Red Hat Linux 7.1, 7.2 and 7.3

Product: Red Hat Linux

Versions tested: 7.1 and 7.2 (downloadable and retail versions tested.)

The 7.3 release came out in early May with little fanfare.

For: x86, Alpha. (Development of a Sparc version has been canceled.)

Red Hat focuses on security in the version 7.x releases of its popular Linux distribution. The latest release also brings hot-swappable USB support for many devices, updated graphical interface options and some other key features targeting both server environments and workstation users. The new release is available as a retail release or in freely downloadable ISO format, ready for burning onto CD-ROM. We have not yet completed our testing of v7.3, but have tested both downloadable and retail versions of Red Hat 7.1 and the downloadable version of version 7.2, including the discs of extra utilities offered with each release. We set up the system in both workstation and server-oriented configurations, to test its suitability for each of these applications. For the purposes of this report, we did not install any non-standard open source software, which is, of course plentiful.

Key features in 7.1:

OpenSSL with 128-bit encryption for secure web communication
2.4 kernel ready
USB support for mice and keyboards
XFree 4.0.1 for improved video performance
Cleaner, faster, more customizable GNOME desktop and Sawfish window manager
Graphical kernel tuning tool
Graphical firewall configuration tool

Key features in 7.2:

solid installer and upgrade path
ext3 journaling file system
GNOME desktop uses Nautilus (not very successfully, in our tests)
updates to the kernel and glibc

Key features in 7.3:

KDE3.0

We tested version 7.1 on a 233 MHz Pentium with 96MB RAM, a 8GB hard drive, Elsa Erazor II graphics card and AMD PCNet and 3Com EtherLink II Ethernet cards. Echoing problems we'd seen with earlier RH releases and NVIDIA Vanta graphics cards, the hardware detection program seemed to misidentify our graphics card, leaving us with a completely blank screen shortly after setup began. Fortunately, by blindly hitting Enter a few times, we managed to walk through the default settings to a place where the X graphics environment properly initialized itself. A more serious problem emerged when we tried to configure the network card. RH could not access the network, or our ADSL connection to the Internet. Replacing the NIC with the 3Com card solved this problem.

Tip: If your RH installation hangs with the words

> Checking Partitions:

> hda:

...you can solve this problem by launching the installer with "linux ide=nodma"
(This tip also works for other Red Hat-based distros, such as ClarkConnect. In this case, you would use "clark ide=nodma")

Overall Impressions

The good news is that Red Hat's 7.x's streamlined installer proved considerably easier to work with than we've seen in previous distributions. The Security Setup wizard, designed to help you set up a basic firewall on your system, yielded a system that was reported to be in "full stealth mode" by the port scanner and Shields Up test utility at GRC.com.

The bad news is that stability was not at all what we have come to expect from Linux. The first two hours after a clean installation on a PC that had previously worked reliably (!) under Windows, Red Hat 7 crashed hard -- twice. Interestingly, both of the failures were encountered while in the KDE environment; we experienced no crashes while running the alternate "Gnome" interface. In subsequent tests, we found the newer KDE 2,.2 to make good on its promise of "greater stability." It's a good thing, too -- KDE 2.0.1 clearly needed improvement.

Further Plug and Play tests of common hardware components were not particularly encouraging. We shut the machine down and replaced a working Microsoft Intellimouse (PS/2, non-optical wheel version) with a Microsoft Serial Port Compatible Mouse 2.0. The system went bananas, opening and closing windows like crazy, launching apps spuriously, moving the taskbar around and generally misbehaving. It was quite a sight to behold. Call the exorcist! We had better luck replacing the MS mouse with a generic 2-button serial model, which worked correctly. Why the Microsoft mouse failed is a mystery. Perhaps the Linux mouse driver author's PC was a Microsoft-free zone?

