know it supports my hardware so maybe just maybe.  The issue with SuSE is that i have used it before on my laptop and i know it works except for the chipset but i know now that it does work.  So in short i might download mandrake (on 56k) and try it and maybe WE could write a review together, but it would be better if a third person would download mandrake (since you bagged rh) and the 3 of us did the review together.  The problem is it wouldn't be a balanced review would it?

On the subject of optimisation, i can see why rh went the route they did with the desktop and did away with these GUI's and consolidated them into one.  I think Suse have gone down that road as well but left options open for others.  Suse from what i can see is favouring KDE, because it does it has optimised it but kept Gnome and the like incase of linux experts wanting to modify it for themselves.  Lucky for me i don't really like Gnome so nothing lost there so the optimisations are in my favour.  Its a shame for the Gnomers.  Mandrake on the other hand have tried to do everything for everyone and its kinda balanced but it suffers as well.  If you match Suse against mandrake, people or going to be wowed by the Suse KDE intereface and not the mandrake one, not saying the mandrake one is bad its just a little behind because its concentrated on all aspects of its OS.  

Anyway...

[Calum]

mandrake is not bloated, and as fot their website, i don't think i have spent more than 5 minutes there in total, and i have been using mandrake for about 8 months.
don't download it on 56k, get a local mail order place to burn you a copy of mandrake 9.0 for about fifteen bucks. Mine cost me

[Crunchy(Cracked)Butter]

My opinon of mandrake is that it is bloated and its website is terrible but i don't make out its like a bad OS.  I can remove the bloat if i don't want to so its not a huge issue, its just turning me away from it right now.

[voidmain]

RedHat doesn't come with Multimedia apps? That's news to me. There's one that it doesn't come with that I believe *all* distros should come with and that's "MPlayer". It's not hard to install any Multimedia app that might not be included with RedHat and comes with the others. The MP3 plugin for XMMS for instance (withheld for Patent issues) takes all of 15 seconds to download and install.

Having said that there already is a review between the 3 OSs you are referring to. I believe they are extremely lame reviews but they are direct comparisons. RedHat 8.0 came out ever so slightly ahead of SuSe 8.1 and both of those came out ahead of Mandrake 9.0.

Mandrake 9.0 - 7.0 out of 10
http://www.osnews.com/story.php?news_id=1954

RedHat 8.0 - 7.9 out of 10
http://www.osnews.com/story.php?news_id=1842

SuSe 8.1 Professional - 7.8 out of 10
http://www.osnews.com/story.php?news_id=1887

[Crunchy(Cracked)Butter]

quote:Originally posted by void main:
RedHat doesn't come with Multimedia apps? That's news to me. There's one that it doesn't come with that I believe *all* distros should come with and that's "MPlayer". It's not hard to install any Multimedia app that might not be included with RedHat and comes with the others. The MP3 plugin for XMMS for instance (withheld for Patent issues) takes all of 15 seconds to download and install.

Having said that there already is a review between the 3 OSs you are referring to. I believe they are extremely lame reviews but they are direct comparisons. RedHat 8.0 came out ever so slightly ahead of SuSe 8.1 and both of those came out ahead of Mandrake 9.0.

Mandrake 9.0 - 7.0 out of 10
http://www.osnews.com/story.php?news_id=1954

RedHat 8.0 - 7.9 out of 10
http://www.osnews.com/story.php?news_id=1842

SuSe 8.1 Professional - 7.8 out of 10
http://www.osnews.com/story.php?news_id=1887

While i do agree with your statement, lets not forget that RH is trying to aim their OS at the desktop and for n00bs as well as corporates.  Problem is can you see n00bs installing multimedia software right away after installing an alien looking OS?  
They have grown up on winblows, so they at least want something they can play their japscat movies on don't they or their collection of Britany Spears greatest hits!

I've already seen the reviews, yes they are lame, i found it really crappy that they write so little about each OS.  I think once they discovered how much work it would be they kinda lost interest in it and just wanted it over and done with.

[voidmain]

Ok, time for some painful truth time (painful to me). There is a reason that RedHat has always stayed away from targeting the desktop. Many other distros have tried this and failed to make everyone happy. They know they have no problem competing in the Server area and they have been doing a *very* good job at that.

Other distros have always tried to be both a server OS and a desktop OS and have only done both half assed. In my opinion RedHat has been just as good of a desktop OS (or better) than any of the other distros, but they never claimed to be a desktop OS so they never had to take any flak for any shortcomings.

Now, I think RedHat has realized that there are still many areas that are not ready for prime time as far as n00bs are concerned but the time is starting to get ripe to take the chance at getting into the desktop. I believe mostly the reason for this is Microsoft's new Nazi licensing in the corporate world. I believe in one single release (from RH 7.3 to RH 8.0) they have made by far the most significant desktop changes and polishing that any other distro in history has made.

I believe their intent is to get it in the door on "some" corporate desktops. I believe is good enough for many desktop uses and in time it will only get better. Considering the amount of change they have made just from 7.3 to 8.0 I am extremely excited to see what is to come. I mean really this is "RedHat Desktop 1.0".

[Crunchy(Cracked)Butter]

Its a fair comment and again i agree.  However you do have this issue of n00bs and their willingness to try it and then feeling a little short changed (yes i know its free but n00bies never really understnad this concept right away).  I don't fault them in their server products, i think they are really good but there will be some expectations because they are seen as the leader out of the distros.

[jtpenrod]

DISTRO REVIEWS HERE

Go to: ExtremeTech
They're doing a series of reviews including Red Hat SuSE, Libranet, Mandrake.

DISTRO REVIEWS HERE
________________________________________
Live Free or Die: Linux

If software can be free, why can't dolphins?

[lazygamer]

Lol I coulden't give a proper review, only opinions. Remember im a l33t d00d in the body of an incompetent Linux n00b.  

Ok when I say optimization, I mean cruising speed(loading the harddrive, opening new sections of a program), and boot time. Boot time, with only disabling some useless(painfully obvious even for me) services took the good boot time to excellent! Im getting a little over one minute, still worse then XP, but the best I've ever seen for Linux on my comp. I noticed in the boot up there is a bunch of other things I don't need, but im too new to figure out how to remove them(for example, why detect USB ports/devices when I don't own any USB devices). Plenty of room for improvement.

 

quote:They have grown up on winblows, so they at least want something they can play their japscat movies on don't they or their collection of Britany Spears greatest hits!

You've been to the darkside I see, methinks japs have a common, heriditary tastebud deficiency.