Fedora Core 3 More bleeding edge than Mandrake?

[salaneking]

Has Mandrake gotten too conservative or just too greedy? It used to be that Mandrake, (which by the way is a former Redhat distribution spinoff) was the more "Bleeding Edge" of the two distributions. I have used Mandrake since the days before Redhat supported KDE(Has it been that long?). Due to Mandrake having financial troubles and subsequently started their Mandrake Club the bleeding edge software, like KDE 3.3 is only available to club members. Not that I haven't supported Mandrake club in the past, but it just erks me. So to get to the point with this post. I have converted 100% to Fedora core. I just installed Fedora core 3 test3 it was a smooth install almost, especially with the DVD installer. There are some configuration utilities that I am trying to get accustomed to, but over all I like what Fedora has become as a community supported open source distribution. It gives it a warmer feel when working with people that are not just worried about " the Bottom Line" but want to make the best distribution possible. I hope I can make at least some small contribution to bringing Linux to the desktop with Fedora Core.

[Psquared]

Originally Posted by salaneking

Has Mandrake gotten too conservative or just too greedy? It used to be that Mandrake, (which by the way is a former Redhat distribution spinoff) was the more "Bleeding Edge" of the two distributions. I have used Mandrake since the days before Redhat supported KDE(Has it been that long?). Due to Mandrake having financial troubles and subsequently started their Mandrake Club the bleeding edge software, like KDE 3.3 is only available to club members. Not that I haven't supported Mandrake club in the past, but it just erks me. So to get to the point with this post. I have converted 100% to Fedora core. I just installed Fedora core 3 test3 it was a smooth install almost, especially with the DVD installer. There are some configuration utilities that I am trying to get accustomed to, but over all I like what Fedora has become as a community supported open source distribution. It gives it a warmer feel when working with people that are not just worried about " the Bottom Line" but want to make the best distribution possible. I hope I can make at least some small contribution to bringing Linux to the desktop with Fedora Core.

Assuming your last two sentences are true will Fedora, or any other distro for that matter, ever be "mature." In other words, will it ever shed it's bleeding edge? I don't see how Linux can ever be mainstream in terms of competing with M$ if its constantly in development. Sooner or later there has to be a plateau in development where anyone can choose M$ or Linux. However, won't that mean that somebody will have to make a profit?

[salaneking]

Originally Posted by Psquared

Assuming your last two sentences are true will Fedora, or any other distro for that matter, ever be "mature." In other words, will it ever shed it's bleeding edge? I don't see how Linux can ever be mainstream in terms of competing with M$ if its constantly in development. Sooner or later there has to be a plateau in development where anyone can choose M$ or Linux. However, won't that mean that somebody will have to make a profit?

The post wasn't meant as a putdown. I like bleeding edge. I want the latest and greatest versions of probrams even if it occasionally has a few bugs. What I don't want is to use a software that is so mature that it becomes too conservative like M$ (Have you used IS lately?)or so stable like Deb.

[salaneking]

Originally Posted by Psquared

>SNIP<. However, won't that mean that somebody will have to make a profit?

As you will note from my quote. I Did support Mandrake club in the past and Will gladly support a distribution financially, I just disagree with their business model and the "CLUB" mentality. Now I just feel more at home with Fedora and/or Redhat.

[Sniffer]

In my honest opinion,

In the open source world, in the Gnu Linux world everything that is commercial SUCKS.

Just because that isn't just the spirit of freedom and free community....and if you want something commercial just use the damn windows. Period.

[engwnbie]

Hey not defending M$ but they also have issues. I just had updates/pathes to my XP sp2 already

[ewdi]

i know how you feel, i come from mandrake too and move to suse and to fc, I do like community based distro like debian more than those whose trying to make more out of it beside selling services. I also understand that each of distro have their own way to survive, thx for your support for fedora we need all the support we can get

[Psquared]

Originally Posted by salaneking

The post wasn't meant as a putdown. I like bleeding edge. I want the latest and greatest versions of probrams even if it occasionally has a few bugs. What I don't want is to use a software that is so mature that it becomes too conservative like M$ (Have you used IS lately?)or so stable like Deb.

I know you didn't mean that. Sorry if I conveyed that impression with my statement.

Mine was more of a philosophical statement. I don't like M$ and I don't like the Windows monopoly. Linux is proof to me that the Justice department was correct in its assertions that MS leverages its operating system to force people to use Explorer and Office by including this stuff in its source-code. It does not have to.

