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Red Hat Linux

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Red Hat Linux
GNOME 2.2, the default desktop on Red Hat Linux 9
GNOME 2.2, the default desktop on Red Hat Linux 9 Image: source and license
DeveloperRed Hat
OS familyLinux (Unix-like)
Working stateDiscontinued
Source modelOpen source
Initial releaseMay 13, 1995
Final release9 alias Shrike / March 31, 2003
Package managerRPM Package Manager
Kernel typeMonolithic (Linux)
UserlandGNU
LicenseVarious
Succeeded byRed Hat Enterprise Linux, Fedora Linux
Official websitewww.redhat.com/en

Red Hat Linux was a widely used commercial open-source Linux distribution created by Red Hat until its discontinuation in 2004.[1]

Early releases of Red Hat Linux were called Red Hat Commercial Linux. Red Hat published the first non-beta release in May 1995.[2][3] It included the Red Hat Package Manager as its packaging format, and over time RPM has served as the starting point for several other distributions, such as Mandriva Linux and Yellow Dog Linux.

In 2003, Red Hat discontinued the Red Hat Linux line in favor of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) for enterprise environments. Fedora Linux, developed by the community-supported Fedora Project and sponsored by Red Hat, is a free-of-cost alternative intended for home use. Red Hat Linux 9, the final release, hit its official end-of-life on April 30, 2004, although updates were published for it through 2006 by the Fedora Legacy project until the updates were discontinued in early 2007.[4]

Features#edit

Version 3.0.3 was one of the first Linux distributions to support ELF (Executable and Linkable Format) binaries instead of the older a.out format.[5]

Red Hat Linux introduced a graphical installer called Anaconda developed by Ketan Bagal, intended to be easy to use for novices, and which has since been adopted by some other Linux distributions. It also introduced a built-in tool called Lokkit for configuring the firewall capabilities.

In version 6 Red Hat moved to glibc 2.1, egcs-1.2, and to the 2.2 kernel.[3] It was the first version to use the GNOME as its default graphical environment instead of FVWM95 and included KDE as an option.[6][7] It also introduced Kudzu, a software library for automatic discovery and configuration of hardware.[8]

Version 7 was released in preparation for the 2.4 kernel, although the first release still used the stable 2.2 kernel. Glibc was updated to version 2.1.92, which was a beta of the upcoming version 2.2 and Red Hat used a patched version of GCC from CVS that they called "2.96".[9] The decision to ship an unstable GCC version was due to GCC 2.95's bad performance on non-i386 platforms, especially DEC Alpha.[10] Newer GCCs had also improved support for the C++ standard, which caused much of the existing code not to compile.

In particular, the use of a non-released version of GCC caused some criticism, e.g. from Linus Torvalds[11] and the GCC Steering Committee;[12] Red Hat was forced to defend this decision.[13] GCC 2.96 failed to compile the Linux kernel, and some other software used in Red Hat, due to stricter checks. It also had an incompatible C++ ABI with other compilers. The distribution included a previous version of GCC for compiling the kernel, called "kgcc".

Version 8.0 was also the second to include the Bluecurve desktop theme. It used a common theme for GNOME-2 and KDE 3.0.2 desktops, as well as OpenOffice-1.0. KDE members did not appreciate the change, claiming that it was not in the best interests of KDE.[14]

Version 9 supported the Native POSIX Thread Library, which was ported to the 2.4 series kernel by Red Hat.[15]

Red Hat Linux lacked many features due to possible copyright and patent problems. For example, MP3 support was disabled in both Rhythmbox and XMMS; instead, Red Hat recommended using Ogg Vorbis, which has no patents. MP3 support, however, could be installed afterwards, through the use of packages. Support for Microsoft's NTFS file system was also missing, but could be freely installed as well.

Fedora Linux#edit

Red Hat Linux was originally developed exclusively inside Red Hat, with the only feedback from users coming through bug reports and contributions to the included software packages – not contributions to the distribution as such. This was changed in late 2003 when Red Hat Linux merged with the community-based Fedora Project. The new plan was to draw most of the codebase from Fedora Linux when creating new Red Hat Enterprise Linux distributions. Fedora Linux replaced the original Red Hat Linux download and retail version. The model is similar to the relationship between Netscape Communicator and Mozilla, or StarOffice and OpenOffice.org, although in this case the resulting commercial product was also fully free software.

