I am on it right now. I find it to work very well, considering it is a .0 release. Just GNOME 2 makes it worth to upgrade ;-).
Anyway, I would recommend it. //Daniel
Yeah - I installed it after the download finished in the weekend and was very impressed with the new interface - very smooth!
I also found that the package selection during installation was heaps improved over how it used to be - much easier to navigate and everything grouped more specifically.
It even looked like it was going to work on my sound card at one point but alas - still no PCI Vortex chipset driver. Bummer. Not that that's Redhat's fault though!!
I've been using it on my file server for nearly a week now. It seems to work excellent, and it includes an updated version of Samba as well. The upgrade from 7.3 went very smooth - I didn't have to reconfigure a thing.
The new interface is nice as well. I personally like it much better than the new Windows XP look and feel.
Also includes the latest version of OpenOffice, which has led me to migrate from Wordperfect on all of my Linux AND Windows machines.
Yeah - I was impressed with the inclusion of OpenOffice as well.
And the interface looks fantastic - nicely anti-aliased. Still some chunky web fonts in there to iron out but I think I just need to spend the time following one of the myriads of howto's out there on that one.
Font rendering is a 100% improvement though you should still add MS True Type Fonts. You also have to add fonts to Mozilla to get it to look decent.
MP3 support is NOT there right out of the box. You have to add it. It's not even part of XMMS.
If you install Ogle or another DVD player, you need to enable DMA for your DVDROM. RedHat in it's infinite wisdome has left it disabled.
If you want any type of NTFS support, you'll have to rebuild the kernal, Redhat didn't include the NTFS module in it's kernal.
Nvidia 3D drivers are not included in the install. You'll have to find them and install them yourself.
The whole bruhaha with Bluecurve and KDE is WAYYY overblown. Bluecurve looks nice but it wasn't a problem getting KDE set back the way its meant to be.
Here is a useful link with some great suggestions like adding APT.
I've been enjoying RH8.0 as well. It isn't a revolution by any means, but it is nice getting an entire system of updated software at once. I also felt the BlueCurve fiasco was ridiculous. I like the idea of synching the menu and icons between desktops, but I personally found the look&feel to be bland and cumbersome. That's easily fixed, though.
My only complaints aren't really Redhat's fault. Mozilla still comes without java or flash - it would be nice to have an opt-in in the installation for these. I wasn't bothered by the lack of mp3 support, but I wish xmms would act like a normal window more often. Why won't it give the standard window menu off the top (with Sticky, Send to another desktop, etc.)?
The firewall configuration GUI tool is a little bizarre. Every time it is run, it pre-selects the highest security setting, despite me changing it to a custom level and saving it every time. More than once I failed to notice this and reset the firewall rules inadvertantly. Upon installation, RH8.0 seems to set your system beep to the maximum level permissible without setting the beeper on fire (it's done this on two very different systems). Again, no big deal, but it is irritating.
Overall, I'm very pleased with it. It's biggest appeal for me was the impressive collection of latest version software. The Redhat-centric side of it has some quirks, but they have made serious progress toward a graphically pleasing desktop system, and they've done a great job of it.
WMG said---> It even looked like it was going to work on my sound card at one point but alas - still no PCI Vortex chipset driver. Bummer. Not that that's Redhat's fault though!!
There IS a drive for the Aureal vortex chipset. There's 3 slight probalems with it though. First, it's a binary stub that you compile as a module. Second, there's NO upgrades, as Aureal was bought out by Creative. They REFUSE to give out specs on how to do wave synthesis. Third, it ONLY works with 2.2 kernels.
here's the driver download. Make sure to compile your kernel for 2.2 instead of 2.4 ;(
---I'm guessing that I can have multiple boot options and switch between the 2.4.x and 2.2.x kernels as and when I need sound?
Yep, Lilo should be able to do that. Just remember to reconfig AFTER you make the new kernel/modules.
---What major problems would I be likely to encounter running a 2.2.x based kernel?
First, if you care about firewalls, IPtables in 2.4 is tons better than IPchains (2.2). Secondly, less hardware configuration is done in 2.2 (do an HDPARM /dev/drive). It assumes the stablest config, not the most efficent. Third, if there are new modules you need in the 2.4, 2.2 probably wont have them. The same goes for the 2.2 kernel (like StegoFS).
I also have an Aureal Vortex 1 card. I did get it working under Linux correctly, but it was VERY HARD to get to that point. The docs I read didnt say it couldn't compile under 2.4 . I finally grepped the source for 2.4 only compile directives. Grrrrrr. But really, past /lib/modules, /ett/rc.d/rc.modules (slackware 8.0, yours may vary), and your kernel.. Not much really changes.
Just make sure that ALL YOUR CRUCIAL HARDWARE IS SUPPORTED before you do anything else.
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