I'm in the middle of setting up Red Hat 9.0 on my new Compaq Presario 2121EA (effectively a 2100US), and I think this is the right place to share my impressions:
Overall, the distro is great! It's a collection of good taste in several matters.
Examples of what I call "good taste":
* They have reverted to a descent Xemacs version.
* The config tools are reasonable and easy to find (command line redhat-config-*) looking clean and nice.
* The X configuration file is back to XF86Config, without the "-4" suffix.
In short, a lot of cleanup job has been done since 7.3 (which is the last I've checked out), and the general feeling is that it makes sense. It's something I've missed for quite long.
Except for one major blunder (see below), the entire installation process went very smooth. Most cards detected well, and most important -- the computer talks to me right away (as opposed to hanging). A quick search in the web (http://dominia.org/djao/presario2100us.html) gave me info to get the X server right, and it's up and running.
In short, I'm truly impressed. And that's because I've already forgot the following unpleasant event:
When booting up the system, anaconda runs, and prompts for installation language. But that's it. The computer is frozed, nothing moves. So I said, hey, let's connect a serial cable and get the kernel oops. So I booted up again, with the kernel parameter console=ttyS0,9600n8 (good old Norton Commander terminal emulation on the other side). But instead of an oops, everything ran smoothly. So if it runs, why not install?
Bottom line: Run the entire installation in text mode over an RS-232 cable. It works. No problems observed since, so it seems more like an anaconda problem than a kernel issue.
Ah, and another thing: The KDE GUI is the final step of the Windowization of Linux. Not only does it look exactly the same (including the "Control Panel"), but you have go to "System Tools -> Terminal" to get a command line interface. Linux, in Red Hat's view, is not a command-line tool anymore.
I forgive them for this, only because unlike Windoze, the "backstage" looks quite well-organized.
I might also have liked 8.0 as much. I simply haven't tried it...
Hag Sameach, Eli
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