I was writing to a friend of mine about the differences and I thought I would share it here. I've tried Suse and found it lacking. There was a major problem with the default file system rieserFS working with NFS. It has lots of pretty GUI gadgets for setting things up, but unfortunately the file placement is not standard nor rational. I found lots of "default" options that were not easy to fix and would have to go back every time I wanted to upgrade. The default install was supposed to work via DVD, but that failed to work and their support didn't have a clue - but on the Internet I found others with the same problem and no answers. The other thing I did not like about SuSe is that it has too much of the feel of M$ windows in that you do it the SuSe way and if you want to do it your way, it is not easy. (I spent a huge amount of time just trying to set up logging to help debug the NFS problem - something that would have taken just minutes with Redhat). I also found that there was just too much stuff that looked good but was buggy. I also tested Mandrake and I'm now testing Debian (using the libranet install). I like debian for several reasons. First, it is the most Linux "community" oriented in that it really is where the other distributions get their parts. Security fixes always seem to be available for debian before even Redhat and I believe that redhat basically just grabs the patches from the debian distribution as they have their fixes out always a few hours after the debian fix. Debian follows the much more rational and standard locations for file placement which means more scripts/programs will work with out having to fix file paths. There are three versions of Debian at anyone time Unstable, Testing and stable. The "stable" version of Debian is ultra stable - but for desktops lots of people use testing as it has a more recent Kernel and would be similar in stability to redhat9 (verses the older enterprise products they are pushing now) Debian needs only to be installed once, after that all upgrades are via and update program called "apt-get". There is no charge for apt-get. Apt-get also seems to have the best handle on dependency problems. I have also noticed that a large portion of developers use debian as their platform so problems with specific applications should occur less often. Debian has more than 8,710 software packages included with it at this time. Debian is also where the heart of the Linux community is - they include no software that has even questionable licenses - that means that you won't get hooked on some program that will cost money or have propriety file formats to keep you from your files later in life. This may not seem like a big deal, but it is. (I have gotten married to some CAD software where the support to keep it working with OS upgrades now costs $1,500/year). The down side of debian is that the install software is a bit rough ( they are porting anaconda (redhat's install software). I had problems with the standard install because of a CD-Rom drive. So I went and bought Libranet (Libranet is debian). Libranet seems quite nice and of course all one has to do is set up apt-get afterwords to get (and keep up to date) what ever version of Debian and installed packages. (Apt-Get allows full control of which software (unstable-testing-stable) to update from.) Remember you only need to install debian once! I'm still very new to debian and may change my mind, but I don't want another RedHat that puts commercial agendas ahead of Linux/GPL. -- -------------------------------------------------- Karl Schmidt EMail Karl@xtronics.com Transtronics, Inc. WEB http://xtronics.com 3209 West 9th Street Ph(785) 841-3089 Lawrence, KS 66049 FAX(785) 841-0434 Depression is merely anger without enthusiasm. -------------------------------------------------