Red Hat Linux 7.2

by Red Hat

Product Details

• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B00005RD7F
• Date first available at Amazon.com: October 9, 2001
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #10,800 in Software (See Top 100 in Software)
  • #54 in Software > Operating Systems > Linux & Unix
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

Product Description

Amazon.com Review

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

Amazon.com Product Description

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.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars No need for fancy slogans.. It just works., November 18, 2001

By 

Safedin Kajoshaj (Farmington Hills, Mi USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Red Hat Linux 7.2 (CD-ROM)

Reliable
Secure
Easy to use
Isn't that what MS promises with each new release? Red Hat has been providing all three for years now. This release is the best so far. You don't need to be a computer nerd to know how to use it. I find it simpler to use that Windows XP! If all you use your PC for is to surf the web, e-mail, and chat, then this is for you. KDE, and Mozilla are great, and getting better all the time. If you want to be stuck in the upgrade cycle, that is windows, then stay away from this. When you use it, you'l never go back. It's all you need in an operating system and more. (Redhat comes with Star Office, and the Gimp), you get everthing that would cost you... (Office XP and Adobe Photoshop) if you went with windows. That alone is a good enough reason to try it out. You might just be surpised with what you find

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Amazing potential, April 25, 2002

By 

D. Hunter - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Red Hat Linux 7.2 (CD-ROM)

Linux is what people wanted out of Windows... that being stability.

WinXP started off pretty stable, but as I add more software, it keeps having new problems and it feels like the updates never stop. So when I need to get some critical work done, I swing over to Linux. Linux feels a bit like a step back graphically for most Windows users (Red Hat doesn't have MEs or XP's slick looks), but I haven't been able to kill Linux yet... It tells me when it doesn't like what I'm doin', but the only problems I've encountered were done through my own toying with hardware configuration files.

Linux has a lot of options Windows doesn't, and the command-line option IS preferable for old DOS jockies like me.
KDE is a good GUI, but it isn't nearly as as advanced as XP or MAC O/S 10.1. I'd say Linux is more of a workhorse. The games for Linux are very behind the times, and it's standard processes can be confusing for those new to it. The capabilities this O/S offers professionals is amazing, however.

I'm starting to like Mozilla better than MS Internet Explorer, and after I get the hang of it, I know Linux is probably going to be first choice booting up. I'll probably always have Windows running on a seperate PC, or partitioned with Linux, as Windows does support the widest range of software.

Still, be aware; If you just bought a brand-spankin'-new PC, and think that your GeForce 4 and Audigy sound-card configurations are going to be a walk in the park, you're wrong. In most cases, you'll be hunting down drivers on the internet, and trying to figure out how to compile your kernel.

All in all, Linux is a great O/S, but the learning curve is steep. Don't feel bad if you're a long-time Windows user, and feel like a dumb newbie again with this O/S... I've spoken to many people about it... you're not alone!

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Best There Is, January 13, 2002

By 

"gsibbery" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Red Hat Linux 7.2 (CD-ROM)

I just recently installed this distro on my box at work and again on my home box and I couldn't be happier. Installation took about 40 minutes, and was the easiest that I have ever seen. When I started out with Linux, I decided to use Caldera's eDesktop 2.4, and was pleased with it, but RH 7.2 makes it seem quite old-fashioned and out of date. Unlike with OpenLinux, RH 7.2 got my sound card to work as soon as it was installed, and the X Windows system was configured practically automatically, unlike with Caldera, where I had to play around with XF86Setup and lizardx quite a bit. I even managed to get a higher resolution than I have with my Windows ME OS, which resides on a separate partition at home. The default boot loader, GRUB, worked so well with both OS's that I uninstalled Partition Magic as I felt that I did not need it anymore. For the people who are not overly fond of the command line, this is a perfect distro, as pretty much everything that you can do with the command line, you can also do with the GUI tools that are provided with this distro. Although an experienced Linux user, I did not even have to read any of the instructions prior to installing and all of my hardware (except for my WinModem) was detected at startup. My old trusty Rockwell hardware modem works fine with it though. The KDE 2 desktop is clean and crisp, Konqueror works as fine on the Web as it does on local files and KOffice has all the productivity tools that anyone could want, and behind it all are the tools that any old UNIX user will find necessary in a server. The only things that I actually had to configure was my Internet connexion (and even that was done mainly through GUI tools) and import my config files to get my shell and rc commands for some apps to get them working the way I wanted them to. On my web servers at work, the web services were extrememly easy to configure and have been running fine ever since I upgraded. So far this is the best version of Linux that I have ever come across and will be using it from now on.