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  • #2189547

    Mandrake(Mandriva), Fedora, or SuSE

    Locked

    by jrod86 ·

    Well, I’ve had Fedora Core 4 installed for sometime now, but haven’t been booting into it as much as I would have liked. But, last night I did and was suddenly reminded why I haven’t used it in a long time. It sucks! I can’t play mp3’s out of the box, much less does the soundcard work. Oh yeah, want to burn DVD’s?? Not on this distro (or maybe it just doesn’t work in Linux from what I’ve read).

    Anyhoo, I’m trying to make an effort to learn Linux so I can effectively bash Windows as well, but so far have not found anything in Linux worthwhile. The only good thing I have found is that I can dual-boot easily with the Fedora Core install (what a relief that was). My question is then, which would you recommmend to me as the better of the beginner Linux versions? I am currently downloading Mandriva, and may download SuSE as well, but wanted some experienced users opinions.

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    • #3062580

      The scoop on SuSE

      by stress junkie ·

      In reply to Mandrake(Mandriva), Fedora, or SuSE

      You would probably be unhappy with SuSE. Although I use it as my primary desktop there are problems in the area of audio-video. These problems can be fixed but it is probably too much trouble for a new Linux user.

      The main problem with the default SuSE installation is that it doesn’t include the software to watch commercial DVD movies. This can be fixed by finding and installing the apt4rpm/apt4suse package, then replacing the SuSE installation of Xine with one that works.

      In other respects Xine is good for playing mp3 files, music CDs, and other sound files. Before you give up on Red Hat Fedora you should try using Xine for your mp3 files. It is an X GUI application. I don’t know if you are or aren’t running an X desktop with your current setup.

      As far as burning CDs and DVDs you can’t beat the K3b software. This package runs in the KDE environment. If you want to burn a DVD all you need is the ISO file and a DVD burner. You just click on the Tools drop down menu, then click on DVD, then click on Burn, then choose the ISO file to burn onto the DVD. This has nothing to do with the Linux distribution. It is all about using KDE.

      If you have KDE installed on your system you can run KDE applications even if you use a different window manager. I don’t use the KDE window manager but the KDE applications work fine because the KDE software is installed. SuSE has done whatever is required to integrate these window systems so I don’t know if there is any work required to get this configuration working the way that it does with SuSE.

      Anyway, the problems that you are having may have less to do with Red Hat Fedora and more to do with the applications that you are using to achieve your goal. If you try the applications that I have mentioned using Fedora then you may be happy with the result. In any case you probably don’t want to use SuSE.

      • #3062562

        Sounds good

        by jrod86 ·

        In reply to The scoop on SuSE

        I’m running KDE and tried using XMMS for the audio, but that was a failure. I will definitely try Xine and see what that does. I just can’t believe that it detects the Audigy Sound Card, and yet doesn’t play sound. I went through a couple forums and tried the suggestions they had, but to no avail.

        I will also try to burn the ISO from a DVD with K3b. I appreciate your candor about SuSe and will avoid that distro. Maybe I’m just looking for something other than what Fedora has, it is not bad in terms of the environment.

        • #3062529

          Sound card problem

          by stress junkie ·

          In reply to Sounds good

          I’ve had problems with getting an Audigy sound card to work. The sound system in Linux is going through a change. Here are a couple of ideas. Keep in mind that I don’t have Fedora so I don’t know the exact actions to take for configuring a card.

          If Fedora makes a boot log try reading that. You might look in /var/log/boot.msg for information about what happened during the system boot. Otherwise you could try the dmesg command right after you boot. Lastly you can just look at the boot messages when the computer is booting.

          What you are looking for is some message about detecting the Audigy sound card. What you want to see is that your system is using the ALSA sound drivers. This is the newer version of the sound software for Linux.

          What I did in SuSE to get the Audigy working was to use the GUI for setting up the system and looked in the sound card applet. I found that it had set the active sound card to number zero. I changed it to sound card number one. I rebooted and then Audigy worked.

          I know that Fedora has a GUI for setting up the system. Information about Fedora can be found at

          http://fedora.redhat.com/docs/

          It looks like the documentation is in downloadable format which I don’t want to do. But I know that they have a GUI system administration tool. I just don’t know what it is called.

          Give it a try. Don’t worry about breaking things. You can always reinstall the OS.