Version history#edit

Red Hat 5.0 CDROMs
Red Hat 5.0 CDROMs Image: source and license

Release dates were drawn from announcements on comp.os.linux.announce. Version names are chosen to be cognitively related to the prior release, yet not related in the same way as the release before that.[3][16]

The Fedora and Red Hat Projects were merged on September 22, 2003.[17]

Red Hat Linux release history
VersionTypeCode nameRelease dateKernel versionComment
—N/atestPreview26 June 1994[18]1.1.18 (dev)First test release, not publicly distributed. It used the RPP package manager.
0.9betaHalloween31 October 19941.0.9 (stable)
1.1.54 (dev)		Purchased beta, came with documentation and graphical system management tools.
1stableMother's DayMay 19951.2.8ACC Bookstores (Bob Young) bought out Red Hat Software, Inc. (Mark Ewing) and introduced the "Red Hat Commercial Linux" moniker.
1.1bug fixMother's Day+0.1August 19951.2.11
1.2.13		Called "Mother's Day Plus One".
2.0stable—N/a20 September 19951.2.13–2First stable RPM release, and the first one to use the "Red Hat LiNUX" branding.
2.1bug fixBluesky23 November 19951.2.13 (stable)
1.3.32 (dev)		The first Alpha release (January 1996) was based on this version.
3.0.3stablePicasso1 May 19961.2.13First version released for multiple architectures and executable formats (x86/Alpha, ELF/a.out) at the same time. Introduced the Metro-X server, glint graphical management tool for RPM, and graphical printer configuration.
3.9betaRembrandtJuly–August 19962.0RPM was rewritten in C. PAM and kernel modules were introduced.
4.0stableColgate3 October 19962.0.18Added support for SPARC architecture and ELF executables on Alpha. Introduced Shadowman™ logo, free electronic format documentation and the Red Baron browser.
4.1stableVanderbilt3 February 19972.0.27InfoWorld, Best of 1996, Operating Systems.
4.2stableBiltmore19 May 19972.0.30–2Shipped the old libc 5.3 instead of the buggy 5.4 release. This decision was widely criticised, but avoided many issues.
4.8betaThunderbird27 August 1997?Introduced glibc 2.0.
4.9betaMustang7 November 1997?Cemented the two-cycle beta release style due to massive changes in the C library version.
5.0stableHurricane1 December 19972.0.32–2Introduced BRU2000-PE™ backup and the Real Audio™ client and server. 1997 InfoWorld Product of the Year.
5.1stableManhattan22 May 19982.0.34–0.6Introduced the Linux Applications CD, GNOME preview version (separate, not default), linuxconf, and the Netscape browser. Last release to load a live filesystem from the CD.
5.2stableApollo2 November 19982.0.36–0.7GNOME technology preview (separate, not default).
5.9betaStarbuck17 March 1999?
6.0stableHedwig26 April 19992.2.5–15Introduced glibc 2.1, egcs, and Linux 2.2. GNOME 1 was integrated.
6.0.50betaLorax6 September 1999?Introduced a completely rewritten graphical installer (anaconda), with graphical mode and text mode implemented in Python.
6.1stableCartman4 October 19992.2.12–20InfoWorld, 1999 Product of the Year, Operating Systems and multiple other awards.
6.1.92betaPiglet9 February 2000?
6.2stableZoot3 April 20002.2.14–5.0First release to offer ISO images for FTP download.
6.2EEstableEnterprise??First Enterprise Edition, offering longer support level.
6.9.5betaPinstripe31 July 2000?
7stableGuinness25 September 20002.2.16–22First release to support Red Hat Network out of the box. Caused the gcc 2.96 flame war, leading to the 2.96RH name being used later.
7.0.90betaFisher31 January 20012.4First release with Linux 2.4.
7.0.91betaWolverine21 February 2001?
7.1stableSeawolf16 April 20012.4.2–2First release to debut a new kernel stream out of the beta cycle. First release to simultaneously support all included languages. Introduced the Mozilla browser.
7.1.93betaRoswell2 August 2001?ext3 becomes default; the installer offers to convert ext2 filesystems. LILO replaced with GRUB as the default bootloader.
7.2stableEnigma22 October 20012.4.7–10GNOME 1.4, KDE 2.2. Would serve as the development basis for RHEL 2.1 AS (Pensacola).
7.2AstableEnigmaA29 December 20012.4.17GNOME 1.4, KDE 2.2.2. Has version in the letter A.
7.2.91betaSkipjack22 March 2002?Expected to ship a lot of new programs (gcc 3, GTK 2, Python 2) that were postponed for 8.0.
7.3stableValhalla6 May 20022.4.18–3KDE updated to 3.0.0. Last release with the Netscape browser.
7.3.29betaLimbo4 July 2002?700 MB ISO images were tested, but they proved problematic.
8.0stablePsyche30 September 20022.4.18–14gcc 3.2, glibc 2.3 RC, OpenOffice 1.0.1, GNOME 2, KDE 3.0.3. Introduced the Bluecurve™ cross-environment unified look and feel.
9stableShrike31 March 20032.4.20–8KDE 3.1 and GNOME 2.2. Introduced NPTL support with glibc 2.3.2 and kernel 2.4.20. Would serve as the development basis for RHEL 3.
9.0.93betaSevern21 July 2003?Final RHL release. It would be merged with Fedora Linux to form release Fedora Core 1 test 2, version 0.94.

