Well, I'm glad that RedHat is still letting people download a free copy of their flavour of Linux. (Wonder when Bill Gates and Co. are going to let regular users download Windows XP Home for free? :)) I did just that on Friday. I downloaded the free version of RedHat Linux 7.2 so that I could install it on my Sony VAIO notebook. I must say, I was very impressed with the installation process. I haven't actually installed any flavour of Linux for a while now. The last time I did it was with a RHL 6.2 release -- well, I did do a RHL 7.1 real quick, but I never really used it. RHL 7.2 is more impressive than 7.1 in one respect: GRUB. I like GRUB a lot.
GRUB is a bootloader, much like it's brethren LILO. But unlike LILO, I could install GRUB and have it boot Linux partitions past the beginning 8GB of a harddrive.
RHL 7.2 detected all of my hardware just fine and started up great after the install process. The only think that I can't get working right now is the D-Link Wi-Fi card I have. It detects and uses my Intel 10/100 PC-Card just fine, it's having trouble with the Wi-Fi card.
Will I seriously use RHL 7.2 on my notebook? Perhaps. Not sure right now though. I am dual-booting the system between Windows 2000 Professional and RHL 7.2.
Is RHL 7.2 ready for the average consumer's desktop? Hell no. Although heavy strides have been made to make it more Average-Joe friendly, it's still not in a phase where someone can just pick it up and use it. That's OK though, for a geek, Linux is still a great OS to use. And for a admin, Linux provides a great server platform.
We'll see soon enough though as I start to do my business travelling with both OSs installed. I think that I'll still use Windows 2000 Pro more than RHL 7.2, for the only reason that I have to use a special dialer to get into my work's intranet -- that is, unless I can find something to do the same under RHL 7.2, then I would seriously consider wiping out my Windows 2000 Professional partition.