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Review : Redhat Linux 8
Last night I installed RedHat 8 Personal Edition on the Linux partition of my hard disk. Wow it is slick. It is the most user friendly Linux I have ever seen and really is a contender to take a lot of market share from Microsoft. It set me back 40 bucks and it came with a crap load of software including Open Office, Gimp and Mozilla. You don't have to be a Unix dork to use it. All it needs is more games and applications but besides that I am going to see how long I can go with-out booting to Windows 2000. The GUI was just polished and a joy to use. Here is an interview with the GUI designers.
Minor Gripes.
No built in MP3 playback. I had to download an update.
Also had to Install Flash 5 player.
Need to download and install some good game emulators.
No out of the box DVD playback. But Flash, MP3 and DVD playback was due to legal reasons with the GPL legalities.
If they left the install message about going to the kitchen for a snack it have been swell.
RedHat 8 is the best Linux package I have ever seen and I think Redmond has a lot to learn and fear from this OS.
9 out of 10
Update:
I had my review quoted in another blog so started typing this out as a comment and then saw it fit to tack it on to my original review as an addendum.
Rather than creating a new post
There is a couple things about Redhat 8 that you need to keep in mind. First is what Bluecurve is and what Bluecurve is not. Bluecurve is a GUI theme for Gnome and KDE that is installed by default on both programs and Redhat has put lot of work into getting the interface of the two as close as possible as well as working on increasing the usability of their new interface. But Bluecurve is not forced and locked in but other themes to both Gnome and KDE can be installed and run just like any other distribution of Linux. There is also an sentiment that I first saw back in 1984 with the introduction of the Macintosh of a geek resistance to a user friendly GUI.
The resistance to an easy to use system was that it would allow common users to use the technology and invade their special nerd space. But a common user friendly GUI is essential for Linux to grow to mainstream acceptance and use. Bluecurve is slick and is almost as slick as Aqua on Mac OS X. A user friendly GUI doesn’t take the nerdly qualities out of Linux. All of your special Linux tweaks work just fine with Redhat 8 and you can still do everything with the command shell that you can with a GUI.
Seasoned Linux nerds might not like Bluecurve because it is actually different from what they are using and they might not like the idea of normal people crashing their little Linux party.
Update2:Those of you who have been doing searches for
Redhat Linux 8 Download you can download it for free from Redhat.com after you sign up to be a part of the Redhat Network. It is free to register BTW.
Jake at December 25, 2002 
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Comments
I think that is exactly right Jake....linux nerds wear thier usage of a "rebel" operating system like a badge and ,sadly, want everyone around them to know of thier superiority....sooo sad that the usage of a certain operating system or another would actually make someone arrogant and that they will not want anyone to know how to use it or that they would not want redhat to produce something with a kickass user friendly GUI. Get ready for user groups to start posting messages about how redhat dumbed down the product and "sold out".....I love the geek things about myself while at the same time i hate the pathetic rambling of a lot of geeks who have pent up anger about how they were beat up and picked on in school so they use thier intellect to beat up others later on in life. Maybe i will even buy linux and run it on my 800mhz machine that is collecting dust right now.
Posted by: PETER PETER THE METER READER at December 26, 2002 6:15 PM
A quick observation about user friendly GUIs and nerds. At work a lot of engineers are requesting Macs now because it is the easiest UNIX (well, BSD) GUI out there. And the IT guys are eagerly awaiting their Xserve (they ordered two, but they don't know if it's been approved)
Posted by: Jamison at December 27, 2002 8:36 AM
Thanks for the info, Jake. In Mandrake Linux, I've installed BlueCurve's UI over KDE, and it's great.
Posted by: Alex Singleton at December 27, 2002 4:20 PM
I use RedHat since the release 5.0. RedHat is doing
right with this great UI. With so many way to dev graphic stuff on linux...an unified UI or a merge of KDE/Gnome is a good idea. Too many stuff to code and problems to bother witch lib are best for me. Helping user to switch quickly from MS stuff to Linux is a correct way to avoid "uses formation". It's a cost cutting solution without removing linux flexibility.
Posted by: devantor at February 23, 2003 6:43 AM
Well I have always thought that what Linux really needed to work on is ease of use. Not enough people are making their software available as RPMs and it is still a pain to install new software for Linux. For example installing MAME ( http://www.mame.net/ )and Snex9x ( http://www.snes9x.com/ ) on Win32 and Mac is easy as pie. I still have yet to get it to work right on Linux.
Posted by: Jake at February 23, 2003 9:40 AM
hi
is red hat linux 8 more secure than windows 2000 server.
thanks
Posted by: lalith at September 17, 2003 9:09 AM
I would say yes it is much more secure than Windows 2k Server.
Posted by: Jake at September 17, 2003 9:10 AM
Are you NUTS?!?!?!
Posted by: William at October 13, 2003 11:43 PM
No. I am fine. ARE YOU NUTS!
Posted by: Jake at October 14, 2003 12:27 AM
I just installed RHL into VMWare on my XP Machine and it is very cool. I look forward to getting into it and really figuring it out...
Posted by: lennypaco at December 22, 2003 11:48 AM
hi friends i am totaly new in linux world i want know about linux but i couln't even find any link which provide me the full image for RHL 8. anybody plz help......
Posted by: 4fun at July 11, 2006 4:25 AM
