Red Hat Linux 7.2 Review
Red Hat Linux 7.2 Overview
Nicely polished and with an improved file system, Red Hat Linux 7.2 is the best release to date of the most popular commercial Linux distribution. If you tried an earlier version of Red Hat Linux and found it too rough for you, particularly at installation time, you'll want to give it another try now. This particular version of Red Hat Linux 7.2 is the plain vanilla edition (as opposed to the more capable Professional edition and the various server products), and is best suited for use on a workstation or as a LAN server on a small network. On the other hand, since the kernel is the same as that of the more costly versions, you can install this product and add the capabilities you need by installing additional software downloaded from the Internet.
The most substantial innovation present in Red Hat Linux 7.2---which is based on the Linux 2.4.7 kernel--is a new file system called ext3. An improvement on the reliable ext2 file system that's long been standard in Linux, ext3 is a journaling file system. A journaling file system keeps notes on what it's doing with data in the file system--it logs all of its read and write operations. This decreases file system downtime because after a crash, error-checking utilities (like fsck, which must run after an unanticipated shutdown) need not inspect the entire file system--they can look just at those regions that were being manipulated at the time of the problem. This saves enormous amounts of time, particularly on large volumes of 50 GB or more.
By design, ext3 is backward and forward compatible. You can take an ext2 volume (a volume used to store accumulated data, say) that was created under an old version of Linux (Red Hat or otherwise), and mount it as an ext3 volume under Red Hat Linux 7.2 and enjoy the protection of journaling. Conversely, you can take a volume that was created as ext3 and remount it with no problems (though also with no journaling) as an ext2 volume. By switching to ext3, you gain a valuable new feature and give up none of the reliability of ext2. It alone is worth the upgrade if you run a large file system or if you require especially high availability and can't tolerate long fsck cycles.
Another substantial improvement reflected in this version: GRUB, an improved boot loader that replaces the old standard, LILO. (Both bits of software follow the Unix tradition of naming utilities with goofy acronyms: LILO is LInux LOader, while GRUB is GRand Unified Bootloader.) GRUB serves the same purpose as utilities like System Commander, which allow you to select at boot time from among several installed operating systems. Unlike LILO, GRUB allows you to choose to boot pretty much any installed operating system, including FreeBSD, OpenBSD, OS/2, and any version of Microsoft Windows. It's a handy utility to have on a workstation, though you can opt for LILO if you prefer.
Other improvements have more to do with increased hardware support--many more network interface cards and printers are recognized--and general refinements in the user interface (this release uses GNOME 1.4 and KDE 2.2.1). A handful of new utilities make life easier for users and administrators, chief among them the Nautilus file manager. Nautilus does a decent job of displaying local and remote files intuitively--it makes it easy to manage the contents of an FTP site, for one thing. Another graphical tool makes it easier to manage user privileges. As has always been the case with Red Hat Linux, version 7.2 ships with a load of goodies that includes the Mozilla 0.9.2 browser, the Apache 1.3.20 Web server, and the StarOffice 5.2 office productivity suite. Anything else you want, you can easily download and install. Software installation is particularly easy thanks to the long-popular Red Hat Package Manager (RPM) file format for distributables, which this operating system naturally supports.
True enough, you can download Red Hat Linux 7.2 in its entirety from Red Hat's corporate site, and if you have a high-speed connection to the Internet the time required for downloading may not be too forbidding (the download--if you get just the two CD-ROM images required to install the operating system with no frills--is about 1.3 GB). But if you buy the boxed product, you get the installation CD-ROMs, the complete source code, a lot of documentation, and a slew of ancillary software. Plus, you get 30 days of online (not telephone) technical support--enough to get you through any installation hassles.
Red Hat Linux 7.2 represents a significant improvement over its predecessors. The ext3 file system improves system reliability, and a lot of minor refinements increase the product's quality of "fit and finish." It's a worthwhile upgrade, and a better way than ever to get into Linux for the first time. --David Wall
Red Hat Linux 7.2 Specifications
Red Hat Linux 7.2 takes ease of use, reliability, and security to the next level. New GNOME 1.4 with the Nautilus file manager provides a cleaner, more intuitive interface, while graphical tools make administration easy. Updates from Red Hat Network keep systems current and secure. With expanded device support, security, and tools, Red Hat Linux 7.2 is the Linux standard built for technical workstations. Red Hat Linux 7.2 gives you a complete version of StarOffice 5.2 and Loki game demos. Basic Red Hat services are included to help users get started.