        • #3062503

          That’s what I tried

          by jrod86 ·

          In reply to Sound card problem

          I went through the GUI to configure the ALSA output driver in XMMS and set it to use the Audigy, but then it said something may be blocking the sound card. I shut down at that time and didn’t get a chance to go back in to check. Most forums didn’t have much to say in terms of the error I received, but hopefully the reboot will take care of my blockage. Thanks for all the info!

        • #3062485

          A couple of more ideas

          by stress junkie ·

          In reply to That’s what I tried

          Log in as root.
          Open a terminal window.
          Enter the following commands:

          hwinfo > t.tmp
          less t.tmp

          The hwinfo command may take several minutes to run. When you enter the less command you will should see a listing of all of the hardware on your system. The list is extremely detailed. See if you can find the Audigy sound card in the list. Then enter the following commands:

          lsmod | sort > t2.tmp
          less t2.tmp

          You will see a list of all of the hardware drivers. There are several for the sound system. This is the listing for my system related to the sound system:

          snd 62212 12 snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi_event,snd_seq,snd_pcm_oss,snd_mixer_oss,snd_via82xx,snd_ac97_codec,snd_pcm,snd_timer,snd_mpu401_uart,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq_device
          snd_ac97_codec 65668 1 snd_via82xx
          snd_mixer_oss 18944 1 snd_pcm_oss
          snd_mpu401_uart 8064 1 snd_via82xx
          snd_page_alloc 11656 2 snd_via82xx,snd_pcm
          snd_pcm 93832 2 snd_pcm_oss,snd_via82xx
          snd_pcm_oss 56872 0
          snd_rawmidi 25636 1 snd_mpu401_uart
          snd_seq 55312 4 snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi_event
          snd_seq_device 8456 3 snd_seq_oss,snd_seq,snd_rawmidi
          snd_seq_midi_event 7680 1 snd_seq_oss
          snd_seq_oss 31360 0
          snd_timer 25860 2 snd_seq,snd_pcm
          snd_via82xx 27812 0
          soundcore 9056 1 snd

          You can see the entry above for snd_via82xx. That’s the driver for the sound chip on my motherboard. The computer that I’m using to write this doesn’t have an Audigy. Anyway you should see an entry in your listing for the Audigy driver.

          Lastly if all else fails do this:

          Shut down the system and power off.
          Remove the Audigy card.
          Power on.
          Enter BIOS setup.
          Make sure that the motherboard sound system is disabled.
          Reinstall Linux.
          Shut down and power off.
          Insert the Audigy card.
          Power on and boot Linux.
          Log on as root.

          KDE will probably say that it found a new hardware device, the Audigy. It should ask if you want to configure the Audigy. Say yes.

          I have found that it is sometimes a good idea to install Linux in a bare system and add cards after Linux is running. Only add one card per reboot.

        • #3062444

          That’s a good idea

          by jrod86 ·

          In reply to A couple of more ideas

          It sounds like that would be a good idea. It does detect the onboard sound, so I should probably try to disable it…thanks again.

        • #3062797

          You Forgot Debian!

          by gregunit ·

          In reply to Sounds good

          Debian is about the only distro not owned by a commercial business. My Debian server is the only one without a battery back, we live in the South and experience thunderstorms and momentary power blips daily. Debian takes a licking and comes back ticking ? and it recognized my sound card during installation.

          Hope you find this useful

          Gregunit

      • #3056893

        DVD playback

        by filker0 ·

        In reply to The scoop on SuSE

        As has been noted elsewhere in another thread — Windows XP does not play DVDs out of the box either. I have found SuSE to be generally very good about hardware support and such, and having to obtain a DVD playback library may be a pain, but it’s also a pain when you don’t have the XP software that comes bundled with your video card.

    • #3062490

      Sound card and Fedora

      by jmgarvin ·

      In reply to Mandrake(Mandriva), Fedora, or SuSE

      Out of the box the sound is muted in Fedora. Did you check this?

      My SB Live works pretty well.

      If you want to play MP3s, I suggest xmms (yum install xmms)

      Burning DVDs is possible:
      http://dvd.chevelless230.com/

      If you want to rip and burn, you need to go grab software, but I’m pretty adverse to piracy, so I’m not going to point you to it.*

      *I’m not saying YOU are a pirate, but a lurker or 5 may be. I hate to give out that information and have people ripping and burning….

