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Editorial Review:
Amazon.com Review:
Red Hat Linux 8.0 Personal breaks with earlier Red Hat (and all other) Linux releases with the unification of the Gnome and KDE desktops. In effect, Red Hat has made the two almost indistinguishable in a production environment.
This unification is achieved by creating a theme--an add-on look and feel--called Bluecurve, which uses identical icons and other eye candy for similar features in each, and creates similar Gnome and KDE menus. These menus now sport a limited range of well-chosen programs with simple descriptions of what the program does. This is a change from the earlier approach, where users were offered all the browsers (now you just get Mozilla), six text editors, and so on, all with nondescriptive names to confuse new users.
Much of this effort can be bypassed by most new users, as the default is now to install only Gnome 2, but then, Red Hat Linux 8.0 Personal is really aimed at businesses looking for a low-cost, reliable production desktop to replace Windows.
Which brings us to OpenOffice.org, the public domain version of StarOffice 5.2, released by Sun and heavily reworked into a fairly decent replacement for Microsoft Office--though currently without an integrated database. OpenOffice.org ditches the old StarOffice desktop (as Sun has done with the commercial StarOffice 6.0), loses some copyrighted modules, and gains open-source replacements. It's on the menu under Office and you can run the components separately.
On the downside, multimedia support for home users is weak, with MP3 support missing (there's a link to the XMMS add-in for it, though), as is any way to burn a CD. Oddly, Red Hat Linux 8.0 Personal doesn't include Real's RealOne Player either, which you'll have to download and install yourself if you want it. Again, this might be a deliberate pitch for business acceptance.
Hardware detection is better than ever and networking and Internet setup are as easy as filling in a few dialog boxes. Red Hat Linux 8.0 Personal even installs security in the form of a network firewall for Net users. It also handles dual booting with Windows for those who just want to dabble.
Red Hat Linux 8.0 Personal comes on three installation CDs, with two source CDs, a documentation CD, and a multimedia and office applications CD. The paper documentation is limited to an installation guide.
Overall, and despite the caveats, this is the most innovative and easiest to understand Linux distribution to appear yet. You really can install it and be using it to write documents, listen to CDs, watch TV or video, and use the Net within minutes of finishing the installation. Impressive, and a great introduction to Linux for new users. --Steve Patient, Amazon.co.uk
Amazon.com Product Description:
Red Hat Linux 8.0 Personal blends a polished new look with leading-edge technologies to create a rich personal-productivity environment. The Red Hat Bluecurve interface is an easy-to-use, organized desktop that makes finding applications less complicated. Desktop settings are simple to adjust and customize. Red Hat Linux 8.0 Personal also includes Ximian Evolution and OpenOffice. With 30 days of installation support and an installation guide, Red Hat Linux 8.0 Personal users will be up and running in no time.
The Red Hat Linux installation program now features a tool for selecting package groups. Select the packages that best support your individual workload. Setup Agent offers step-by-step guidance for setting up date and time, sound card testing, registering for Red Hat Network, and installing additional software. Conveniently organized menus make finding applications and tools simple with fewer clicks.
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Average Rating: 
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Rating:  -
I personaly really like this product but there are a few set backs. For one: The GUI for iptables has a bug that makes it think your firewall settings are slways high (it does update the file though so its not that big of a problem.) But there are pluses to... Remember the MS blue screens of death? I have never seen RedHat fail! It comes with alot of stuff like office apps, tux racer and countless other games, a lot of text editers, and much other stuff. If you want a cheap desktop envirement thats ... Read More
Rating: -
I've bought Linux in the past and struggled with it and eventually removed it. Either it wasn't compatible with my hardware or was too difficult to use.
Now, however, Linux is at least easy enough to use(like Windows 95) and although I had to buy a new modem, it worked with all my PC interal hardware. I still have a scanner and digital camera that doesn't work, but I expect Logitech to produce a driver at some point for the camera.
This Linux is great! It's powerful like Unix but ... Read More
Rating: -
I've been using Linux for about six months now. Red Hat 8.0 works well with my home LAN & Macintosh PPCs. The earlier versions 7.1, 7.3 used to be challenging especially undoing my WindowZ mentality. I like the way that RH8.0 smoothly configures on my Ethernet LAN. I intend to use Linux exclusively after test driving it for a few months. I don't need to reboot on every system change, only once an a while I would even have to logout. My system is dual OS'd with Windows 2000 Pro. and Grub startup. When ... Read More
Rating:  -
If this was simply a review of RH8 in the contex of a supported environment, then I would give it 5 starts. But RH8 Personal edition, as a means for getting Linux on a home box by a non-sysadmin, is not completely where it could be.
The principle reason is the lack of drivers. I tried to get RH8 Personal on my Dell Dimension 2350 and the lack of even a functioning video driver made it all but impossible. Also, fdisk doesn't work with XP, so I had to use PartitionMagic 8.0 which has its own issues ... Read More
Rating: -
I have tried many distributions and versions inclding corel, redhat 7.3, mandrake 7-9. I have two machines and what I have the linux for is to do my school work. That means papers, writing java and c++ programs and other tasks handed to me by my computer science professors. If this sounds similar to what you want it for then it's perfect in my opinion. There are so many tools that are for free that you'd have to buy for windows but you can have them for free in the linux world. On the other hand, if you are ... Read More
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