Re: [Sheflug] Re: redhat 9.0

[Marcus Hanwell <linux [at] xxxxxxxxx>]

On Wed, 2003-11-05 at 20:00, Barrie Bremner wrote:
> Mmmm. *Grumble*.
> 
> I'm rather partial to RedHat on the desktop. I suppose I'll have to go
> hunting for another distro to use, as hinted.
> 
> I found Debian (stable at least) and Slack to require quite a bit of
> configuration to get them up to scratch.
> Even then, the packages in Debian stable are pretty antique.
> 
> *Grumble*

I think there is plenty of choice out there. 12 months ago I was a
pretty committed Red Hat fan - even got the box set for 8.0. Then when
they started up with these RHN subscriptions I didn't feel comfortable
with the direction they seemed to be moving in.

Went through Slackware - quite good but just ended up compiling newer
stuff from source. Then I stumbled upon Gentoo after a friend told me
about it. Probably the toughest install of the bunch - but well worth in
in my opinion... I would still like to give Debian a go some time -
didn't get round to it and I am insanely busy at the moment.

Deploying Gentoo on a couple of the desktops in my research group at the
moment too - it is going very well. I also think it would be good to try
out one of the BSDs at some point - they look interesting and have their
share of fans.

At the end of the day it is a case of finding something that fits. If
you are very keen on the Red Hat way then may be Mandrake would be the
one for you - it's seems the truest Red Hat fork. A friend has been
using it on a laptop fairly successfully and they seem to have
stabilised financially.

There is also apt-get ported to various RPM distros, and I believe
Portage has been ported to Slackware and various other distros - can't
find the link for the project details right now though...

___________________________________________________________________

Sheffield Linux User's Group -
http://www.sheflug.co.uk/mailfaq.html

  GNU the choice of a complete generation.