      I prefer Fedora for a number of reasons, but may I suggest you try Ubuntu, Gentoo, or Knoppix if you wish to have more of a workstation?

      • #3062480

        I guess that makes sense …

        by stress junkie ·

        In reply to Sound card and Fedora

        … for the same potential reason that SuSE multimedia is crippled; not that I really know why SuSE is the way that it is, but if you want to make a distro for business workstations you may want to disable the multimedia stuff.

        That was a long sentence. 🙂

        So how do you enable the sound system in Fedora?

        • #3062356

          Just unmute in the volume manager

          by jmgarvin ·

          In reply to I guess that makes sense …

          Stupid, but still it is there.

        • #3062282

          I’m not stupid. ;-) (ha ha)

          by stress junkie ·

          In reply to Just unmute in the volume manager

          At least they don’t leave a library out of the distro as SuSE does. (libdvdcss)

        • #3057143

          dvdcss

          by apotheon ·

          In reply to I’m not stupid. ;-) (ha ha)

          The dvdcss library was the target of some severe legal wrangling for a while, and still has some sketchy licensing issues surrounding it, so many distributions are unwilling to include it in their standard software archives. Debian doesn’t offer it as part of the standard archives either, but it’s not tough to find a (reasonably trustworthy and stable) third-party archive for Debian that does have it.

      • #3062445

        I sure did

        by jrod86 ·

        In reply to Sound card and Fedora

        I did make sure the sound is not muted thanks to the nice GUI’s in Fedora. When I toggle on some Open953 (don’t know what it was exactly because I am not at the station now) I did here a nice pop through the sound system.

        I’m paranoid about my son destroying my DVD’s (he fingerprinted his own to almost oblivion) so I like to make copies of my purchases. I’m sure if I do some more digging I can get the appropriate software I was just upset by this whole situation.

        I did look at Ubuntu as well, but thought I would wait for a year to see if it develops as much as some are saying. I have the Knoppix live CD and found it to be intuitive, but didn’t want to install it as a workstation.

    • #3062386

      Mandriva is

      by jaqui ·

      In reply to Mandrake(Mandriva), Fedora, or SuSE

      configured as an end user desktop.
      it’s fairly good at detecting and configuring most hardware during install.

      the only item it had any trouble with is the on-board sis chipset soundcard.
      ( but then only one distro has gotten that right out of all of them. [ Vector linux, which has other issues* ] )

      *Vector linux doesn’t configure xfree correctly, you have to manually re-configure it after installation. it also doesn’t like the [space] character in passwords, so you have to be carefull when picking a password. [ I actually use pass phrases, so the space character is an important part of it. )

      • #3062377

        Mandriva

        by lordshipmayhem ·

        In reply to Mandriva is

        I concur, LE2005 Discovery version is a superb end-user distro. There are also special versions for corporate users, including servers.

        • #3062347

          ~chuckle~

          by jaqui ·

          In reply to Mandriva

          their corporate desktop version is almost identical to their end user community version. the difference being a bit more support for using ms based software.

          their server edition comes with enterprise class security tools, and is quite pricey for a single cd linux version. ( still less cost than comparable product(s) from M.S. )

          with the next series of releases, if the pattern follows as it has been doing, wait until the 2008 version before moving on from 2005.
          Mandrake [ Mandriva now ] has this pattern:
          x.0 release slightly buggy
          x.1 release ok
          x.2 release worth using.

          2005le is their 10.2 release.
          if they are going to be year naming it will slow releases by 6 months, maybe changing pattern, maybe not.

        • #3062313

          ugh

          by apotheon ·

          In reply to ~chuckle~

          Mandrake is driving me up the wall. There’s a significant lack of manpages, it uses the RedHat-style FHS-noncompliant configuration layout, it uses flaky-edge software, and so on. About the only major plus to it is that its GUI configuration tool gets printer configuration “right”, aside from the fact that those wacky French Linux guys have no qualms about using proprietary hardware support (which makes some things easier than they would otherwise be).

          As far as I’m aware, though, Mandrake does use a slightly more LSB-compliant kernel than Fedora, which while not strictly speaking a plus, is at least not a minus (and promises better server support for standard config Squid and similar services).

          In general, the major RPM-based distros (Fedora, RHEL, Mandr[ake|iva], and SuSE, primarily) are all pretty disdainful of the LSB and FHS, and they tend to eschew some of the more convenient shell tools in favor of distro-specific GUI tools that change from one release to the next.

