I tried RH and Mandrake when SuSE 7.1 was released because SuSE disappointed me. I tried RH 7.0 and gave the package away. Then I washed my mouth out with soap. Not long after that I purchased the Mandrake 7.0 and installed it for a test spin. It didn't take me long to clean it off my box and re-install SuSE. I didn't realize how spoiled I was. As bad as 7.1 was, it was better than RH or Mandrake. That was a couple of years ago, a life-time in Linux land.

Well, SuSE 8.0 is not the smooth as velvet install that I am use to. The problems were easy to over come, but I've been spoiled too long.

I downloaded three ISO images of the new Mandrake 8.2 distro and burned them onto CDs.

This afternoon I installed Mandrake 8.2 on my Dell OptiPlex 450 at work.

It was absolutely the smoothest install I've every experienced for a Linux distro or a WinXX OS. The Mandrake 8.2 distro is at about the same version level as the SuSE 7.3, which is the best SuSE's ever put out, and once installed and running KDE they look and run pretty similar, especially if you choose the same theme. KDE has really standardised the Linux desktop. For Mandrake 8.2 it is KDE 2.2.1 and Qt 2.x. This means that Mandrake 8.2 doesn't supply the Qt 3 data-aware widgets or the newer Qt Designer. Too bad. If it included those Mandrake 8.2 would be the finest distro on the planet.

But, there is a world of difference between Mandrake's install and maintanence software and SuSE's. I know SuSE's YaST2 very well and have been impressed with its progress and present level of development as represented in SuSE 8.0. But, Mandrake's Control Center is better. One is given so many options at each point, but in such a logical way that they don't seem to overwhelm. Aside from the language and the timezone and time, everything else is automatic - with allowances for human intervention if desired. The 3 CD iso set is equivilent to SuSE's personal edition. Add the "Power Pack" and you'd have SuSE's Pro Edition, the one with 7 CDs and 1 DVD.


I will run Mandrake at work and SuSE at home, and support both financially by buying the packaged distro, which will still be a lot less expensive than purchasing licenses for XP + Office + VFP + SQl, and both distros supply Open Office, KDevelop and PostgreSQL, plus tons more.

Life is good!
JLK