While the attempt at unifying the desktop is admirable, it is lackluster. This week I have had the opportunity of attending the RH 253 Networking and Security Class. The class is good, not great. While I have learned some new skills, I have to say that forums like this one have been a better source for education.

The operating system has stripped down versions of popular programs such as nmap (need for discovering services and network topography) and the new top is not very accurate. We were unable to change the clock via the gui so they still have some minor things to work on.

As an aside, don't count on Redhat to be the leader in support for viewing DVDs, they won't even issue a laptop that contains one, much to my teacher's disapproval (a few moments rant about Open Source...bleeding edge....blah, blah blah). The presentation about setting up DNS and sendmail were great, and the labs were challenging. The computers are 600 MHz PIII from Gateway, and they are so damn LOUD. Sounds like a jet taking off when the HD start cranking.

Redhat has taken a leap, with the new release one that I am not willing to make with them. I will stay with my customized current version of 7.3 w/ KDE.

Thanks to everyone who contributes to the wealth of knowledge on this site.

I'm planning on spending a few bucks to treat myself to that RH course...

What subjects did they cover?

UNIT 1 - Service Management
UNIT 2 - Domain Name Service with BIND
UNIT 3 - Samba
UNIT 4 - Network Information with NIS
UNIT 5 - Mail Delivery with sendmail
UNIT 6 - Apache: Serving the World Wide WEb
UNIT 7 - NFS, FTP and DHCP
UNIT 8 - Introduction to Security
UNIT 9 - Host-Level Security
UNIT 10 - System Monitoring
UNIT 11 - Service - Level Security
UNIT 12 - Network Level Security
UNIT 13 - Encrypted Communications
UNIT 14 - Service Troubleshooting

All and all well worth the money if your are trying to progress from a mere mortal power user to a godlike sys admin.