        • #3062303

          yup

          by jaqui ·

          In reply to ugh

          which is why I use lfs.
          stictly build it lfs and lsb compliant.

          as a development platform it beats all corporate distros for that one reason.
          by building compliant system you don’t have to distro test, you only have to hardware test.
          after all, if your app doesn’t use non compliant tools / libs then your app should run on any distro.

        • #3057151

          very true

          by apotheon ·

          In reply to yup

          Of course, I’m not doing a whole lot of serious application development, so that’s not really my primary concern right now. There’s no way I could maintain a low level of administrative overhead with LFS. Besides, with Debian, I don’t have to reinvent the wheel every time I install a system.

          Of course, Debian isn’t a “corporate distro”, either, and is a helluva lot more LSB and FHS compliant than those RPM-based corporate-backed distributions. Besides, if I was going to go the from-scratch route, I’d probably end up using DFS (Debian From Scratch).

        • #3057013

          Agreed

          by jmgarvin ·

          In reply to very true

          One of the first things I do is get a “real” kernel after installing Fedora 😉

          What really drives me batty is that the RPM based distros (and I’m a fan, remember) can’t keeps things as structured as the “real” distros. Every version something changes to the point that you have really dig down deep to see what is going on.

        • #3056968

          I hear that.

          by jaqui ·

          In reply to very true

          the from scratch is not really meant for admin tasks.

          more for a learning tool.
          using it to guarantee a 100% compliant system for use as development platform isn’t stretching anything. no way as working admin station.

          using a from scratch for a server is more work than needfull. use debian or slak instead. they have similiar install models ( minimalistic approach ) and do have more admin options for production machines.

          the base from scratch is cli, with network enabled.
          same as initial deb / slak install.
          time used for from scratch, one full day
          time used for deb / slak, about an hour.
          adding a gui from scratch, with tools, another day.
          in deb / slak, another hour.

          the loss of tools like apt is the biggest drawback from the lfs idea, but it isn’t a kill the concept for some people.
          and I could get the apt sources and add it, if I choose to.
          or rpm.

          the benefit, besides compliance, of lfs for me is that if all workstations are blank systems, new people get to show their knowledge of linux and how well they can follow instructions.
          all linux no windows, so it’s a good way to weed out people who can’t build their own system with the complete instruction set available in hard copy to work from.
          ( and boot cd with sane build environment )

          I never actually recommend lfs for anyone new to linux, or as the distro for production machines.

        • #3056873

          right-o

          by apotheon ·

          In reply to very true

          I’m actually planning to pick up a play system to use for a DFS install at some point in the near future (this year, maybe). It should be fun.

          Expecting an hour to install X Window System components on Debian is actually really overstating the case. It takes me about ten minutes to get all the X stuff I need installed. Of course, I’m not running Gnome or KDE, else it might take an extra twenty or thirty minutes to get everything installed.

        • #3061526

          better to

          by jaqui ·

          In reply to very true

          overstate the time than understate it.
          so when someone new does try they are pleasantly suprised, not upset.
          and a newbie will most likely install more than they need to, which takes longer. 🙂

        • #3061399

          good point

          by apotheon ·

          In reply to very true

          On the other hand, overstating everything leaves some people wondering why Linux is so slow and difficult. Heh.

      • #3057174

        I may attempt to install Mandriva…

        by jrod86 ·

        In reply to Mandriva is

        …After last nights debacle. Things aren’t working out so well with what I have going on. The dual-boot XP/Fedora machine may have to go back to a strictly MS machine and I will have to build another box for Linux.

        If Mandriva is better at detecting hardware, that may be the way to go. I disabled the onboard sound and tried some of the other suggestions, but so far nothing has worked. Then, because I wanted to stay updated with Fedora, I had to sit through a LONG update process which I finally had to leave to get some other things done, so I still have that to look forward to.

        Another question though. I do have room on my Hard Drive for another partition for Mandriva…If I want to give it a try, will it be able to detect the Grub boot loader and just add another entry for it (it currently allows me to choose XP or Fedora)??

        • #3057139

          not likely

          by apotheon ·

          In reply to I may attempt to install Mandriva…

          Mandrake has had a tendency to simply “take over” grub and make itself the only booting OS without asking in earlier versions. I’m not sure about the latest Mandriva release, though. Your mileage may vary.

