Red Hat 7.3 Coming Along
EyesWideOpen writes "I just read a review of a beta version of Red Hat 7.3 (code named Skipjack) over at Linux Journal. It's not the most complete review (being a little KDE heavy and GNOME shy, as well as focusing mainly on the install and desktop components) but it's a decent read. From the article: '...if you are a desktop user like me and you like the latest software, you will be hard pressed to find a more complete and usable piece of software...'.
If you're feeling adventurous you can download the latest beta from a Red Hat mirror site."
Given that I am reading this thread specifically because I'm interested in upgrading a few existing boxes, I may be able to explain.
I suspect I'm lazy.
Can't get more "Occam's razor" than that. There's one box in pariticular that I'd like to have KDE3 on, but to do that I'd also need to update Qt to 3.something, and lib-this.so and dev-that.so.what and I don't really feel like it. I don't need KDE3 on the box, and, as I concluded the other night when I started to think about upgrading, I'm lazy. Or to put a (slightly) more charitable face on it, I'd rather code, and play with my kid, and web-surf, and read, and doodle arround on the piano. Not all at the same time of course.
The point of OSS (to me at least) isn't that I always do things myself, but that I have that option, and at varrious levels of granularity. I eat out most meals, but I'd be annoyed if I didn't have a stove in the house, or some unpaved dirt in the back where I could plant things. But I'm still willing to let the folks at RedHat, etc. cook for me if they want to.
-- MarkusQ
Why would they??
Exchange connector costs almost $70 - which means your Redhat 7.3 package will costs you something around ~$130..
Another thing - Ximian RPMS simply break things (although I heard from one of the developers there that this will be fixed very soon) - try to install the Ximian RPMS for mozilla (for example), and then upgrade them with a newer version of Mozilla, not from Ximian.. bzzt - RPM will tell you that Ximian RPMS are newer, despite the fact that it's wrong..
Also, don't forget - they ARE competitors - both sell competing services (up2date VS. Red-Carpet) to their clients at the same prices, so why would RedHat bundle their competitor stuff into their distribution? that doesn't makes any sence..
Hetz (Heunique)
Slackware was the greatest for the ultra power user until Gentoo came along.
Currently in version 1.1a, it's the coolest Linux to come along in a decade and includes an amazing Portage system that is the best (apt-get / BSD ports)-like package management system ever created.
Come on over to [irc.openprojects.net channel #gentoo] and see for yourself what all the fuss is about.
If you celebrate Xmas, befriend me (538