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Red Flag Linux: Real, and Reviewed

Posted by timothy on from the love-the-uninstall-icon dept.

Over at NewsForge (NewsForge is part of OSDN, as is Slashdot), Roblimo has posted his impressions of the long-awaited, much-ridiculed Red Flag Linux (English version). It may not be a big seller outside of the Chinese-speaking world (despite the available English-language install), but it's not a hoax, and it's available as an ISO for download. Update from Roblimo: I did not write the NewsForge Red Flag review. Matt Michie deserves all credit for this excellent work.

4 of 381 comments (clear)

  1. So out of date? How very odd... by PeterClark · · Score: 2, Redundant
    I'm trying to think of why the kernel would be so old, that is 2.4.2. I mean, that's a year old! Plus, an ancient version of _Helix_Code_ GNOME (aka Ximian) is also installed. And while it's a little hard to tell, the KDE screenshot seems in my eyes to be running 2.0, although that's just a guess that would have to be double-checked.


    This tells me one of two things: one, the Red Flag people just took a base Red Hat distro (7.0? I run Debian, so I don't know when Red Hat first introduced kernel 2.4.2), s/Hat/Flag, and put it on the web. Two, they started with a Red Hat distro long ago, but took a long time to make whatever modifications they needed to and did not bother to update the kernel and programs. Both scenarios say volumes about the people who work on Red Flag. I mean, there are distros assembled by a handful of people that are more up-to-date than this! What are they doing, reading /. all day?


    I would be really interested if someone would do a security audit on this. Does Red Flag call home to Big Brother?


    :Peter

  2. VMware? by fsck! · · Score: 1, Redundant

    Maybe I just haven't read a lot of distro reviews, but it struck me as odd, even unfair that Roblimo spent so much time whining about VMware crashing. What the heck does that have to do with the quality of the product in question?

    "All 2002 model year Toyotas have serious engine problems. Also, I urinated in the gas tanks of all cars tested."

    Then he goes on to nmap his virtual machine, then asks what port 1030 is. Before nmap(1), there was netstat(8). Read about it

    And timothy, unless I'm mistaken, the article details Matt Michie's impresions, not Roblimo's.
  3. Re:more to feed the machine by Kaiwen · · Score: 0, Redundant
    If the Chinese violates copyrights left and right what makes you think they will follow the GPL?

    Well, the fact that you can download it is a pretty good clue, dontcha think?

  4. Re:Redflag, internet ready microwave oven. by CynicTheHedgehog · · Score: 0, Redundant

    Imagine a beowulf cluster of these...