[techtalk] SuSE -> Mandrake?

[moebius at ip-solutions.net]

Hey Glen,

On Mon, 14 Feb 2000, GJS wrote:

> I don't think you'll find Mandrake's file system any more
> "correct" than what you already have. I base that on the fact
> that, 9 times out of 10, when I try to do something from a
> howto, it doesn't work. (I'm sure it's nothing *I'm* doing
> wrong. ;->)
This is b/c they follow the redhat standard, which isn't really a
standard. For programs they are 'other parties products' generally the
make files are setup to use '/usr/local'. RH, and subsequently Mandrake
throw most of these config files into /etc. Since there is no technical
standard, a proposed one, Everyone does something a little different. 
Hopefully this will change in the near future. For example, RH now uses
the single file "httpd.conf" for apache instead of their less conventional
3 config files. So, hopefully that means that they are starting to come
around. FileSystem Standards are a big problem with 'newbies' who prefer
to use RPM as opposed to self compiliation. I'm not slighting anyone for
this, I quite often use RPM for base programs where it's less time
consuming. 

> 
> For me, the biggest problem with Mandrake is the very fact that
> it is optimized. Although I've generally found that Redhat apps
> work fine on Mandrake, some won't--only the Mandrake version
> will work (KDE is the most notable example). I know there are
> certain system files that also fit into this category. That
> means you have to wait for Mandrake to update the files--you
> can't slap in any rpm or tarball. You may find this limiting.
That is the whole problem with RPM's. If you don't feel comfortable
compiling it yourself then you're pretty much at the mercy of the updated
RPM. A great case in point is OpenSSL. When the upgrade came out it was a
few days before the RPM was posted, what if it were a few months? You will
greatly benefit from learning the way around you File System structure.
Try compiling a few small programs to get the feel and slowly move up to
installing new libs and such. 

> If you really want a more correct distro, perhaps you should
> look at the latest Debian when it comes out. I intend to. Maybe
> then those howto's will work for me.
I can't agree with you more. Although I use RH myself. 
Harry


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