          Also be aware that if it asks if you want to, for instance, install “all four disks” when there are only three, don’t just choose “yes”. For a long time, Mandrake has had a flaw in the installer that makes it act like there are more disks than there are, and it can hang the install. I’m not sure whether that has gotten fixed in the latest version, either.

        • #3057020

          not anymore..

          by jaqui ·

          In reply to not likely

          I actually have a mandrake bootloader* with a multiboot, the only thing I did was edit the way it boots and change the default boot option.
          mandrake listed every single bootable os all by itself.
          ( cause I knew to use a boot partition so all linux kernels are on same partition, and mandrake adds everything from there to the boot option listing )

          * lilo since I prefer it.

        • #3057002

          boot partitions

          by apotheon ·

          In reply to not anymore..

          Using a single boot partition for multiple Linux distributions doesn’t really give you distribution-specific configurations, though. You pretty much just get different kernels with some extra (often redundant) software installed.

          . . . unless you’re actually running multiple root partitions in addition to a centralized boot partition for kernels.

        • #3056973

          yup

          by jaqui ·

          In reply to boot partitions

          the only connection between versions is the boot partition.
          and a shared partition for file transfer.
          ( use this to avoid any non compliant permisson problems from mandrake. )

          I have a copy of mdk 8.2 installed, just for the 2.4 kernel to be able to use kylix.
          ( kylix won’t install on 2.6 kernel systems )

        • #3061397

          I heard that about Kylix.

          by apotheon ·

          In reply to yup

          Needless to say, I’m disappointed in Borland. Couple this with the fact that the new Windows environment for the same tasks, Delphi, is reportedly buggy and flaky, and there’s getting to be less and less of interest from Borland. In fact, Kylix and Delphi was about all of interest that was left.

        • #3062087

          yup..

          by jaqui ·

          In reply to yup

          jbuilder didn’t take off as well as they thought it would.
          after all, who needs a complete, system resource sucking, ide to make java apps? 😉

          borland also killed their c++ builder, it’s now an addon for delphi.

          seems they are trying for bankruptcy.

          builderx, the any os development tool, requires existing borland projects to get any development options for a project. it’s not the cross platform ide they advertise it as.

          then, they changed their installer to a java based install anywhere. unfortunately, it’s so bloated that the installer seems to have locked up so you start it numerous times before you get any reaction from it.
          ( I have seen one person with the installer for jbuilder running 8 times simultaneously )

        • #3062046

          okay then . . .

          by apotheon ·

          In reply to yup

          That doesn’t sound good at all.

    • #3056901

      My oppinion

      by ip_fresh9 ·

      In reply to Mandrake(Mandriva), Fedora, or SuSE

      My opinion is that Unix is the best solution for web servers.

      Davis,
      http://www.orangmortgage.co.uk

    • #3063105

      My SUSE experience

      by joedcook ·

      In reply to Mandrake(Mandriva), Fedora, or SuSE

      I use SUSE everyday as my primary desktop on 4 different computer systems. I have had occasional problems with the sound levels being set to 0 on first installations but never not installing a sound card.
      I like the YaST set up tool and the YaST online update tool.
      I use K3b for cd writing and DVD writing and find it much easier to use than Windows if you are doing anything other than burning plain CD-R. Windows has no support for some of the CD-RW and DVD functionality without 3rd party support which means paying for additional software or keeping up with another CD which came with your optical drive and if you switch optical drives you must install different software because the software is crippled to only work with the drive that it shipped with.
      The out of the box multimedia experience is not because of a limitation of Linux (any distro) but a limitation of the licensing of those components such as mp3 or DVD playback. Some distros include products that have been licensed but of course those are not free. The best out of the box distro that I have used as far as multimedia is Technalign’s TA-Fusion products. I have this installed in an Athlon 64 system and installation is smooth. They combine an open source Simply Mepis distribution with proprietary products and sell for $29 and up depending on the amount of stuff included. To do the samething in SUSE or Fedora you must install other components and agree that they are not illegal in your area.. which in the US they probably are.
      However, I have been using SUSE for about 2 years as my primary desktop operating system and I am very happy and will never go back to Windows.
      But the goal here isn’t to bash Windows or Microsoft.. rather to let you know there is an alternative. It may require some different ways of looking at your system and different ways of obtaining some functionality. There will always be people who prefer one over the other. The world is big enough for all of us.

