On Mon, Sep 29, 2003 at 01:08:59PM -0500, Ron Johnson wrote: > On Mon, 2003-09-29 at 12:14, Martin Jungowski wrote: > > On Mon, 2003-09-29 at 15:07, Ron Johnson wrote: > > > On Sat, 2003-09-20 at 22:29, sturla wrote: > > > > > > > > If I should advice somebody new to Linux, I would say RedHat, that's > > > > where I started. > > > > RedHat 9 has a great installer and contains anything a normal user > > > > will ever need, including OpenOffice.Org. > > > > > > Gak! And send him into Dependency Hell? > > > > Exactly. RedHat/SuSE/Mandrake may be great and easy to install - but > > that's about it. > > I started out w/ Mdk, but fled, in disgust, to Debian.
I'm totally with Ron on this. My experiences with RPM-based distros were so bad that a few years ago I tried mandrake and ended up fleeing back to That Other OS. And this was as a Completely Average End-User(tm?)... I was trying to do basic day-to-day tasks, and installing only mandrake's own RPMs, and it was a constant stream of dependency issues that translated (in my newbie state at the time) into "system doesn't work". RPMs can crap out on you *long* before you get into installing third-party packages. Ever tried to dist-upgrade a DeadRat system? http://www.distrowatch.com/dwres.php?resource=article-rpm An accountant friend of mine (very much not a computer-geek) is looking at making the switch to Linux, and he was leaning towards Mandrake... I told him to *avoid* RPM-based distros if he wants to be able to maintain his system over any long time-frame. It looks to me like the legitimate choices for someone in his situation are Libranet and Xandros. Cheers! -- ,-------------------------------------------------------------------------. > -ScruLoose- | All your base are belong to us! < > Please do not | - "Cats" from Zero Wing < > reply off-list. | < `-------------------------------------------------------------------------'
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