INFOBrief
Red Hat Linux Professional 8.0
Key Points
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Red Hat Linux 8.0 has a new C compiler and an associated tool chain. Most of the enhancements of Linux 8.0 over Linux 7.3 are aimed at ease of set-up and installation in the small office environment or for the personal desktop.
ed Hat® Linux®, Professional Edition 8.0 is Red Hat’s operating system targeted for small business, Web serving, and the desktop. Many of the feature enhancements from the previous version (7.3) are designed to assist with set-up and installation on desktops, workstations, or servers.
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Linux provides a cost-effective, optimal operating environment for an Internet infrastructure using Dell™ PowerEdge™ servers. There are no license fees or per seat fees associated with Red Hat Linux software, which is an important contribution to help lower TCO.
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Red Hat Linux Professional 8.0 contains a new C Compiler and resulting tool chain. Existing binaries from the 7.x platforms are supported, but binaries generated by the 8.x products are not supported on the 7.x series. The new C compiler is ‘gcc 3.2’.
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Enterprise deployments are best served by Red Hat’s Advanced Server product. Advanced Server offers a much higher level of support than does Professional 8.0; please see the Service and Support section for further details.
Background
Linux has come a long way since August 1991, when Linus Torvalds began building an operating system (OS) that eventually became Linux, a full-featured OS that has evolved as a project of programmers worldwide.
Linux is similar, but not identical, to Unix. It runs on a wide variety of hardware, including systems based on Intel, Alpha, PowerPC and other processors. Because of the similarity between Unix and Linux, many organizations are considering a migration from their expensive proprietary RISC systems to the combination of Intel hardware platforms from Dell and Linux software from Red Hat.
The Linux operating system was developed under the GNU General Public License (GPL), making it freely distributable. Freely distributable means that the source code for the kernel (the core technology within any operating system) and most software cannot be withheld.
Although Linux initially referred strictly to the kernel, it now also includes a collection of configured software that runs on top of the Linux kernel. These “collections of software” are known as distributions. Currently, a number of vendors, including Red Hat and SuSE, offer distributions of Linux that include various features and enhancements as well as service and support.
Dell has chosen Red Hat as a strategic partner and to distribute Red Hat’s versions of Linux. Red Hat maintains a strictly open source policy for its Linux offerings, which is consistent with Dell’s commitment to industry standards. Through this partnership, Dell provides customers with Red Hat Linux factory-installed on PowerEdge and PowerEdge SC servers. Red Hat Linux Professional 8.0 is supported by Dell as a standard OS choice for PowerEdge servers and PowerEdge SC servers. Red Hat Linux is also supported by all currently shipping (as of November 2002) NICs, SCSI RAID controllers, and SCSI storage systems offered by Dell.
Product Description
Red Hat Linux Professional 8.0, based on the Linux 2.4.18 kernel, is a major version release only by virtue of its new C compiler and the associated tool chain. Most of the enhancements between Linux 7.3 and 8.0 are aimed at the small office environment or the personal desktop. Please see the features table in the next section.
Assisting in the management of Dell PowerEdge servers running Red Hat Linux are tools such as network configuration tools, Red Hat Network for OS change management, user management tools, and hardware viewing tools. These features are elements of the operating system and come ready to use with each factory-installed Red Hat Linux-based server from Dell.
Red Hat has also included some popular Internet applications in Red Hat Linux Professional 8.0:
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