> I know everyone has an opinion on this, but I'm looking for detailed info.
> What are the main differences (technical as well as philosophical) between
> various distros?
Much of the differences come from the frontend software used to install
and administer the system (package manager, network configuration tools,
etc.). For example, RedHat, Suse and Mandrake all use RPM based package
management tools. RedHat uses up2date as a frontend to RPM; Mandrake has
urpmi, and Suse has (IIRC) YAST2. All attempt to overcome the "RPM
dependency hell" that arises when you try to bring in a new package with
unresolved dependencies. They do a fair job; IMHO about as good as Debian
unstable. There are some differences also with how much you need to pay to
update your system.
For example, to use the automated RH up2date system you need a
subscription to the rhn.redhat.com site which is about $60/yr. I use it
mainly because I maintain many machines (over two dozen) at various
companies so being able to see the state of every system, *whether online
or not*, is quite useful. You can get a demo subscription for free if you
register and answer a survey though. If you don't want to purchase a
subscription you can use the rhn-applet-gui to see what updates are
available on a per-machine basis, then pull the relevant rpms from any of
the mirror sites.
Mandrake urpmi uses a distributed update model. That is, the update rpms
are cached across multiple mirror sites. The administrator or user must
then configure urpmi with the URLs of the download sites. You can also
designate "cooker" mirrors so that you can get beta-quality software. I
really like this method but also recommend that you purchase a Mandrake
distro (or join the Mandrake Club) to help support them. They are as free
as Debian in that their complete distribution is available from mirror
sistes (as is RedHat Linux).
Hopefully someone will add a SuSe section here... I've installed it a few
times but don't use it personally. I haven't been able to find complete
download editions of their software either so this is one factor.
Debian is another fish entirely. They use packages also, called debs, but
the main tool itself is apt-get. Apt-get can *usually* fulfill
dependencies for any of the stable packages. This is important -- I use
Debian quite regularly and have never really had any problems with the
stable distro. However, once in a while (like last week) I needed to run
some unstable branch software (***) but had lots of problems apt-get'ing
KDE. This said, for servers and systems that don't need cutting edge
features, Debian is the way to go because your machine will always be
updateable.
There's another system out there called Portage. It's similar to the
FreeBSD ports system -- better in some ways, worse in others. Portage is
primarily a source-based distribution mechanism with the idea that you
rebuild packages so that they are optimized for your specific machine. I
haven't used it recently but it was interesting. I had some minor problems
getting some packages to build and at the time of testing, there was no
"official" way to move compiled binaries from one machine to another. It
also took several *days* to get a working KDE system from a Stage1 build.
Someone with more recent experience can add to this and correct my errors
:D.
OK, so difference between rpm, apt-get and portage: Well, you can do
system-wide upgrades on all of them; you can rebuild packages from source
on all of them; you can automatically satisfy dependencies on all of them.
RPM is used in a lot of corporate environments. Debian is used by a lot of
programmer types. Portage is used by -- well, they are a pretty diverse
group from the stuff I've seen on IRC.
Personally I use the rpm based system, though am comfortable with apt-get.
RPM dependency hell can usually be eliminated either by using packages
from your distribution (that's why you pay them) or rebuilding packages
from source.
All this verbiage aside, the system underneath is still Linux. I've built
my own distros many times (from scratch, without using Linux from Scratch)
so don't really want a distro that requires me to learn the innards. My
recommendation, if you want to learn Linux from ground up, use Linux from
Scratch or Slackware. If you want a working desktop in a hurry, try out
the major distributions (Suse, RedHat, Mandrake, Debian) for week each,
taking notes along the way, then go back and install the one that closest
matches your working habits.
(***) Unstable doesn't necessarily mean the software will crash. It's only
that it hasn't been as well tested as the stable branch. Why not just use
stable then? The problem is that the stable branch tends to be somewhat,
uh, geriatric, superannuated, ancient, long in the tooth, etc.. So if you
want any cool new software you need to use the unstable branch.
>
> I know debian is very much an advocate of free software, and very non
> commercial, and I know about apt-get
>
> I know red hat is a company trying to turn a profit, and has been called
> bloated. Can someone elaborate on "bloated". And how can that be ? What
> code in
> red hat (9 for example) is actually written/modified by red hat. Don't
> they just
> grab other people's code and slap it in a nice pretty package? If so how
> can one
> distro be more bloated than another?
>
> I know mandrake was sorta based on red hat. I know little about SuSE and
> united
> linux, and even less about slackware.
>
Mandrake is no longer a RedHat derivative and is a distro in its own
right. They haven't been a RH recompile in several years. Don't know
diddly about United Linux but I'd heard that it was mostly SuSe.
> So what really are the difference between distros?
>
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