Re: Linux Flavor: Mandrake or Suse?
From: Ruel Smith (Big Daddy) (ruel24_at_fuse.net)
Date: 02/20/04
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Date: Thu, 19 Feb 2004 18:15:44 -0500
Jeff Lloyd wrote:
> Hello everyone:
>
> I am looking to advance into the Linux world and with Red Had going
> strictly
> enterprise, to me the choices are then limited to Suse and Mandrake. I
> have used RH9 for a little while, but want to install something on my
> system that will have a little more staying power than the RH9 Personal
> product.
>
> I'm not asking for a complete review, but rather a general feeling for
> each
> of the personal workstation offerings from Suse and Mandrake. I plan to
> use it in as a home/office scenario and I will be installing it alongside
> WinXp, and already have the space partitioned for the install, so I am
> basically all set.
>
> Any input greatly appreciated. Thank you.
I just had to weigh in on this again...
I decided to install and run the download edition of Mandrake 9.2 to see
what I've missed using SuSE for the last couple of releases. Well, here are
some of my findings off the top of my head:
In SuSE, part of YaST is a module called SaX2. It configures your graphics
and monitor. Now, SuSE completely misses my SyncMaster 955DF monitor, that
it does support, but Mandrake got it right. However, when you configure via
SaX2, you can set your refresh rate in 1Hz increments to obtain the highest
refresh rate you can get without artifacts. This makes viewing the monitor
much less of a strain. This isn't possible at all under the Mandrake
Control Center. If it is, I missed it. I guess you have to hack your way to
a higher refresh rate.
Updating through the Mandrake Control Center was a PITA! First, you have to
set and activate an upgrade source. It took quite a while for me to get any
sort of response from the servers I attempted to get up and running for
updates. I have a very fast ADSL line... The first 3 attempts at setting up
an update source failed. Only on the fourth try did I get one to work.
Then, I went down the list, checking off what I wanted to update.
Sometimes, I'd click on something and be presented with a dialog box saying
that I couldn't select it. It didn't tell me why/why not or anything. I was
puzzled. Then, after selecting what it would let me, it found some packages
that couldn't be updated for some reason or another so IT ABORTED THE WHOLE
UPDATE! What the??? Why couldn't it ignore what it couldn't update and
continue with the rest? On thing I did like was that when it needed
dependencies, it instructed you to put in a particular CD it identified.
This was nice. SuSE really needs to implement something like this. Maybe
even better, they can install apt4rpm and use a Debian style method within
YaST/YOU. YaST's software update module is called YOU, or YaST Online
Update. There are no such glitches as described above. You select either
the SuSE FTP site or a mirror, it'll scan your computer for the packages
you have installed, find relavant packages to update, present you with a
list and install it. I've never experienced dependency problems updating.
Mandrake must have offered me packages to stuff I didn't even have
installed on my system to update. Anyway, if your mirror or SuSE FTP isn't
responding, you know quickly - not the 10 - 15 minutes it took me to setup
a single update source in Mandrake. SuSE never aborted any attempts to
update anything either. SuSE has a lot of work to do squashing dependency
hell, though. If you update manually through a 3rd party rpm, you could
enter dependency hell. With a little work, you can sort it out, but it
should be a lot more painless.
I've never really like the menu structure in SuSE, though 9.0 is a step in
the right direction. Mandrake is no better. To enter the Mandrake Control
Center from the K-menu, you must choose '-> What to do?' followed by
'Administer your system' followed again by 'Configure your computer'. Does
this make sense? In SuSE it was K-menu->System->YaST (something very close
to that anyway - I'm writing this in Mandrake). This makes a lot more
sense.
Setting up everything in YaST was so much better than using the Mandrake
Control Center. I'm telling you that if you've ever lived with YaST, you'll
never use another distro again. MCC is probably a year behind YaST in the
polish and completeness of it. I've yet to experience a better
administration app than YaST.
I thought I installed everything in KDE I could find to install. I must have
been mistaken. I had no screensavers. In SuSE, when you select your
packages, you have the options 'All of KDE' and 'All of Gnome'. This is
very nice. Neither of these had a package selection I would have wanted.
All distros have lots of work to do here.
This is not to say SuSE is not without its faults. I've described the
dependency problems you might run into, but SuSE also provides limited
functions in some applications they ship. You have to seek a 3rd party rpm
to get the full monty. My clock in my panel is wrong. It continually lags
behind. I go to reset it and it automatically sets it correct since the
internal system clock is, in fact, correct, once in YaST, but it then is
behind the next day. Also, I've installed the download edition and I'm
comparing it to a store-bought retail version of SuSE Professional so I
can't weigh in on how much better Mandrake PowerPack would have fared.
However, I'm not giving up on SuSE anytime soon.
I think I'm going to try a couple of more distros. I'm going to attempt
Debian unstable 'Sarge' next followed by Fedora Core 2.6. Wish me luck...
Ruel Smith (Big Daddy)
- Next message: jai: "Re: Simple question--why linux?"
- Previous message: Markus Unterguggenberger: "Re: How to install Gnome?"
- In reply to: Jeff Lloyd: "Linux Flavor: Mandrake or Suse?"
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