On Saturday 04 August 2001 13:07, you wrote:
> Minimal install? Mandrake the way it is now just wouldn't do. Try Caldera
> or better yet Slackware and/or Debian distros. Don't condemn Linux just yet
> since Mandrake certainly does not represent the entire "Linux" community. I
> suggest that Mandrake should study how Slackware and Debian group their
> packages, and Debian for its ooh so smooth installation routine (while you
> are choosing optional packages it already starts to install the required
> packages and you could even play games while waiting for install to
> finish). Red Hat 7.1 is even much better than Mandrake 8.0, in installation
> experience that is.
Yeah been there done that - not impressed. Debian's apt-get is a POS in my
opinion compared to urpmi, I tried debian and followed the instructions to a
T with apt-get to upgrade from stable to testing and got an unusable system,
apt-get crashed on me several times, many dependancies were left out. I'd
hardly call that smooth.
> These past months i've been evaluating all the distros i could lay my hands
> on for a possible alternative gui desktop environment (I've tried 4 so far.
> Here are my personal opinions:
>
> Best Package Organization: Slackware
> With Slackware you can choose from the start which kernel to load, bare
> ide, bare scsi ,etc. Choosing applications is also a breeze (non-gui apps
> or gui apps), whereas in Mandrake, most of the time you wouldn't even have
> a clue whether its an X or a console apps. What i can't understand is with
> a default install of just the Workstation and KDE Environment checked in
> Mandrake, the install size is over 1GB whereas Caldera, Debian and
> Slackware are so much smaller (especially the last 2).
>
> Best Installation Routine: Caldera
>
> Best Desktop: None. they all failed in the font WYSIWIG category.
>
> BTW if you are looking for a lean web, ftp, mail, firewall, gateway server
> machine (no gui though), try E-Smith Linux. My install weighed in only at
> around 290MB.
Hrm, installed a 300MB mandrake cooker the other day that included devel
tools like gcc. All I did was deselect all categories during install, hit
install and after install was over I urpmi'ed in the things I needed.
No one distro is every cut and dry better than any other for size or
packaging reasons, slackware or debian you have to spend a week or so getting
a system as up to date as mandrake and getting all the packages downloaded
and installed and setup that mandrake includes as rpm's.
Mandrake on the other hand may be a little weak in the package selection area
like you had mentioned but I've always been able to setup mdk with different
kernels.
Better doesn't necessarily mean smaller, nor does it mean larger, it means
more able. And as far as I am concerned mdk is more able to get my systems up
and going with up to date/stable packages quickly and easily and yes even
minimally.
I'm responsible for about 20 servers, I've went from using redhat to mandrake
on all of them and have been very pleased. Some of the servers actually run
solaris, redhat and debian, but my pick of them all is the 11-12 mdk systems.
And for those who boast debian/slackware stability - BS. I've seen friends
debian/slack systems go down a heck of a lot more than my mdk systems. Some
of which have been up now for over 230 days, and would be longer if not for
rewiring power in the building.
--
Jason Straight
BlazeConnect
President
Phone: 231-597-0376
Fax: 231-597-0393
