> First of all, RPM is well documented. That is a big plus. It lacks
> some of the things that dpkg and dselect do, but it is generally
> easier to use for a newbie. The "Maximum RPM" book, by Ed Bailey,
> is available at Barnes & Noble (published by SAMS), from RedHat
> (where I got my copy), and for download as well.
For the initial install, I've found yast is better than redhats install,
mostly because it has a space left indicator for all your drives.
It uses rpm as its base. As for documentation, I admit SUSE's
documentation a little odd at times, since the people who wrote only use
english as their second languange. ;)
> Also, RedHat just signed an agreement to publish games for Crack
> dot Com, which made Abuse... which MIGHT lead to RedHat becoming
> a major Linux Gaming Platform... which MIGHT mean more sound and
> graphics stuff in RedHat... something to consider.
I hope, I hope, I hope.... ;)
> Support for RedHat is generally pretty good. They release timely
> bug fixes, and they are good about putting out frequent updates.
Same with SUSE.
> There are several RedHat mailing lists. RedHat also contributes
> stuff to the Linux community. Of all the "corporate Linuces" out
> there, RedHat seems to have more of the "Linux Spirit" that the
> others. (Is "Linuces" a word? <g>)
I like Linii, confusing, and even more difficult to pronounce correctly
than linux. ;)
> The free parts of RedHat are available from several FTP sites.
There is an ftp site for SUSE, although I think it may only be for paying
customers, however the are willing to provide cds without the commercial
software such as lnx, for redistribution and mirroring.
> RedHat also offers several commercial packages, including Applix-
> Ware, so if someone wants to purchase an app to go with their
> Graphics Distro, they wouldn't have too many problems installing
> it!
Here is the big gotcha with SUSE, it follows the file system standard more
accurately than any of the other distributions. So a few of the
traditional directory formats are different, I've had to tweak a few
makefiles and configure scripts recently.
The big question is, is yast worthwhile enough to push SUSE on through,
default installs for some packages may not work, but we would be able to
make SUSE compatible RPMs for those few non-rpm packages that screw up, if
requested. However redhat should work out of the box with most software,
and I suppose we could develop a YaST alike.
Not fanning the flames, just playing devils advocate. ;)
Jason Jackson
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://www.cclabs.missouri.edu/~c592030/
