Phill wrote:
I have been playing around with linux for a little while now and want to setup a web server that incorporates webdav and jsp largely for uniA question like this always has the potential of starting a war, so I'll try be objective.
I currently use mandrake 10 because of the simplicity to setup. What is the general feeling about mandrake amongst SLUG and is there a better flavour to use. Bearing in mind that I have definite time constraints so it must be quick & easy to install and maintain plus cope with multimedia. How does mandrake compare with fedora and debian?
I think from what you trying to do, you may as well stick with what you know. In the end you probably going to install Apache, Tomcat for servlets and Suns JRE, and thats fairly independent of any dist anyway.
Mandrake doesnt seem to be all there on the mirrors, possibly you'll find unofficial contributions on the mirrors, and can do anything anyway.
I think if you 'have' to rush out and buy a "server" addition of Mandrake to do what you need, then I would consider changing.
If a dist says anything like, for Samba and Apache, buy the super-duper enterprise addition, which I have a feeling mandrake does do, you maybe be better off looking at another dist.
There is a little learning curve with debian, your quicky criteria will probably make you not look at it.
I love debian. Its absolutely free, but the thing I like most is that it moves between releases seemlessly. When a new release of debian comes out, users think nothing of upgrading, its easy. Debian is a distribution based on dependencies, and thats what makes it special.
I imagine Gentoo has similar tools, never tried it. As I understand it, Gentoo is the public legacy to Redhat. When Redhat died, Gentoo was born, and is also in the public domain, so its also truely free. Debian was started and is run by normal linux guys in the public domain to prevent the commercial exploitation of linux, I'm in love with its rebellious nature, as much as anything else.
I dont mind any distribution, but as soon as someone takes linux and makes it start to feel like M$, I want to puke.
If I had to recommend one thing, I'd say take the time to learn to build a kernel, and source as well. It equates to freedom and you'll lose your software handcuffs. For example if I cant find something on whatevers installed, I think nothing of getting it from another dist and installing it. At that level it all becomes just Linux.
Most debian guys I know, get the installer (APT networking) working at setup and bypass most of the initial setup, prefering to install only what they need afterwards. You may find that a little scary. If you still wearing software handcuffs, I think in general you going to miss out on the true freedom of linux, and what I believe are the 2 truely great distributions.
Maybe this will help you decide, this is the typical sizes of various dists on a public mirror.
You can ask yourself why there are such huge size differences.
Major Dists Debian 43 gigs Gentoo 39 gigs Mandrake-devel 10 gigs plus Mandrake.com 9.1/2 10 15 gigs
Micky Mouse Dists
Fedora 5 gigs
Knoppix 2 gigs
Slackware 1.3 gigs
OpenBSD 5.5 gigs
RedHat 7/8/9 12 gigsMS Just bug fixes
regards, JT
Phill
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