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Red Hat Release Makes Linux More Approachable

The latest release of Red Hat's popular Linux distribution, Red Hat Linux 8.0 Professional, presents a stepping stone for mainstream technology enthusiasts looking to break into the world of Linux without the fabled horror stories. By better streamlining the Linux interface and including popular productivity applications, Linux is now more approachable. Red Hat does stumble a bit with Windows integration, though, so those needing access to Windows resources will have to work a little harder.

The company calls the operating system's new look Bluecurve. Most noticeably, Red Hat has bridged the gap between the KDE and Gnome user interfaces by creating a common look for the two popular Linux desktop environments.

Red Hat has also made application selection easier for the end user. Instead of a confusing selection of text editors, e-mail clients, and Web browsers, Bluecurve displays the "best of breed" applications and makes those the default. Other choices are available in an Extras folder.

Red Hat Linux 8.0 integrates many popular applications, including Ximian Evolution 1.0.8 (a PIM and e-mail client), OpenOffice.org 1.0.1 (a productivity suite), and Mozilla 1.0.1 (a Web browser). End users can get started quickly with Linux without the need to download and install applications for everyday tasks. Other applications install easily via the new Package Management tool, which groups applications together by genre and handles installation dependencies.

Intermediate and advanced Linux users will be happy that Red Hat continues to stay on top of the core Linux components. This release includes upgrades to existing applications, most notably the HTTP server powered by Apache 2.0 (Web server), as well as both KDE 3.0.3 and Gnome 2.0. Red Hat Linux 8.0 also boasts Linux Standards Base 1.2 compliance, meaning that applications complying with this standard will run on Red Hat Linux 8.0 now and in the future.

Red Hat Linux 8.0 is headed in the right direction, but it still doesn't quite bridge the gap between Linux and Microsoft Windows. We were able to connect to Windows network resources, but the interface is not intuitive. For example, we had to enter the share name and password into a network URL. Using printers shared through a Windows OS was also befuddling.

But all in all, this version is a solid release with a welcome new interface.