newbes back

That was my reason for switching, too, though I decided to go with Debian ("Sarge" / pre-3.1).

- T.

Debian is completely free, and offers free updates through its APT package management (use KPackage or Synaptic if you don't want to use the command line).

Fedora, as you're probably aware, is the development project that tests new features that ultimately go into Red Hat's Enterprise Linux (commercial).

Fedora, or any distro that uses the RPM system can be more prone to dependency problems when you install and remove software because it evaluates dependencies by files, not by packages.

It's still a fine distro, but I would have (obviously) recommended that you'd have stuck with Debian. RH is popular around here though, so they'll be no shortage of help. :)

- T.

It's up to you. Call me skepical though. You change distros a lot. :lol: I dunno. I'm a distro junkie too, but Debian keeps me coming back.

I'll continue to run the testing version of Debian even after "Sarge" (3.1) moves from testing to stable, and they re-name the testing version to "Etch". If you run the stable (release) version as a server (very solid), and the testing version for your desktops (updates often), and it's hard to go wrong. Add/delete whatever software packages you want, and your dependencies will be fine. You can upgrade the kernel automatically (or install a non-stock precomplied kernel) with APT (KPackage/Synaptic) and it edits your GRUB config for you. It's really easy to shape Debian the way you want without screwing things up (unless you really try... like by running in root all the time).

I use the 2.6.8-1-k7 kernel as my default boot on 3.1-testing, but have the stock 2.4.27-1-386 as fallback should I need it for some reason (if only to make the drive still bootable should I take it out of this rig, and put it in a non-Athlon/Duron).

- T.

you can update mandrake just go to easy urpmi and follow the instructions and it will fix it so you can get your updates frome then on.