| By Kevin Bedell |
Article Rating: |
|
| February 18, 2004 12:00 AM EST |
Reads: |
13,615 |
If you want to maximize the powerful capabilities of Red Hat Enterprise and Fedora Linux, you'll want to check out Red Hat Enterprise Linux & Fedora Edition: The Complete Reference, by Richard Petersen and Ibrahim Haddad. In this Q&A, Kevin Bedell asks these experts a few questions about RHE and Fedora, and gets a preview of what to expect from the book.
Q: What important new features is Red Hat coming out with?
A: With Fedora, Red Hat completes a full range of GUI-based administrative tools, letting you perform almost any administration task easily, from printer installs to Windows connections (Samba), even DNS configuration.
Their effect should not be underestimated. They help to induct first-time users into Linux easily. Red Hat/Fedora also support Logical Volume Mangement (for radically simplified storage management), Bluetooth connections, and dvd+rw drives.
Red Hat's decision to release the Red Hat Update Agent for use by Fedora, to update from Yum and ABT Fedora RPM repositories, may have a great impact. Previously, the Red Hat Update Agent was restricted for use by commercial clients and limited to the Red Hat Network, Red Hat's own update RPM repositories. Now, with the Red Hat Update Agent, any user can automatically update his or her system with just a few mouse clicks. This way users can keep their systems incrementally updated instead of having to perform an major overhaul whenever a new version is released.
Q: What is "Fedora," and why does Red Hat now have two distributions? How do I know which fits my needs?
A: These are not really two Red Hat distributions. Fedora is seen as an independent effort, much like Gnome, but with strong ties to the Red Hat Enterprise effort. Fedora is not so much new features as a key change in development direction. Linux, over the past 10 years, has been all about change, from one year to the next, sometimes from month to month. It's been about making an operating system everything it can be, not just what will sell. Red Hat wants to preserve that effort while still providing commercial usability. With Fedora, Red Hat hopes to define a synergy between the two, freeing cutting-edge development while allowing assured stable releases. If you use Linux commercially, then Red Hat Enterprise would be the safest bet, whereas if you work in a research or development environment that calls for the latest features, then Fedora would be more helpful.
Q: Are there any features of RHE or Fedora that are not "free software"?
A: Not for Fedora. Red Hat reserves its commercial support and products as add-ons to its Enterprise edition.
Q: Why would I choose to use Red Hat over some other distribution, such as SUSE LINUX?
A: Development of the major distributions like SUSE, Mandrake, Debian, and Red Hat has reached such a refined level that any one of them would likely meet your needs. Red Hat's administration tools and support services in the U.S. market give it an edge. However, it remains to be seen how SUSE will fare now that it is combined with Novell, along with the Gnome-based Ximian desktop, which controls development of several of the former Eazel projects, such as the Nautilus file manager, the central core of the Gnome and thereby the Red Hat desktop.
Q: Since the Fedora distribution is based on Debian, should I just use Debian instead?
A: In effect, you could say the same for many distributions. All draw from Debian development efforts. Fedora aims to have the same developmental stance as Debian, but focused on Red Hat connections. The interaction |with a commercial version like RHE may give Red Hat a more practical focus.
Q: I've heard there's a new threading model in the latest Red Hat that improves performance of Java applications. Can you explain a bit about this?
A: The concept of NPTL (Native POSIX Thread Library) was really created by a kernel developer from Red Hat. The two main reasons for designing and implementing NPTL were to provide better thread performance and scalability and to provide better POSIX standards.
NPTL provides more efficient process control, improving performance and processor scalability. The NTPL threading is a standard feature for Linux kernel; it provides more efficient use of the processor by kernel modules. IT isn't something unique to Red Hat, but can be found in all distributions.
Java uses the thread implementation of the operating system where the Java Virtual Machine runs. As such, a better threading model that is more scalable and more performant will improve the performance of Java applications. It's also interesting to note that the latest Sun JDK for Linux has built-in support for NTPL compatibility.
For more information on the subject please refer to:
