No subject

       urpmi authorizes well-known rpms (or rpm files) to be installed includ-
       ing all their dependencies.  You can use it to install  source  package
       dependencies or source package itself.

       You  can  compare  rpm  vs. urpmi  with  insmod vs. modprobe or dpkg vs
       apt-get

       Just launch urpmi followed by what you think is the name of  the  pack-
       age(s), and urpmi will:
       - Propose different package names if availables and quit.
       -  If  only one corresponding package is found, check whether dependen-
       cies are already installed, or not.
       - If not, propose to install the  dependencies  and  then  install  all
       required dependencies and the package.

       Note  that  urpmi  handle installations from various medias (ftp, http,
       local and nfs volumes, removable medias such as CDROMs) and is able  to
       install  dependencies  from a media different from the package's media.
       If necessary, urpmi asks you to insert the required media.


Dunno about SuSE, but the GUI seems to provide similar functionality to
Mandrake's.


> 
>  - Upgrades?  'apt-get upgrade' will tell me what needs upgrading (possibly
> with
> an 'apt-get update' beforehand to make sure my cache is up-to-date).

Don't really know. I've used the system maintenance/update (GUI) for Mandrake &
SuSE &  everything worked, identified, listed any available updates, downloaded
& installed things OK. I don't know how this handles stuff installed from other
sources. 

My GIS suite has so many interdependencies I do it manually by compiling from
source, apt-get (Ubuntu) has just said, (as did Mandrake & SuSE) that there are
unresolved/unknown dependencies... Maybe when the Debian GIS sub-project gets a
bit further along?? At present the simplest install (but not of the latest
versions) is via a 3rd party SuSE repository, or following some Mandrake
install instructions.
 
>  - What is Mandrake or SuSE like if you don't want to use Gnome or KDE as
> your WM?

Mandrake comes with several others, more lightweight. SuSE is a bit more
limited from the install CD's but both tend to focus on KDE (which I like &
prefer to use).
 
>  - Menus?  What you install something, does it go into a sane place in your
> GUI  menu (which should work across all windowmanagers)?

Variable. Some do, very nicely, other's don't. But the menu management tools
make adding & relocating items pretty simple (even for me :-) 



Anyone have any comments on emerge? So far that is missing from the mix :-) 



Cheers,

  Brent