Mandrake vs Redhat? Which do you prefer?
 

Feel free to mention other Linux flavors...

I've been working with Redhat for a while, but I think I prefer Mandrake.

I think of Mandrake as more polished (appearance wise), but personally, I prefer RedHat. Were I installing one for someone who had never used Linux, I would install Mandrake--for me, RedHat.

Redhat, easily. The Mandrake default install (a couple of years ago at least) opened all sorts of ports that there was no need for, and is generally less secure than other distros.

I use Mandrake, but not because I have a real strong preference in the matter. It's just the one I installed, got stable, and use.

I really have had the best/easiest time with Suse.

I'm no expert, far from it, but RedHat 9 seemed to take a step in the Windows direction... They started to use proprietary methods that made certain software and other things unusable. Maybe this isn't a problem anymore, but it was last time I checked it out. Oh, that, and isn't RedHat (personal edition or whatever) no longer supported? There's the Fedora project now... I forget exactly what that means tho.

Now, Suse I had a ball with. Installation went 100% without a hitch, haven't had significant problems compiling and installing software, Yast seems to be a competant utility for updating your system... So yea, that's what I recommend.

p.s. like I said, I'm no expert, probably bordering on beginner, actually. i'd like to hear if any of my impressions are false.

No expert here either. I'm mostly on unix/irix, but for my home pc I've had Slackware and RedHat. Some geek friends of mine reccomended Debian, but then I had already installed the new RedHat 9. Some old libraries there, and afaik they've disabled the update feature for free installs. But once I installed apt, upgrading was a piece of cake.

I've always liked Suse. I use Gentoo now, but when I started with Linux Suse went so much smoother for me than RedHat. Unfortunately they have some proprietary stuff in there as well, which is why you can't download ISO images. They do have a network install option that removes the offending proprietary stuff.

i started off with mandrake, but since then i've come along way and now use freeBSD. Its alot easier to install stuff, manage and move around in all together. You can install any GUI on it, and atm i've been using gnome, but on another account my boyfriend uses fluxbox. I'd use fluxbox to, but the resolution is so high (1600x1200) and i have trouble seeing everything :P

www.freeBSD.org

freeBSD is unix, not linux, but once you use one, there doesn't seem to be much of a difference.

Started with RedHat 5 years ago... Still sticking to it... Tried couple of other distros (Debian, Suse) in the meantime, but always went back to RedHat...

I recently moved from Mandrake to Debian (which I installed via Knoppix). I love it. apt-get is God's gift to man... Stable, fast, and anything I want is an apt-get away.

Just so you know.. they have versions of apt-get for RedHat.. possibly Mandrake too.

I love apt-get's system as well. So easy to just select and install.

I prefer mandrake over redhat. out of the box, mandrake supports reading ntfs partitions and can play mp3s... for redhat u have to dl stuff to be able to do it, or for ntfs support recompile the kernel, although the rpm u can download is much easier.

Gentoo.

I'm a gentoo fan myself. I am by no means a guru, but I enjoy gentoo because it challenges me to learn more about linux. It isn't just a 'toss your install cd in and go' distro. You actually have to configure things to get it to work right. :)