See also#edit

References#edit

  1. ^ "Free Versions of Red Hat Linux to be Discontinued". fusionauthority.com. Archived from the original on 2012-02-07. Retrieved 2008-03-02.
  2. ^ "History of Red Hat Linux". Archived from the original on 2018-07-15. Retrieved 2018-07-14.
  3. ^ a b c "The Truth Behind Red Hat/Fedora Names". smoogespace.com. Archived from the original on 2017-12-11. Retrieved 2018-07-14.
  4. ^ "The Fedora Legacy Project". fedoralegacy.org. Archived from the original on 2013-09-05. Retrieved 2008-03-02.
  5. ^ Linux Distributions Compared Archived 2008-06-09 at the Wayback Machine, Linux Journal, 1996
  6. ^ Kroll, Jason (September 1, 1999). "Red Hat Linux 6.0". Linux Journal. Archived from the original on April 14, 2023. Retrieved April 14, 2023.
  7. ^ "Redhat Linux 5.0 Xfree running FVWM 95". toastytech.com. Archived from the original on 2026-10-04. Retrieved 2026-05-15.
  8. ^ "Various Kudzu facts". Everything2.com. Archived from the original on 2013-04-26. Retrieved 2013-05-05.
  9. ^ "Distributions". LWN. Archived from the original on 2013-05-17. Retrieved 2013-05-05.
  10. ^ "a/rh-tools". Lwn.net. Archived from the original on 2013-05-17. Retrieved 2013-05-05.
  11. ^ "Linus Weighs in on Red Hat 7 Compiler Issues". Linux Today. Archived from the original on 22 December 2019. Retrieved 2013-05-05.
  12. ^ "Gerald Pfeifer - GCC 2.96". Gcc.gnu.org. 2000-10-06. Archived from the original on 2013-06-27. Retrieved 2013-05-05.
  13. ^ An Open Letter From Bob Young, Slashdot.org, Thu October 12, 2000 12:52 PM
  14. ^ "Red Hat nullifies KDE, Gnome". The Register. 2002-09-17. Archived from the original on 2014-02-21. Retrieved 2014-02-14.
  15. ^ "Red Hat Linux 9 Release Notes". Redhat.com. Archived from the original on 2010-05-29. Retrieved 2013-05-05.
  16. ^ History of Red Hat Linux Archived 2013-11-13 at the Wayback Machine - Fedora wiki
  17. ^ "Fedora and Red Hat to Merge". Archived from the original on 2008-10-10. Retrieved 2008-08-02.
  18. ^ "Red Hat Software Linux Beta Test". Archived from the original on 2023-07-05. Retrieved 2023-07-05.

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Categories 1995 softwareDiscontinued Linux distributionsLinux distributionsProducts and services discontinued in 2004Products and services discontinued in 2007Red Hat softwareRPM-based Linux distributions

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