      • #3063009

        licensing — my understanding

        by apotheon ·

        In reply to My SUSE experience

        As far as I’m aware, things like decss (the decryption library for DVDs) have been ruled legal in the US for noncommercial use. This means you can use it for your own personal use to watch DVDs.

        • #3060929

          good to know

          by joedcook ·

          In reply to licensing — my understanding

          I would like to get some more details on this ruling and who made it. It should be available in any distribution if this is so, but some of them may not know about it. It definitely will help the adoption of Linux in the consumer space if we can get past this stumbling block.
          Thanks for your reply

        • #3061777

          providing isn’t the same as using

          by apotheon ·

          In reply to good to know

          “[i]It should be available in any distribution if this is so[/i]”
          Not necessarily. For one example, there’s SuSE, which is distributed by a commercial organization. It could be argued that even the free versions of SuSE serve as advertising for paid versions, and are thus being distributed for commercial purposes. In general, any time an organization starts distributing something like that, legal ramifications might rear their ugly heads: thus, it’s only individuals who can safely make such things available, and who can decide to include it in a distribution.

          Of course, if you really want to have a distro with easy access to the DVD decryption library, use Debian and add the marillat repository to your sources.list file. A Google search for marillat should find it pretty quickly. I show a page with information about that repository as the first Google hit on a search for marillat.

        • #3061704

          the only

          by jaqui ·

          In reply to licensing — my understanding

          restriction, was the regional encoding.

          they didn’t like the regional encoding not being respected at all.

          this allows for accessing dvd content that is illegal in your area.
          ( porn mostly )
          but some movies, as shown in europe, are edited quite differently from what is shown here in north america.

      • #3128326

        SuSE 9.3 pro is excellent.

        by michael_orton9 ·

        In reply to My SUSE experience

        I have just upgraded to suSE 9.3 pro.
        It did cost me… all of ?8 for the 5cd’s
        Its easier to install than XP, thakes 40 minutes to get a COMPLETE system up an running.
        It will easily set up double or triple boot with 98se/XP.
        YAST2 detects ans sets up almost all normal motherboards, Intel, AMD, sound cards video cards
        modems, NICs.
        I have no trouble burning, ripping, playing CDs and DVD.
        [I use SuSE for data recovery too.
        Take HD out , stick in caddy, grab any unencrypted file even if the MS Windows system is totally trashed. Burn to CD/DVD or sent around the world by NIC!]
        Its easier than XP, in most cases you don’t have to find the CD that came with the device, Suse finds it and sets it up.
        It found my cheap ADSL Mentor MR4c/UK router, set it up with no fuss. With XP I had to use the CD that came with it.
        My home ISP doesn’t support LINUX, but other Linux users are far better than the official support desk. Firefox and Opera 8.51 both work OK, and I now run 4 PCs from the one connection, mixing 98se/xp and Suse.
        SuSe just about runs on Pcs fit for the scrap heap.
        This is ideal if you haven’t got a budget.
        If you went to UBUNTU or DSL, all FREE!!!
        you could use even more ancient PCs, perhaps by just sticking in some old, from recycling centre, ram, and a 10/100 ethernet card ( I pay ?5 per pair at the recycling centre). Ethernet cables, ?5 for a plastic bag full, return if they don’t work.
        If the PCs will run 98se, they will run Linux, very well. DSL will struggle on a 486.
        When MS VISTA comes out and they drop support for XP, then will be the time to finally drop MS and switch to Linux. Save upgrading hardware too.
        Personally I find 98se + Nortons Utils + loads of “free stuph” the best “Microsoft” system there is.
        But its stability is mainly due to non_MS add-ons!

    • #3062937

      Mandrake as a desktop OS

      by brandonv ·

      In reply to Mandrake(Mandriva), Fedora, or SuSE

      I installed the Mandrake that came with my Compaq(HP) desktop when I bought it and have been using it as a desktop PC. Works fine, sound card was detected, X config defaults fine as well. No complaints, but I really haven’t touched Linux since the old Slackware.

    • #3062834

      Mandrake is Tops

      by groenem9 ·

      In reply to Mandrake(Mandriva), Fedora, or SuSE

      Mandrake is easier to use than Fedora. I don’t know about Suse, because I haven’t tried it yet. Mandrake has some of its own software that makes it easy to configure your system.
      The GUI interface to Add/Remove RPM programs is much better then Fedora’s.
      For beginners I recommend Mandrake. It feels more “polished” than Fedore and it’s website has more to offer.

