In this month I have reinstalled the RedHat Linux many times on my machine. ( more than 20 times ). Everyone say RedHat is stable, linux is stable. here I will tell u how RedHat is stable.

Mozilla:
Mozilla is installed in redhat by default.
If RH8, version = 1.0.1
If RH9, version = 1.2.1
If you wish to upgrade the RH8 mozilla 1.0.1 to 1.3
you have to kill the 1.0.1 mozilla first, then install 1.3.
That is not possible to upgrade the mozilla directly from 1.0.1 to 1.3,
by the RPM provided by mozilla site.
I have not try upgrading RH9 mozilla 1.2.1 to 1.3 directly in this way, if anyone success please tell me.
In window I can upgrade the mozilla directly by the mozilla installer!!!
now I do not let the RH9 install mozilla 1.2.1 by default, after RH installation, then install mozilla 1.3 myself...

KDE 3.1 and xscreensaver 4.07-2:
Odd, my KDE 3.1 does not work well with xscreensaver 4.07-2.
( in both RH8 , 9 )
I cannot make any configure there!!!
But the KDE can work with xscreensaver 4.05.
( I think it is a bug so I tell the KDE bugzilla ).

RPM Package Manager
I think I will not know why RH provide the RPM package of the RPM Package Manager... I have stupidly tried to upgrade the RPM Manager from 4.1.1 to 4.2 with such RPM, then my Penguin die badly.

Well, some linux expert tell us "open your mind" may make your linux way easy. As I say, "Ignoring" may make your linux way more easy..... Leave your Mozilla old, ignore the xscreensaver problem, forget the RPM Package Manager may make u happyer with Linux....

May be I am wrong........

Well, most of my "upgrading" are dependence on the RPM package, and finally all my installations are ruined. Is it better if I use lesser RPM??? But if I do not trust RPM I should not trust the RH Linux also, since RH use RPM for system upgrade.

Do not trust RPM, do not trust RH, what can I trust??? win2k???

The only thing I can trust may be the Original Linux Kernel. Get the Kernel, install xfree86 myself, install KDE myself, install mozilla myself, install xscreensaver myself.............

OK, OK, tell me tell me. Is the RPM system reliable??? Is it better to give up RPM and RH, and put effort on the original Kernel???

I think RPM is pretty reliable and easy to use, provided you stick with the ones provided by your distribution. If you try using a generic RPM, it doesn't always work, and can cause all sorts of dependency problems. For example, with Mandrake 9, I am stuck with Mozilla 1.1 unless I want to go to the effort to resolve a bunch of dependency problems, or install from source instead.

RPM is fine unless you want to be on the bleeding edge. But then again, if you want to be on the bleeding edge, you're probably using source for everything, and installing directly from CVS

As many people here will tell you, if the RPM system is just too many headaches for you, there are plenty of distributions that want nothing to do with RPM (Debian, Gentoo, Slackware, etc.) Someday I'd like to switch to one of those distros myself, but there is no immediate need for it. My box(es) are running smoothly with Mandrake right now, so why fix what isn't broken?

That would be Linux From Scratch... but probably not a good idea until you get really comfortable with installing from source.

hmmm...well I think most people will agree that installing via rpm is a bit easier then installing from source but I'll be the first to admit that rpm has its problems as well. I agree that RedHat's RPM Package Manager is buggy. I find it much easier to roll up my sleeves and install all my rpm packages from a trusty old shell.

It is possible to upgrade mozilla via rpm. A simple:

rpm -Uvh mozilla*

will upgrade the browser. If for some reason the old mozilla packages still exist you can remove them easily:

rpm -qa | grep mozilla

Every package that begins with mozillla-1.0.1 can be removed by doing:

rpm -e mozilla-1.0.1 mozilla-1.0.1-devel etc.

Maybe rpm is not for you though. Have you given installing from source a try?

Yeah, I hate rpm. Like wapcaplet says, though, there's plenty of distros that don't use 'em before you have to jump to W2K. Try one of those.

- Just saw your follow up below the reply screen, wapcaplet - there's also CORE - comes with some basic stuff but you have to compile the kernel and anything besides bash and some utils and whatnot that you might want. I'm thinking about ditching it just because you can get it on dialup but really ought to have DSL to build it up. And the faster the machine, the better, though it'll install on most anything.

Off topic but how the hell did you get MuLinux working? I got it off floppy and it *still* never seemed to think it was actually set up.

rpm -Uvh moz* .......

I have tried that command to upgrade from 1.0.1 to 1.3
not success.
The linux then exist 2 mozilla, 1.0.1 and 1.3.
The mozilla profile crash badly.

It seems that the rpm -Uvh is not so reliable.
Although you may use it to cover other older rpm package,
it left uncleared litters which may ruin your systems.

A few days ago I have tried a "Manual RH 8 installation".
install RH8 with minimum configuration. Then try to build rpm step by step.
Fail, I cannot install xFree86.
Ok now I only install xFree86 in RH 8 installation.
then install KDE 3.1.1, mozilla 1.3. Everything may go well. But the date and time configuration mystically not work.
The xscreensaver also go crazy, cannot be configuration by the screensaver panel.......

That is all my experience with RPM...

# Redhat links
Red Hat Linux Manuals
Maximum RPM
rpmfind
Easier software management: apt4rpm - Red Carpet
Red Hat 8.0 Tips & Tricks

# Redhat 8.0 configuration commands
Configure soundcard:
redhat-config-soundcard
Configure X server:
redhat-config-xfree86
Configure network:
redhat-config-network

.............
after reading your link I realize one thing which M$ is true........

M$ said:
" the cost of maintainment on linux is higher than windows.... "

bah forget that propaganda. If you want to update Mozilla then download all the new files, remove the old ones, and install the new ones. The update (-U) in rpm is very effective execpt for Mozilla for some reason.

Did you try this command?

rpm -Uvh --force <pkgname>

Sometimes I think there are bad rpms.

If you want to go from source code only, check out Gentoo.

=_= wow, don't be angry....

well, If the "rpm -U" is not good for mozilla for SOME REASONS...
how can I know the "rpm -U" do not have OTHER REASONS to crash the other packages...

=_= buggy buggy.....

Well rpm certainly should not "crash" the program. You may have a corrupt package as many people have said.

don't be angry:

Seems to me that you have personal issues with rpm. Use the source then!

In Linux, only the buggy program will be affected, not the others, unlike Windows where the underlying OS is buggy and makes it seem as if other software is buggy as well. At least, bugs are very localized in Linux and easily fixed once you learn how to use the system.

I have never liked just the plain vanilla rpm package manager that comes with Redhat. Red Carpet and apt4rpm do a pretty good job, but I have still found bad packages in Red Carpet (but none in apt4rpm yet).

If you will stay a few months behind the latest releases (except for security, of course), you will have more stable packages built. If you like using the bleeding edge, get used to using bugzilla and help out with fixing the bugs.

Methinks you misunderstand or are brainwashed by Microsoft propaganda.

Read some specifics of companies who have switched and their associated IT costs. Ask about network uptime (big timewaster in Windows) and productivity gains after switching.

Lots of people just can't believe that something free is better than something that costs a lot, so they hesitate...

gentoo.org