On Fri, 11 Jan 2002 19:55:00 +0100 "Go, Jeffrey" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Hi guys > > > What would be the major differences between RH 7.2 and SUSE Linux? > The two distributions have somewhat different layouts as far as some of the system files, which means that about half the time, RPMs from one won't work on the other. SuSE has a fairly well-developed, but proprietary, system admin took called yast. The original yast1 is a terminal program, i.e. it has menus, but is called from a command line and works the same from an xterm as it does from a console w/ no X. The newer yast2 has a text mode and a GUI mode (qt/kde). Somewhat more asthetically appealing, but currently much slower. These tools are at the core of any system administration on a SuSE system, and the values modified w/ them are stored in a large file, /etc/rc.config, although a few others are utilized as well for specialized setting such as firewalls. RedHat has not real centralized tool on this scale (think /sbin/setup to a power of 3), and stores the settings scattered around the /etc/sysconfig directory, among other places. The yast1/2 tools also provide an interface to LVM setup and admin. SuSE provides a couple of firewall tools, and has been for at least a year before Red Hat. There is the personal_firewall, which is basically for a dialup/cablemodem user offering no services to anyone, and then there is SuSEFirewall 1 & 2, for ipchains and iptables, respectively. Also there are several included security scripts for checking things like the /tmp directory, etc. Not essential, but a nice touch. SuSE comes w/ more software initially; 6 CDs/ 1 DVD, and the yast tools are w/o peer in the rpm world for managing these vendor supplied packages. They fall down when you start adding in other packages from other sources. Which brings us to one of the big weak spots of SuSE: lack of software on the internet. What I mean by this, is if you go to about any opensource project, if there are binaries availabe, there will likely be RPMs among them. RPMs built w/ a RH system in mind, not a SuSE box. Pretty much your only choice at that point is to download the source, and eithe just compile it and hope it doesn't have problems w/ the rest of your system, or build an RPM of it and install it. Otherwise, you are largely limited to whatever version of package foo comes on the install media. Both vendors have online update programs: Red Hat has the Red Hat Network (RHN), and SuSE has Yast Online Update (YOU). Red Hat's is free for one machine, even those built w/ a non boxed version i.e. burn CD of RH, though there are ways around it for those of us w/ a home network. YOU is only available w/ SuSE, which is not available for free for i386, period. But once you have a legit copy, you can install it on any number of machines, and each one can fully use YOU w/o need for hokey workarounds. Six of one, half a dozen of another. Both companies heavily subsidize the Open Source community in the way of kernel developers and other programmers. Red Hat backs the GNOME project and several kernel developers (Alan Cox, IIRC); SuSE backs KDE and kernel developers like Andrea Archangeli (sp?), and Hans Reiser of ReiserFS fame. Red Hat has a somewhat better 'history' of open-sourcing their install/admin tools, whereas SuSE maintains a deathgrip on their install/admin tool yast, to the point of not putting forth a GPL version of SuSE for places like CheapBytes to distribute, since it would supposedly threaten their business model as yast1/2 are proprietary. Red Hat isn't completely innocent about the free CD thing lately, but for different reasons. SuSE over all seems a little more polished, and, well, coherent as a total package. There is a string, though. Deviation from the 'SuSE way' can be quite painful, as their tools and methods permeate the distro extensively. Red Hat is a little more of a 'generic' distro; more of a jack of all trades, master of none. I'd venture to guess that SuSE has moderately better hardware detection/support, and could possible be a bit better choice as a new users' desktop system (almost as friendly as Mandrake, but not as flaky). Just my $.02 worth, after using both distros for several years now, since 5.0 of RH and 5.3 of SuSE. HTH, Monte _________________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Get your free @yahoo.com address at http://mail.yahoo.com _______________________________________________ Redhat-list mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] https://listman.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/redhat-list