      • #3062743

        on the other hand

        by apotheon ·

        In reply to Mandrake is Tops

        I hope you never have to do any serious manpage use with Mandrake, or need your Linux-related skills learned from Mandrake to apply easily to other distros. Lack of documentation coverage is one of Mandrake’s weaknesses, as is its deviation from LSB norms.

      • #3125105

        5 years and still a Mandr(ake)/(iva) fan

        by nvargas ·

        In reply to Mandrake is Tops

        I’ve tried Red Hat, Fedora, SuSE, Ubuntu and several other distros. It is true that underneath all of them are the same ol’ Linux, but to me the easiest distro for a regular user is Mandriva.

        It detects hardware quite well, the installation process has impoved a lot. I’ve never installed a SuSE desktop without having to tweak the graphical interface to make it work properly.

        Fedora is stable, but is as fun as a soda cracker. Too spartan in terms of usability, too Geek-loves-to-read-instructions-and-solve-puzzles philosophy.

        It is true that you need to go under the hood to understand how Linux works and master this great OS, but regular users DON’T CARE and WON’T CARE. They just want a OS that works as easily as possible, and Mandriva does that.

    • #3072037

      Mandriva

      by damian205 ·

      In reply to Mandrake(Mandriva), Fedora, or SuSE

      I have been using Mandrake/Mandrive since version 7. They started to become acceptable at 9.2. I currently have Mandriva 2005SE installed and for the very first time everything just works. I have had to install Java, Realplayer, Flash and libdvdcss to get the internet and DVD playback working the way I use it. This is not so different from a vanilla install of Win XP.

      I have used or installed at different times all of the following distros. Lycoris Desktop/LX,
      Xandros v2.0 and 3.0, Arc, Linspire 4.5, FC3, Debian Sarge, Ubuntu, (Solaris, Free BSD 4.8, RH7.1 and Caldera Open Linux 1.3 were all experiments and SUSE 9.2 refused even to boot). Any of the above were OK but I was never successfull in getting all the necessary features to work.

      Mandriva on the other hand was not especially difficult to configure, it works with my Windows network and recognised all my hardware including my TV card out of the box. I have two printers, a Samsung Laser and an old Apollo inkjet and they also worked first time and USB plug and play devices such as external drives and cameras also work corrcectly.

      More importantly is what I don’t have to do. E.g I haven’t installed a raft of anti-spyware programs, virus scanners are for other peoples benefit when I send mail, defragging weekly is out the window (no pun intended) my browser doesn’t disapppear under the onslaught of unwanted toolbars and the only maintenenace I do is to empty the waste bin once in awhile.

      As far as burning DVD’s goes all I do is put in a blank disc and K3B starts automatically. See http://www.k3b.org for further details. Mandriva has a usefull GUI on this app so don’t worry to much about the command line.

      I hope this helps and I hope you find a distro that suits you. I tried for 3 or 4 years before settling on Mandriva so if you dont find one that you like first time out keep on trying. Also remember that even if you don’t like a release one time, later ones may be better.

      • #3119329

        I agree

        by gbrantner ·

        In reply to Mandriva

        Mandriva 2005LE has been wonderful for me. The only issue that I’ve had is installing on my brother’s PC. He has onboard sound (disabled) and has a soundblaster Live card in the machine. Windows sees both, and uses the Soundblaster. The Mandriva sees both, but is trying to use the onboard, and we cannot figure out how to change this.

        We’ve been through every configuration screen, but have as yet to find the answer. Neither of us are Linux gurus, so while we are testiment to how nice this distro has worked for us, we are also unable to resolve this (probably very simple) issue on this one PC.

        I will not let that be a black mark as I had 3D Hardware acceleration right off the DVD for my ATI X800 Pro series card, and the few games that I have installed pay very well. All of the other apps work great;I routinely use things like K3B, The Gimp 2, the office suites, etc.

        One thing that is odd is that by default, it does not install a lot of the documentation. However, go to the add software wizard, and surf that list to find and add it.

        Good luck to all, and have a great day!

      • #3125100

        Same here

        by nvargas ·

        In reply to Mandriva

        Have tried all of those distros, except for Arc Sarge, and Solaris. Still Mandriva does the job right. I have convinced many users to switch to Linux due to the “Mandriva Experience”.

