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Customer Reviews
Average Rating:
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Linux is great, if not fully compatible with all hardware
First, let me start off by noting that almost all of the reviewers that gave Red Hat Linux 9 very low marks had mostly hardware incompatibility issues. They bought Red Hat, threw the CD in the CD drive, and hoped for the best, expecting it to be able to successfully detect and configure all of their particular hardware.
While Linux has made tremendous strides in hardware compatibility and usually can work with most hardware right out of the box, it does not have the advantage of market critical mass and monopolistic power that Microsoft has. Thus, all vendors that sell hardware for the home PC provide drivers for Windows, being that Windows has about 95% of that market. That being said, Linux now has made tremdous stides in hardware support. It supports most major hardware products, but lacks in the area of some of the more exotic or bleeding edge graphics cards, sound cards, network cards, and most winmodems. It's getting better all the time (due to open source developers reverse engineering, and many vendors providing drivers), but Linux can't boast the level of hardware support that Windows can, due to market realities.
The people who gave bad reviews attempted to blindly install Red Hat Linux on their machines, without checking for hardware support ahead of time. Thus, due to hardware incompatibility or configuration, they had headaches and wrongly blamed Linux.
My personal experience with Linux in general and Red Hat 9 in particular has been wonderful. I've installed it on an IBM Thinkpad 600E. The installation went smoothly and I only had to manualy choose the correct video driver. It did not detect the Mwave internal winmodem (I expected this) and did not detect the sound card, but I do not need sound on my notebook. Apparently it is possible to configure so that Red Hat can use the sound card, but I don't need it. But Red Hat did seamlessly detect everything else and it all worked beautifully.
I've had a lot of fun with Linux. I'm a programmer and it is chaulk full of development tools (without having to pay mega $ for MS Visual Studio). Linux is a programmers paradise. It also has everything MS Office has (with Open Office and KOffice). It can manipulate graphics with the GIMP, it has tons of games, and endless configuration possibilties. RH Linux loads both the Gnome and KDE desktop environments, and it's fun to play with both, being that they are not exactly alike, and both have different strengths and weeknesses. And both, quite frankly, are much more attractive and fun to use than the Fisher Price interface of Windows XP. They are also far more configurable, with much more eye candy than XP. I've also been able to successfully download and install and use huge software titles like JBuilder 5 and Eclipse (Java Integrated Development Environments).
I've also been completely impressed with the amazing stability and efficiency of Linux. I can crash an application, but it never affects the OS. I just have to kill the app, and everything else goes about it's merry way without a hitch. Contrast that with Windows XP, and all of it's bugs and the slightest application problem can bring it to it's knees (prompting you to send a bug report to MS). Or, of course, the infamous Blue Screen of Death. No BSOD in Linux at all. And finally, there are far fewer virus worries with Linux.
In short, Linux is great. It might be a bit rough around the edges for some newbie/non technical users, but it is very easy to use (just requires a small learning curve, just like anything else new) and can do so many great things, at a small fraction of the cost of MS alternatives.
Those new to Linux should probablly start off with a distribution that runs from a CD, like Knoppix. Knoppix automatically detects and configures your hardware. All you have to do is pop the CD in and reboot. And it is completely risk free because it does not touch your hard drive. Knoppix can give you a taste of how great Linux can be. And if you like what you see, you should first check hardware compatibility at the distros web site, than
probably re-partition your hard drive with Partition magic. And of the distro set up routines will detect the partitions and allow you easily set up a dual boot PC. Alternatively, buy a whole new PC with Linux pre-loaded (ensuring hardware compatibility). You can do that here at Amazon, or Walmart or Lindows.com, or many others. You can get a new PC for as little as $200 (the cost of WinXP by itself).
But do give it a try and be prepared for hardware compatibility and that it is a different OS, so there will be a small learning curve. It's very well worth the effort.
The only reasons I did not give Red Hat Linux 9 the full 5 stars is because Red Hat has ended their retail product, concentrating on the enterprise. Also, Red Hat Linux does not include a disc partitioning tool like Mandrake and SuSE do. But I've loved it. I'm now looking forward to partitioning my eMachines PC with WinXP, and loading a dual boot Linux installation. I just have not decided which distribution it's going to be.
Rating: 
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Down with Micro$oft
Redhat 9 gives you the stability and security that Microsoft lacks. You can also split your harddrive, and boot windows along with Linux(why I will never know.) With any open source software there will be some hardware compatibility issues. I recomend that you first try Knoppix, a verson of linuux that only runs on a cd. This way you cat try it out and find any hardware issues. Once you install Redhat, I would recomend going to www.sourceforge.com to get any kind of opensource program for free.In conclusion, I recomend this program to any one who wants a cheap, reliable windows alternative.
Rating: 
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Garbage
Redhat 9.0 is garbage. I installed it on my laptop, but struggled for weeks to get it to work. It could not recognize almost any of my hardware (HP Deskjet 3320 Printer, HP 3200 Scanner, Xircom Ethernet/Modem card, IOmega USB 250 ZipDisk, Buslink external USB hard drive, etc... ). These are all brand name and relatively new.
Even if I accepted the absence of these pieces of hardware, it was almost impossible to copy or open files.
I am no neophyte to computers, software (especially Unix) or software development, but this operating system is absolutely terrible.
I wish I could leave Microsoft and migrate to Linux, but every incarnation of Linux I have ever used was at best terrible. To be fair, Mandrake was even worse and SuSE Linux at least recognized some of my hardware and its interface was pretty and reasonably thought out, but even less functional.
Trying to get any work done in any of these was impossible. Programs would continuously crash, copying or opening files was an ordeal and took long periods of time when they were successful.
I don't want tons of free software, pretty interfaces or promotional stickers. I want things that work and are well thought out.
I want to thank Redhat, SuSE and Mandrake for proving to me that Linux has an extremely long way to go in competing with MS Windows. Windows is easy to install, easy to use, almost always finds any hardware I thow at it and WORKS, ALL THE TIME!!!!!
Rating: -
Red Hat Linux is an absolute ZERO!! Read info
I tried to like it. I really did, but a person does need a degree in computer science to install any new programs. The mp3 player is disabled, no video player, and incompatibility with most online programs out there. I don't like windows but I absolutely HATE Linux Redhat 9.0. I wanted to burn a CD of my work before I switched back to Windows, but even the damn CD burning program would'nt burn the CD. All it said was no data even though I moved the data I wanted to be burn't in the appropriate box.
My father would say something is PISS POOR when it was the absolute lowest quality possible. Linux Redhat is truly a piss poor product. I threw out the CDs and now I am going back to Window Millenium because at least that works and I can actually get other programs to work with it.
Piss Poor garbage! Buy Windows!!!!
Rating: -
Almost perfect - so close
I have been using various Linux distributions for years and RedHat 9 is finally what I consider to be a excellent, professional-looking product that is fairly easy to use.
My only complaint is the fact that you must pay an annual maintenance fee to continue to use the "up2date" program. In these days of computer security awareness, installing software patches is extremely important to having a 'secure' computer. "Up2date" simplifies this task so you don't have to put much thought into keeping your Linux updated. People often think that Linux=Security, but if I have to continue to pay for updates - then I will be disappointed. I understand that these companies need to make money, but I don't think computer security should be the basis for profit.
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Speaking of Mini DisplayPort, here's another entry from Apple in the shipping hall of shame. They're shipping the five-inch Mini-DiplayPort-to-DVI adapter in a box that's bigger than the MacBook's. Check out the waste.
As Kevin notes, it might seem nitpicky, but when you compare this to how much Apple boasts on the MacBook's green packaging, it is kind of jarring: