I had Redhat Linux 7.3 installed on my IBM Thinkpad T23 without any problems. At this point I am using my laptop to experiment, so when I heard about the Redhat "Null" Beta I decided to try it out.

Downloading the ISO's from rpmfind.net was fast - no slower than 160KB/s, and it was constant. I don't know if it was because I had a fast mirror, or because I switched to Linux, or because I got a new NIC. Anyway, the main problem was that I did not have a CD burner anymore, so what was I going to do with the ISO's I downloaded?

Fortunately, Redhat's setup supports installing from ISO's residing on a hard disk, and somehow, I was able to get them on my Thinkpad's hard drive, on its own partition. So I began the install. I noticed that you can only do a text install if you're installing from the ISO's - if you select the default GUI install anaconda will say no and switch to text install. anaconda will ask you where the ISO's are located. I had placed them on the root of the partition, so that meant "/". There was some error about not finding some directory under "/mnt", but I forgot where it was; anyway, the error can be ignored.

The rest of the install was ridiculously easy. I noticed that there was a new install option: Personal Desktop], but there was no Laptop install option. Whatever, I was just experimenting anyway. The Personal Desktop option amounted to 530 packages in about 20 minutes, and then it was done.

All I can say is... WOW! It looks beautiful. I chose the GNOME desktop, and it's obvious that Redhat is working on making the desktop better for the 'normal' user. Things look more consistent, and I could still change things to look the way I want. I didn't like the way that the icons were labeled - "Web Browser" instead of Mozilla, and "Video Player" instead of Xine - but it wasn't a big deal. The fonts look better, but not perfect. But man, just the way everything looks and feels - did mention that it looks beautiful?

I've already decided that when the new version is released (it may be called 8.0 but there are no guarentees) I'm going to buy it and install it on my Thinkpad and my Dell desktop. Kudos to Linux, and kudos to Redhat.


BP

0006

I tried the null beta's as well on my laptop.
had a straight 160 k a sec as well.. burned them..but after the media check which said : FAILED, it errored on me with an abnormal abortion , sending SIGTERM

I just don't get it
tried text install.. ( I didnt even got into anaconda anyway) but failed as well.

Don't know what to say, but only to check the md5sum. If you're in Linux when downloading the files, just type "md5sum filename.iso". If you're in Windows, there's a Win32 version of md5sum somewhere on the 'net. Maybe someone else has an idea what's going on?


BP

0007

I'm not finding any ISO files on rpmfind.net. I get into the NULL section for the ISO files and all I get is the MD5SUM file. Is there a more recent version of RedHat7.4 Beta now?

Its redhat 8.0 not 7.4 beta.

To the best of my knowledge it hasn't officialy been declared 8.0 yet.

And Distrowatch still has it listed as 7.4 beta also.

But the question is, is Null still the latest build?

Well, many of us think it's going to be 8.0, but as I said, there are no guarentees.

DAKPluto, I found the ISO's on rpmfind.net here . AFAIK Null is still the latest beta.


BP

0008

ftp://limestone.uoregon.edu/redhat/b...os/i386/README

7.3.94

Rounded up would seem to (for now) be 7.4

And a package from the set of RPMS would say the same:
ftp://limestone.uoregon.edu/redhat/b...4-3.noarch.rpm

Cool

WOOOO!! Thanks. Nice and fast. I don't know how I missed 'em. Thanks

On the other hand, the version of GCC in the Null beta breaks binary compatibility with the previous version (it shouldn't if this were to be 7.4). In fact, IIRC I think it even breaks binary compatibility with Limbo #2 beta. This is why many think it's 8.0. But heck, it could be anything RedHat wants, be it RedHat 8.0, RedHat 9.0 (to match with Mandrake and the upcoming Slackware), or RedHat 2002 (yuck! ).


BP

000A

I don't think NULL is the latest one since I just came accross "rawhide", like you can check at http://www.distrowatch.com/table.php...ibution=redhat it's not yet officially released ... null was released 19th August 2002 ...