Red Hat Linux 8.0: The best version yet?

By Jack Wallen, TechRepublic, 3 April, 2003 09:47

Configuring networking
The Red Hat Internet Connection Wizard is as simple to use as any networking configuration tool. As you can see from Figure B, the new network device configuration is a simplified version of a number of previous tools.

Figure B

Even wireless networking can be configured from the Internet Connection Wizard.

Once you select the desired device, the wizard walks you through the steps. In all cases, these steps are very user friendly. Let's take a look at setting up a DSL connection via the wizard. Figure C shows selecting the xDSL (the x stands for either A [asymmetric] or S [symmetric] DSL) connection type.

Figure C

When you select the xDSL connection, the wizard offers up a description of what you are about to configure.

Click Forward to move on to the basic configuration of the connection. Figure D highlights the information necessary to complete this step.

Figure D

Only four configuration items are needed to complete this phase of the DSL configuration.

Once the basic information is entered, you only have to click Apply to set the configuration (as shown in Figure E), at which point you will find yourself in the Network Configuration tool (as shown in Figure F).

Figure E

Click Apply and the connection is configured.

Figure F

Here is where all network devices are controlled and further configured.

From here, you can get much deeper into the configuration of the desired network device. As you can see in Figure G, there are numerous configuration options available. With DSL, you will want to have your connection restart should the connection die. The Advanced tab allows you to do just this by selecting Restart If Connection Dies. Of course, there are many other helpful options available within the configuration tool. From within the Route tab you can configure Static Network Routes. The Hardware Device tab allows you to select which network interface to use for the xDSL connection. The Provider tab allows you to change the Name, Login Name, and Password for the connection.

Figure G

Red Hat 8.0 offers numerous configuration options for an xDSL connection.

Apache configuration
With Red Hat 8.0 the configuration of your HTTP server no longer has to be a chore. With the Apache Configuration tool (shown in Figure H) you can configure virtual hosts and servers and even tune the performance of your server -- all with one handy tool.

Figure H

The Apache Configuration tool lets you configure and tune servers.

Never before has Apache been so simple to configure, and this tool really helps bring Red Hat Linux to the enterprise level like no other release has before. In Figure I, you'll see the Virtual Host Properties page from the Apache Configuration tool. Here you can easily configure every option necessary to set up a virtual site on your HTTP server. Before this tool, configuring virtual sites required that you install Webmin or that you edit the httpd.conf file. Although Webmin was a simple alternative, it doesn't hold a candle to the new Apache Configuration tool.

Figure I

Within this tool, every possible virtual host option can be configured.

Endless possibilities
To completely cover an entire release of Red Hat Linux would require an enormous amount of text. However, let me say that it would be to your benefit to quickly jump on this Red Hat bandwagon. Never before has the installation, configuration, and use of Linux been so simple and enjoyable. I've been running this release without fail for over three months now, and I have to say that it is by far the best Linux release yet.

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