Comparatively the Windows update cycle is much more trying and expensive and I don't know that it is truly more mature. I just wonder if Linux can ever take away marketshare from M$ and attract the average user. I have not looked lately but is it sold on the shelf at Wal-Mart next to XP or included as an alternative to Windoze by Dell, HP, GTW and your average computer store?

[Tru]

Well, you cant goto a regular computer store like COmp USA or Best Buy and buy one of there off the shelf computers with linux although a couple Linux distros are sold at Comp USA. However HP does now offer computers with linux on them as does IBM, if I remeber correctly HP even offers a laptop with Linux now.

I am new to linux but just watching the proggression over the last year or so of whats been happing to linux, I think we will start seeing linux being offered more and more as a option on your computer instead of paying HP a $150 bucks to upgrade from XP home to XP pro you could just pay a small fee and have them install linux or better yet order it without a distro.

I am doing a 2yr assoc degree for Network Admin. and I talk to my fellow classmates about linux like FC2 and SUSE Pro. The ones that have tried where using a very old distro where they had to figure out how to just make it see there cdrom and partition there hard drives etc.... but those days are gone with distros like FC2, SUSE, and Mandrake. Anyone could install these distros, and its that past experience that is holding some of these people from trying it agian. I think over the next couple years we will see linux become much more maintstream, just look at whats happing with "Project Utopia" and the many doors that will open up for the linux distro, having plug and play work like windoz will be very neat.

[jcridge]

I can relate to some of what salaneking is saying. I have been a member of Mandrakeclub for the past couple of years to obtain access to the lastest and greatest Mandrake has to offer for notebook supportability under Linux. I've found that Mandrake Power Pack gives me access to most of the packages I need for this purpose. I need a MandrakeClub Silver memebership ($120) to maintain access to Mandrake Power Pack.

Now I do not have any problem paying for someone else's hard work, especially when I am benefiting from it. But with that said if you do a two year evaluation of the costs for access to the latest and greatest of Mandrake Power Pack and WindowsXP Professional you find that Mandrake is not necessarily the cheapest solution.

-MandrakeClub Sillver Membership (allows annual access to Mandrake Power Pak) = $240 ($120/annually).
-WindowsXP Professional = $179.

Now I realize WINXP does not have all the other benefits of Mandrake (office productivity, mail server, network server, etc.), but $120 annually is still a lot for a home user who wants to use Linux on their notebook with all the basic hardware support (ACPI, graphics drivers, etc.) that is found out of the box with M$ which we all agree is too expensive.

Mandrake is a GREAT distribution that I have used for many years and will continue to use. I guess I'm just saying perhaps it has become a little expensive for the average user, even when you compare it to M$. I am very happy to see that FC3 has closed the gap with Mandrake and I can now have basically the same level of functionality with FC3 as compared to Mandrake and at a much more attractive price point.

[Prometheus]

Is FC3 (and FC in general) bleeding edge? It's designed to be. Is it perfectly bleeding edge, no, but i dont think many people really want it to be perfectly bleeding edge, which is fine. FC is really exciting to me because it is constantly changing. Look at how Linux in general has changed in even the last two years. We have essentally gone from RH7 to FC3. Just look at the difference between the two. It's incredible that so much has been achieved in just a few years. In just over a decade Linux went from a text based Unix derivative to a full blown desktop environment. Linux in general is bleeding edge. How has MS changed in the last 2 years? Nothing. Released a few SP's, and thats about it. Linux is bleeding edge as far as im concerned. Yes, you do have distros like Debian which are designed to be rock solid because they are intended to be server systems, who dont necessairly need or want to be cutting edge. For me, that's why linux is exciting. The whole thing is new and cuttign edge.

[Jman]

Haven't used Mandrake, so I can't compare.

If Mandrake releases slower than two or three times a year, yes the schedule is slower for Mandrake.

Although new features in Windows have been lacking, you have to admit XP SP2 was a security improvement. If we assume Fedora is "bleeding edge" i.e. for "enthusiasts" you can't compare it to Windows easily.

[Dameon87]

Personally I have been a die hard mandrake fan for a while now. But with all the having to sign up and be part of the club crap, I have moved to Fedora Core. I never liked the idea of having to pay for something that in essence was supposed to be free. Lately I have become more and more against M$ to the point where i only use the OS to play games. I find windows a complete and utter waste of money. I can get more functionality and production out of a free os than I can one that is supposed to be the best. Fedora Core rocks if u havent tried it then do so.