[TriLUG] Server: Debian or Mandrake?

[Scott G. Hall]

Dan Chen crimsun at fungus.sh.nu wrote:

>On Tue, Apr 22, 2003 at 12:48:14PM -0400, Tarus Balog wrote:
>  
>
>>1) Serve files (via Samba)
>>2) Security
>>3) screen (haven't used it - seems cool)
>>4) Ease of maintenance
>>    
>>
>
>Although I'm an avid Debian cheerleader, I honestly think you'll have
>fewer headaches by choosing Mandrake. If one of the most important goals
>is to have the system(s) up and running in a reasonably short amount of
>time, then you'll want the installer to do a fine job of "detecting" the
>hardware (which means the installation kernel(s) has(have) to support
>your hardware).
>

I have both installed on two machines here (actually Red Hat, Mandrake,
SuSE, Debian and others on 8 machines ...), and I have to concur -- you'll
be happier with Mandrake given your current experience.  The other thing
that Mandrake brings that Debian does not is regular notified security
updates available similar to Red Hat -- you can choose to have them
downloaded automatically or on demand -- you install them per your own
maintenance policies.

Mandrake, Red Hat and SuSE are neck-and-neck otherwise, because they are
targeting the same audiences in their respective primary regions (France,
US and Germany/Netherlands respectively).

-- 
Scott G. Hall,
Raleigh, NC, USA
ScottGHall at BellSouth.Net