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Pennington states that "we should concentrate our efforts on desktop users that have a system administrator to help them out and configure their machine." I agree with Pennington; RedHat Linux still isn't ready to be installed, let alone used daily, by the average pc user. There are several points during the installation that are either needlessly complicated, or require knowledge beyond what can reasonably be expected of the average user.  Following are some notes from my recent installation.

Network Configuration The average pc these days comes with a network adapter, and Linux is quite good about detecting these devices. But the average pc user, outside of an office environment, has only one possible use for this adapter: a broadband internet connnection. The average user doesn't have a home lan and doesn't care about how the internet works: he just wants to browse and get email. Consequently, configuring the network interface under the current system is too much to expect.

What can be done about it? I would suggest a wizard-style network setup, similar to Windows XP, that prompts the user about their networking needs. The first step would be to identify whether the user has a lan connection. If so, then the user can either configure the interface or get help from whoever runs the lan. The next step would be to identify whether the user has a broadband internet connection. If so, then RedHat should certainly explore the possibility of compiling a list of the most widely used broadband providers and the settings they use for the network interface. I use AT&T, and the settings are very simple, if you know where to put them--the average user doesn't know.

Firewall Configuration These days, with broadband connections becoming more widespread, this is a crucial component for any pc. The problem I found with setting it up is that the help screeens are confusing.

The default selections are Medium Security and Customize. The help screens go into some detail about low ports being blocked, Active FTP, IRC DCC file transfers, DNS replies, NIS, LDAP, etc. As my fiance would say, "don't care, don't care, dont care--I just want to get my email and go on the internet."

One way out of this mess would be to put off this step of the configuration until after the user has chosen the basic type of installation and the type of internet connection. For a Personal Desktop installation with a broadband connection, the firewall settings should be straightforward. Better yet would be a firewall with the sort of options provided by Zonealarm where the user is prompted whether to allow certain applications to access the internet, whether to allow cookies to be accepted, whether to block ads, etc.

Time Zone Why is RedHat still using this archaic method of setting the time? Get rid of the UTC Offset and just make it simple: pick your time zone, set the time, and check a box if you want the computer to adjust for daylight savings time. Microsoft seems to do this quite nicely, why can't RedHat? And get rid of the timeserver option; it just adds to the confusion. The only people who care about this are the true geeks among us who will configure this after the installation.

And since we are on the Time Zone issue, after the first login there is an initial setup. At one point, there is a prompt to set the time and the date. Why do I have to do this again?

Account Configuration The manual is much better than the online help. There is some good discussion of administrator privileges and the su command, although I don't know why su even needs to be mentioned.

What is lacking is some guidance on usernames. Are they case sensitive? Are spaces allowed, as they are in Windows 2000/XP? Is there a minimum length? Some examples would also be useful.

Installing Packages  501 packages?! What on earth for? I suppose it probably doesn't matter as far as ease of installation goes for the average user. But 501 packages is just boated.

X Configuration My graphics card was correctly identified, but the memory amount was not. I know what it is, but I'm not the average user. My monitor was also not identified, but it was in the list of monitors.

General Remarks Unlike a Windows install, RedHat provides some very useful options, particularly in the packages that get installed. I'm referring to the selection of the type of system being built: Personal Desktop, Workstation, Server, etc. Moving this choice nearer to the beginning of the install process would greatly simplify the rest of the installation.

Linux has certainly come a long way since the early days of Slackware. Unfortunately, it still isn't ready for the desktop of the average user, as long as the average user must install it from scratch.