FreeBSD actually has a reputation for being very good.  Version 4.1 was
announced this past week and iso's are available for it.

The SuSE 6.4 cd is the real thing, but they call it the evaluation cd
since their normal set has a total of 6 cd's.  With the single cd you
just don't get all the optional packages.  One really nice thing about
SuSE is their manual, and the include a pdf version on the evalutaion cd
for you to reference.  SuSE is a good distro, but the only thing I
dislike is the package names are too generic.  As an example Perl 5xxxx
would just be called Perl.  You can use rpm -q to find the exact version
of installed software, but trying to figure out which program to
download from the net can be a real pain in the arse.

If you are using a i586 or better you can use Mandrake 7.1.  I have seen
mixed results.  On some systems 7.1 works great, but other have problems
so there seems to be a consistency issue.  Mandrake 7.0 is for i486 and
above, and seems more stable to me.  I know the sane package in 7.1
doesn't work with a umax 1220s, where the older version of sane in 7.0
does.

Debian potato is in its third test phase and hopefully should be
released as stable before too long (it already has been stable for me
for a while).  You can install 2.1 and then use apt-get to upgrade if
you have a good internet connection, or from the new cd's when the they
become available. 

Caldera and redhat are simple caldera and redhat.  They are ok distros,
but nothing that I get excited about.  IMO, it seems that ever since
redhat has gone ipo, they are having more qa issues due to having to get
versions out on time.  They no longer have the luxory of delaying stuff
as debian can.  


Jason Brown
 

Mark Berkwitt wrote:
> 
> I just received delivery from LinuxMall of my new cd's and OS's including:
> 
> 1. Red Hat Linux 6.2
> 2. Linux-Mandrake 7.0
> 3. SuSE Linux 6.4
> 4. Caldara OpenLinux 2.4
> 5. Official Debian GNU/Linux 2.1 (2 CD set)
> 6. FreeBSD 4.0
> 
> I'm familiar with Red Hat and Mandrake, but not the others.  These are the
> ones offered that seemed most interesting.
> 
> Strangely, SuSE's README file suggested that this version is a trial
> version.  I wonder what that means.
> 
> It seems that the Caldara cd is their desktop only dist.
> 
> I don't have a clue about FreeBSD.  I may of wasted .99 but I was curious.
> The fact is I wanted to order as many cd's as I could without incurring
> another shipping charge.  For .99 how can you lose?
> 
> Most commercial (I gather) and rather intriguing are the SuSE and Caldera
> distributions.  I wonder what they'll be like when I finally go to install
> them.
> 
> Opinions welcome.
> 
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