Our evolutionary process of expanding the scope of this Installation Guide continues. As before, we've updated the chapters related to the actual installation process. We've also updated the New Features chapter to reflect all the good stuff that's been added to Red Hat Linux 6.0. We consider this to be ``business as usual.''
We've also made some changes as a direct result of customer feedback. Some people have expressed confusion over all the different terms, abbreviations and acronyms that seem to surround computer technology in general, and Linux in particular. For those people, we've added a glossary. While it's not our goal to include a complete data processing dictionary with every copy of Red Hat Linux, if you think a particular word should be present but is not, feel free to let us know via [email protected].
As the linuxconf system configuration tool continues to mature, we've created a new system configuration chapter containing task-based linuxconf documentation, as well as those vestiges of the control-panel tools that still remain. Our goal is to continue adding linuxconf documentation; what you see here is just a first step in that process.
The package list has proven to be quite popular; this time we've improved it by adding icons showing whether a given package is part of a pre-defined set of packages.
All of this has resulted in the Installation Guide putting on a little weight. This is a trend that we expect to continue, which leads us right into the next subject...
If you spot a typo in the Installation Guide, or if you've thought of a way to make this manual better, we'd love to hear from you! Be sure to mention the manual's identifier:
Please send mail to:
If you have a suggestion, try to be as specific as possible when describing it. If you've found an error, please include the section number and some of the surrounding text so we can find it easily. We may not be able to respond to every message sent to us, but you can be sure that we'll be reading them all!
Many thanks go out to the past authors of this manual. A great deal of their work is still here. Thanks also go out to the developers and testers who have patiently listened to my questions and even more patiently given me answers. Without their help, I wouldn't have been able to put this manual together.
A "BIG" thank you also goes out to two of the members of the documentation team. Paul Gallagher, our editor, has done a wonderful job of proof reading and editing this manual. He has also written the GnoRPM chapter of this book and the Official Red Hat Linux Getting Started Guide. Edward Bailey, ``fearless leader'' and head of the documentation team, has done a fabulous job at keeping me up to speed and helping me go in the right direction. He is also credited with the new partition appendix in this Installation Guide. Without his leadership and guidance, this would have been an impossible task for me. You both have been wonderful to work with and I just can't say thank you enough.
Thanks are also due to all the readers of past Installation Guides. Without their corrections, suggestions and even occassional praises, I wouldn't know if I were on the right track. Your feedback has been incorporated as much as possible (pagecount and deadlines permitting). Please keep the feedback coming.
Many thanks to Cynthia Dale for updating the Frequently Asked Questions
chapter and Jeff Goldin for correlating it for publication. Unfortuntaly,
we could not print it due to lack of space in the manual. However, you can
find the most up-to-date FAQ at
http://www.redhat.com/knowledgebase/index.html.
Finally, thanks goes out to the support group at Red Hat Software. They have given many insightful suggestions regarding this manual, based on extensive experience with thousands of Red Hat Linux customers. If you find yourself going through this Installation Guide with greater ease, a large part of that is due to all of their effort.
Thank you to everyone at Red Hat Software for your help and support.