KDE

The Red Hat Package Manager, used to install new applications or system components, looked terrible under KDE at a resolution of 800x600, running on an ATI Rage Pro-based video card in thousands of colours. Part of the dialog box showing the installer's progress was cut off, the text was unreadable, and the interface just looked like it had never even been tested at this common resolution. Particularly annoying is the lack of feedback when an application is launched. There's no status indication that a program is opening, which led us to double- or triple-launch apps several times during our tests. This is not rocket science, guys. Virtually every graphical user interface that's been developed since the early '80s has had some method of dealing with this issue. (And the excuse that the system's not busy doesn't wash -- Apple's Mac OS X and Windows XP both manages to solve the problem more elegantly that seen here.) Also annoying is the haphazard way in which the RPM installer places -- or doesn't place -- icons in the KDE equivalent of the Start menu. How the heck are average users supposed to find the programs they've just installed? We used to like KDE, but the 2.0 version, frankly, seems like it's regressing in usability.

Documentation

I apologize if this review is starting to sound like a rant, but -- man! -- Red Hat's documentation sucks sometimes! If you want to do something "simple," such as setting up a Red Hat Linux system to share an internet connection (literally, a couple of mouse clicks on a machine running a recent version of Windows), the docs in the Red Hat retail package detailing the procedure to set up Network Address Translation under Linux are mind-boggling in their complexity. Worse, the intro to the section for the Squid proxy server makes it sound like it's the tool you should use for this task. A casual glance at the documentation for the GREP command suggests that it might be used to shut the machine down. (Laughing/weeping is permitted, if you know what GREP is really for.)

Why the supplied documentation -- or, indeed, 99% of the Internet-accessible "HowTo" documents -- can't provide simple application installation documentation in the "step 1... step 2.... step 3..." style is frankly beyond me. By the time an associate and I had pored over the documentation for Samba and failed miserably in getting the system to recognize a Windows client on the network (a common networking configuration that's practically child's play when running CorelLinux, for example), we were ready to throw in the towel. It's as if Red Hat has attracted the most vehement of Microsoft-haters to its development ranks and, as a result, the system is especially awkward at dealing with all things "Microsoftian."

And, despite the improvements in Red Hat's security configuration and the installer that prompts you to choose a desired level of security, the firewall is still annoyingly complex, compared to almost any personal firewall you can name running under Windows (ZoneAlarm, BlackIce, Norton Internet Security, SyGate, AnyPoint, etc.). The built-in firewall for Windows XP is a model we think Linux developers should look at when designing the next version's interface. This one fails at jobs #1 and #2: making it easy to secure your system, and obvious to see what type of traffic you are blocking or otherwise protected against.

What's Ahead

In July 2002, Red Hat released a beta version of its latest distribution, code-named "Limbo." This release, widely expected to eventually end up as Red Hat version 8, currently consists of five (!) ISO images. This release, which we have not yet tested, includes the latest desktop technology, gcc 3.1, Mozilla 1.0+, OpenOffice 1.0, and, apparently, a whole lot more. (Read more...)

Conclusion

It's no wonder Mandrake has taken marketshare from Red Hat. Mandrake's latest distro is, in our view, clearly superior in almost every aspect of configuration. We'll continue to work with the latest Red Hat releases but RH 7.1 was definitely not a keeper.

Update: ...and, according to The Reg, neither is Red Hat 7.2, despite some cool new features, including the obligatory new kernel, a ready-to-run version of the (otherwise almost impossible to compile) Nautilus file manager for Gnome, and a seamless upgrade to the ext3 journaling file system from the "universal" ext2.

Other Red Hat News

Red Hat in Nov. 2000 announced a version of Red Hat Linux for Compaq's Alpha platform.
The company also announced Red Hat Network, a new service that allows you to receive updates specific to your system.

For Further Reading:

PC Buyers Guide: Linux in 2001
PC Buyers Guide: Linux in 2002
InfoWorld: Red Hat covers all bases (7.1 review)
Slashdot: Red Hat 7 Infested With Bugs
Welcome, Linux users!
Linux Versions - Comparing the Linux releases from Red Hat, Caldera and S.u.S.E. Plus, Corel WordPerfect and Linuxberg.
Linux_versions-pt2 - Linux for Mac, plus download locations for Red Hat 6.0, SuSE 6.1 and Caldera 2.2 distributions.
Ars-Technica: Red Hat Linux installation
Linux Today
www.kernel.org
Aug. 15, 2001: KDE 2.2 released

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