Robin Miller wrote:
> 1) Accustomed to Mandrake quirks
Same with just about any distro, there are always quirks. The thing
that has kept me from doing anything but evaluating Mandrake are
just flat-out broken packages, and even the installer in some
places.
> 2) Don't like SuSE default menu structure much
I don't like RedHat's nor Ximian's either. Heck, I use the
"mini-commander" to launch programs from the Gnome-panel.
> 3) Don't like SusE default "one big partition."
I never use the distro's default. I have my own scheme that has
worked fairly well for me over the past 3 years.
> I've learned how to mess with KDE menus, so that's no longer a big deal.
> YaST has gotten really good, and SuSE's servers (for updates) are mucho
> better than Mandrake's random mirrors, so this is a big attraction.
YaST is sweet. Unfortunately, it's not redistributable (at least
that last time I checked). That's not too much of a big deal and if
SuSE wants to differentiate themselves that way, then that's fine.
> But with Mandrake root/swap/home partition scheme I can update or
> reinstall all my software and not lose an ounce of my data or settings,
> which is very cool/easy/safe.
I find RedHat upgrades are much safer, but Mandrake does much of the
same. I use RCS to maintain all my configuration files anyway, so
that removes any issues.
> Is there a way I can do something similar in SuSE?
Yes, although I have not personally upgraded a SuSE system (only
Caldera, RedHat and Mandrake). Using RPM really does most of it as
config files are renamed as either *.rpmsave (if they are replaced),
or the new config file is named *.rpmnew.
> I have not found an obvious way to keep my current partition
> structure in YaST.
Really? That's weird!
> Is it possible to change from Mandrake to SuSE and
> preserve all my files, settings, bookmarks, etc.?
In your personal directory? Of course! That's a general UNIX
benefit.
> I am also worried about wavelan driver support. WaveLan and other
> popular 802.11b cards work with no fuss, autodetected, in Mandrake.
> In SusE?
Should be. PCMCIA/WLAN is very easy to setup regardless IMHO.
> Third worry is that I am dangerous as root. I am a screwup. I am scared
> that I will wipe out everything on my hard drive if I deviate even one
> bitt from the few things I know about Mandrake. I would need some
> hand-holding to get through this... at a meeting? At the show next week?
> I'm willing to try...
Fear root my son. Because if you fear root, you'd never use
Win9x/ME, or NT/2000 with MS Office and most 3rd party apps (which
often require administrator privaledges, or at least power user
ones).
-- TheBS
-- Bryan "TheBS" Smith mailto:b.j.smith@ieee.org chat:thebs413 Engineer AbsoluteValue Systems, Inc. http://www.linux-wlan.org President SmithConcepts, Inc. http://www.SmithConcepts.com
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.3 : Fri Aug 01 2014 - 15:14:53 EDT