about mandrake and fedora (was: Re: The Perfect Yum.conf File

[Rory Gleeson]

> Hi Rory!
> 
> Interesting to hear! Thanks for mentioning!
> 
> As for installation I think it can't be made easier than in Fedora.
> It's almost the same as a windoze install, except things like
>firewall, package selection...
> 
> I downloaded mandrake 10 a few weeks ago, after trying to install
> debian sarge (what a pain) but never installed it.
> I was a bit confused about the negative voices about FC1, so I ended
> up with fedora a little late, when test2 was released, but so far I  
> don't regret it. Except the mozilla-unicode-x-server-crash-issue, it  
> runs very good on my box!
> 
> Sorry, can't throw in my 2 cents on yum, since I still must figure out
> myself how to configure it.
> 
> 
> Cheers,
> Hannes in Austria.
 

Hi Hannes,

I actually managed to install Debian Install after a minor initial
hiccup.  I actually really liked Debian and, after using Mandrake for a
while, it was my first introduction to Apt, which I loved and which sold
me.  However, Debian just wasn't bleeding-edge enough for me, as I like
all the new toys.

I'm very happy with Fedora. That's not to say I don't have issue: KDE is
a bit buggy and sluggish, I haven't been able to install mplayer yet,
kmail won't work, sound doesn't properly work (a 2.6 kernel issue, I
think, as I see it in Mandrake and SuSE) and while Fedora automatically
found the shared folders on a networked XP box, it prompts me for a
password to access them each time when no password exists.  

So, I have my wrinkles to iron out.  But, this is the same with every
major distro I've tried.  They all have their strengths and weaknesses,
but at least we have the *choice* to discover this by trying different
ones out, unlike using Windows, where you just have to adapt to its
quirks and assume you can't do anything about it.

The one thing I find off-putting about Fedora is the community that is
building up around it.  It seems like a number of the veterans (albeit a
minority) feel comfortable making nasty comments to new users and
Windows-convertees.  I guess the Linux snobs invade the lists of every
distro, but there's a nasty tone to some members here.  Hopefully, that
will change before that tone becomes entrenched in the Fedora community.

Otherwise, Fedora is a great distro and *is* stable relative to other
distros, it balances stability with bleeding-edge nicely, the RedHat
staff who are involved with the community are helpful and nice and seem
to want to create a really good free (non-prop) product.  Woops, did I
just use the word "product?" :)

Rory


On Sat, 2004-05-22 at 10:42, Hannes Mayer wrote:
> Rory Gleeson wrote:
> > I'm new to Fedora and Yum, just getting on the bandwagon on Test 3. 
I'm> > a convert from Mandrake, which is *NOT* more user-friendly,
easier to
> > install, easier to update or have better hardware and network
detection
> > on install than Fedora, contrary to popular opinion.  But, that's
for
> > another thread.  And whether Fedora is a "project" or "product"
intended
> > for "hobbyists" or "non-corporate home users" doesn't really matter
to
> > me, since it seems intended to stand up against the other major
distros
> > and DOES!