    • #3122405

      Best Distro ummmmmmm

      by eddie_dillon ·

      In reply to Mandrake(Mandriva), Fedora, or SuSE

      I have installed most distros at one time or another, I like to try them all, just to see how different they are.
      My advice to you is try Knoppix it should detect your sound card and most standard computer items i have tested it with and best of all running from a cd-rom, though I am suprised at fedora not detecting your sound card. Another thing, I really find no difference in fedora, SuSe, or mandrake.
      If you really want to learn linux get an old computer (p3) and try a slackware version, you should have no issues with devices, it may take you some time to figure it out but with doing so you will have learned alot, I did without the help of books, courses or friends. it is anoying at first but the insight in to how a computer really works and the advantage of linux really becomes apparent. its pure freedom once learned.
      Wish you the best of luck
      eddie

      • #3123613

        Knoppix/Debian

        by apotheon ·

        In reply to Best Distro ummmmmmm

        I’ve actually had to resort to using Knoppix as a Debian installer on a couple of laptops at work because no other distro would recognize the driver interface for the CDROM drive after initial boot, thus preventing other distributions from installing from CD.

        For most purposes, I swear by plain vanilla Debian. For hairy hardware detection and support issues, nothing beats Knoppix.

    • #3127796

      Fedora does have dvd support built in

      by the_dogs_rag ·

      In reply to Mandrake(Mandriva), Fedora, or SuSE

      Nautilus does have dvd support. Copying dvd movies on the other hand it doesn’t have support for which i’m sure is what you mean. If you want it for a desktop purpose and don’t want to do that much fiddling try ubuntu. Alternately you could just add livna (google livna if you don’t know what it is) to your yum list of repositories in fedora and to get mp3 support get xmms (ie command: yum install xmms) and then google for the xmms mp3 plugin rpm for fc4. To get dvd playback then type yum install

    • #3135246

      PCLOS

      by john-p ·

      In reply to Mandrake(Mandriva), Fedora, or SuSE

      I am completly new to *nix of any kind, but recently I installed PC Linux OS(a derivative of Mandriva I think) as a dual boot with WinXP.

      To someone who has used Windows, PCLOS seems to be very user friendly, and the install is extremely simple.

      The only problem I have with it is that I still cannot seem to setup a printer.

      Other then that; excellent!

      John

    • #3197363

      Ubuntu Linux Distro

      by dhoppes ·

      In reply to Mandrake(Mandriva), Fedora, or SuSE

      Try using Ubuntu; installs easily; Debian; auto updates; recognizes sound cards, video cards, etc. Excellent distro.

      • #3125103

        Failed to recognize hardware

        by nvargas ·

        In reply to Ubuntu Linux Distro

        I tried Ubuntu recently, and it failed to work with my i815 video card. I know that these are buggy and a pain in the *ss, but Mandriva worked right away. SuSE also failed.

        • #3124909

          interesting

          by apotheon ·

          In reply to Failed to recognize hardware

          The Intel i815 chipset was one of the most broken pieces of crap Intel has ever produced. I’m not surprised you had hardware support issues with it, and it’s probably more blind luck than anything else that it worked on Mandrake instead of some other distro you tried.

        • #3124891

          actually,

          by jaqui ·

          In reply to interesting

          I installed mandrake 8.0 on my wife’s system to fix a problem with ntloader for her xp pro system, it recognised and powered the i815 chipset with no problem, yet their errata said they did have issues with it at that time.

          her system, with ms bootloader in the mbr, would lose the hard drive from the bios, as soon as lilo was in the mbr it worked perfectly.

    • #3125129

      Linux is good!

      by joseph-batson ·

      In reply to Mandrake(Mandriva), Fedora, or SuSE

      There are many distros that fit individuals needs. That is the great thing about linux. I have tried several distros of linux, however the easiest to install, administer and alot of apps that i can use is Mandrake. I’ve been using Mandrake for about 5 years and have nothing but good things to say about it. It is used on my server and an old laptop with no problems. I did try SUSE 10 on the laptop and had issues. Knoppix is another good distro that is easy to use, however some of the hardware compatibility is not up to par w/ Mandrake. I have successfully installed and used Mandrake on a 100 mhz machine and many others. Mandrake is the option I would choose.

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