Linux is what bodies capital out of Windows... that actuality stability.
WinXP started off appealing stable, but as I add added software, it keeps accepting new problems and it feels like the updates never stop. So aback I charge to get some analytical assignment done, I beat over to Linux. Linux feels a bit like a footfall aback graphically for best Windows users (Red Hat doesn't accept MEs or XP's glossy looks), but I haven't been Able to annihilate Linux yet... It tells me aback it doesn't like what I'm doin', but the alone problems I've encountered were done through my own dabbling with accouterments agreement files.
Linux has a lot of options Windows doesn't, and the command-line advantage IS bigger for old DOS jockies like me.
KDE is a acceptable GUI, but it isn't about as as avant-garde as XP or MAC O/S 10.1. I'd say Linux is added of a workhorse. The amateur for Linux are actual abaft the times, and it's accepted processes can be ambagious for those new to it. The capabilities this O/S offers professionals is amazing, however.
I'm starting to like Mozilla bigger than MS Internet Explorer, and afterwards I get the adhere of it, I apperceive Linux is apparently activity to be aboriginal best booting up. I'll apparently consistently accept Windows active on a seperate PC, or abstracted with Linux, as Windows does abutment the widest ambit of software.
Still, be aware; If you aloof bought a brand-spankin'-new PC, and anticipate that your GeForce 4 and Audigy sound-card configurations are activity to be a airing in the park, you're wrong. In best cases, you'll be hunting bottomward drivers on the internet, and aggravating to amount out how to abridge your kernel.
All in all, Linux is a abundant O/S, but the acquirements ambit is steep. Don't feel bad if you're a adept Windows user, and feel like a impaired newbie afresh with this O/S... I've announced to abounding bodies about it... you're not alone!
I did another review, thought I was reviewing a book not OS - Ronnie L. Darby - San Antonio, Texas United States
7.2 is a abundant advance over the previous. As I address this review, Red Hat Linux is up to adaptation 9. I didn't ascertain any problems with this version, and the updates and patches accessible with up2date aloof accumulate comming, alike admitting I hadn't apparent the problems that were fixed.
Linux is for those who either appetite to do the aforementioned affair all the time and are Able to get their adaptation of linux to do that, and those who like to boggle with the audacity of the OS. I anticipate Windows XP is a bigger best for the blow of us.
I am not a linux guru, and I acquisition it difficult and annoying to get things active that aren't installed and active automatically as allotment of instillation. By the way, beverage is a allotment of block anyone can do, and already it is accomplished you accept a ton of appliance software installed and running, clashing Windows, which alone installs the OS and you accept to install anniversary appliance seperately.
Although I spent 35 years as a software engineer, I still chose Windows XP for my home apparatus because I am annoyed of tinkering with an OS. And boggle with the linux OS you will absolutely accept to eventually do, apparently eventually than latter.
I was a bit disappointed - Ronnie L. Darby - San Antonio, Texas United States
I am not a linux guru. I installed Red Hat Linux on one of my machines to apprentice linux and purchased this book to advice me forth the way. It appears to awning aggregate that it needs to, but I begin the detail explinations of how to do things to be abundantly defective and on a few occasions to be wrong. I spent a lot of time aggravating to set things up in linux application this book as a guide, and they aloof apparent didn't assignment in a abundant abounding cases. Either it is incorrect in places, or it is incomplete.
In addition, it reminds me of a baker book. You aloof chase the instructions to do specific things after it cogent you WHY you are accomplishing what it tells you, or alike why you charge to do some specific thing. Because of this, it absolutely isn't abundant of a ability for learning.
great OS - - Maryland
installed easily. for all the bodies who said that this OS is not user affable they should stick with Microsoft. for me it is as user affable as any linux arrangement should be. accustomed an internet affiliation bound and with no altercation with my bounded isp. configured the complete and X-Windows arrangement bound and easily. configured programs to fit all my needs clashing some added Os' that charge not be mentioned at this time. i awful acclaim Redhat 7.2 for any antecedent linux user or for those attractive to apprentice of this accurate OS. accomplish abiding that you do your appointment for the compatability though.
