SuSE Linux/Mandrake Linux/ Re: Redhat Linux - and Debian

[Lachlan Cranswick]

In article <39094EA7.2A8FA2EA at shelx.uni-ac.gwdg.de> 
gsheldr at shelx.uni-ac.gwdg.de ("George M. Sheldrick") writes:
>Paul D. Boyle wrote:
>> 
>> By the way, in recent times the term 'streamlined Redhat installation'
>> is becoming an oxymoron.  Lately, in my opinion anyway, redhat is getting
>> too bloated and too oriented towards providing a 'desktop environment'.
>> I feel a little disappointed in the direction they seem to be moving.
>> 
>> Paul
>> 
>> --

>I agree - RedHat's game plan seems to be to 'streamline' the Linux
>installation in order to appeal to Windows users and to earn money by
>providing support for the things that their installation procedure
>doesn't cover. This explains why their manual keeps getting smaller. We
>recommend SuSE, who provide much more information and many more software
>packages; however RadHat's automatic harware recognition is better than
>SuSE's. It is probably worth buying a commercial FORTRAN compiler for
>Linux; we used pgf77 (www.pgroup.com) to compile my own programs and
>CCP4 with excellent results. The compiler is very robust and produces
>faster code than g77; a full test version that runs for two weeks can be
>downloaded free.

>George Sheldrick
>---

(Having updated the info from the followon posts to the CCP14
Linux area  webpage)

Another Linux option a friend in Melbourne is raving about 
compared to Redhat Linux is Mandrake 7 Linux 
(http://www.mandrake.com)

Install is easy to do from CD-ROM, comes 
with g77 as part of the default install (ISO Images are
available off the net).  
Has some excellent tools to manage the PC -  
(i.e., turning on/off services); checking for updated 
security fixes via the internet ("Drakconf" and 
"updates" programs via the GUI Desktop).

Dual Boot Mandrake/Windows Tutorial with some screen dumps:
  http://www.ccp14.ac.uk/solution/linux/mandrake7_desktop_cdrom.html

-------

Though a colleague at Birkbeck keeps stating that Debian
Linux is the only Linux now available worthy of the name?

Lachlan


======================
Lachlan M. D. Cranswick

Collaborative Computational Project No 14 (CCP14)
    for Single Crystal and Powder Diffraction
Daresbury Laboratory, Warrington, WA4 4AD U.K
Tel: +44-1925-603703  Fax: +44-1925-603124
E-mail: l.cranswick at dl.ac.uk  Ext: 3703  Room C14
                           http://www.ccp14.ac.uk