Distirbuitions

[Matthew Carpenter]

begin  "Net Llama!" <netllama at linux-sxs.org>
(Wed, 25 Dec 2002 15:31:27 -0800)

> For servers, Redhat-7.3(XFS).  I have no favorite for desktops, since i 
> use XFCE which is distro agnostic.

No offense, but that sounds more like you don't understand why people would use something other than RedHat...  :)

XFCE may be distro-agnostic, but the list of installed packages and utilities to help a desktop system be a desktop system makes a difference.  I have just (possibly) found my new love on the desktop.  We're still in the early stages of our relationship, but she seems sweet and has a lot up top :)
No, really.  I am liking SuSE 8.1 because it has a lot of software included for both desktop and server-type installations, and because it has pretty intelligent handling of dependencies, and the packages (at least from what I'm seeing so far) have been cohesively packaged to play nicely together (unlike my experiences with Mandrake).  The include such apps as Audacity (my audio editing software of choice, and very recent version of it) and MPlayer (haven't played with this one yet).  Yast2 is visually and logically very nice, although I haven't tinkered with the text configs yet to see if Yast2 can keep its grubby hands off them.  Having just installed it last night for the first time, it looks like SuSE took the fixes and new things that UnitedLinux brought into the picture and fixed a lot of 8.0's quirks.  We'll see how I feel next month.  I'm not proposing marriage yet, but in the wake of the bitter divorce that SCO forced upon me by discontinuing OpenLinux, it looks hop!
eful.  Most importantly, SuSE doesn't break KDE.  I'm a bit overwhelmed by the amount of software that it comes with, and a little disappointed that I had to install a couple packages that I'm used to in a standard install (like KDE Graphics Extras package for ksnapshot)
IFUP and IFDOWN are included in this release, but I can't find LOCATE (which I live by).
SuSE has really come up with an XP competator with this version.  Their graphics are simply divine (with the help of the KDE team, of course).

-- 
Matthew Carpenter
matt at eisgr.com                          http://www.eisgr.com/

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