Linked by John Collins on Wed 4th Jun 2003 15:23 UTC
There seem to be many reviews on Red Hat 9.0, but all seem to be written by Linux junkies who really know their stuff. What about the MS Windows Convert? They say people like the first thing they use (i.e. if you learn to drive a manual transmission, you prefer it over automatic). If this is true, how does Red Hat 9.0 introduce a novice pc user to the world of computers? I hope to answer some of those questions in this tiny review.
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I'm a 20 year UNIX SysAdmin that has installed a number Linux systems over the years. Each year the state of the art gets better and it's /almost/ ready for the proverbial "Granny" user.
I mostly agree with the original poster's comments. My experience was slightly different.
The platform : Compaq Presario 4504 48MB, 2GB diskdrive, DEC NIC.
The distro : from ISO, CD's burned and validated.
The short story : it took 4 attempts to get a working installation. The first 2 failed due to lack of space, even though I allowed the Anaconda installer to autopartition the disk (/boot, /swap, /). The 3rd attempt had enough space but Anaconda crashed 7/8's of the way through package installation, leaving the system unusable.
The 4th attempt I installed a "Minimal" system, basically a firewall, dns server, printing and mail.
The installer correctly detected and configured the graphics card and monitor for X on the first attempts- this is a first for /any/ Linux installation I've done on this system.
The NIC wasn't autodetected but, after an hour of searching through the RH9 docs, I finally found all the bits that allowed my to configure the modules.conf and network-scripts properly. This is the first time I've ever gotten this particular system on the network under Linux.
My thoughts on the process are, in no particular order :
Points for getting the X autoconfiguration right.
Points for getting the NIC driver working.
I like the idea of "packaging" the installation by target use.
The installer should know the package sizes and be able to /quickly/ determine disk space requirements. Partitioning should done after package selection. The authors might gain useful insights by installing the latest versions of Solaris, HP/UX or Tru64 UNIX.
Error handling needs to be improved in Anaconda.
The documentation is almost silent on configuring hardware that isn't autodetected at boot/install time. System management and configuration documentation is heavily slanted towards the GUI tools. This leaves the user/admin completely vulnerable in diagnosing and resolving system problems that preclude the use of the GUI or on server systems with no graphics head.