https://liam-on-linux.dreamwidth.org/89116.html Account name: [ ] Password [ ] [Log in] (OpenID?) (Forgot it?) [ ] Remember Me You're viewing [personal profile] liam_on_linux's journal Create a Dreamwidth Account Learn More [ ] [Interest ] [Go] Reload page in style: site light Liam on Linux Liam Proven's thoughts on IT, especially FOSS Dell Precision 420 with Red Hat Linux (Personal Computer World * September 2000) Dell Precision 420 with Red Hat Linux (Personal Computer World * September 2000) Sep. 10th, 2023 12:57 pm liam_on_linux: (Default) [personal profile] liam_on_linux Found an old article of mine online. I think this might have been the first review of a machine preinstalled with Linux from a major manufacturer in the UK. EXCLUSIVE Linux's growing popularity gets a boost as Dell entrusts its latest high-end workstation to the OS. A sure sign of Linux's growing popularity is that vendors are starting to offer it as a pre-installed OS. Until recently, this has largely been confined to specialist Linux system builders such as Penguin Computing, Digital Networks UK or the large US company VA Linux Computing. Now, though, mainstream corporate vendors are starting to preload Linux and Dell is one of the first to deliver. The Precision Workstation 420 is a high-end workstation system. The midi-tower case can be opened without tools and internal components, such as the PSU and drive cage, can be released with latches and swung out on hinges for access to thei840-based motherboard. This supports dual Pentium III processors running at up to 1GHz and up to four RIMMs; the review machine had two 64MB modules for 128MB of dual-channel RDRAM. The highly-integrated motherboard includes Cirrus Logic sound, 3Com Fast Ethernet and Adaptec Ultra2 Wide LVD SCSI controllers. The only expansion card fitted is a Diamond nVidia TNT2 32MB graphics adaptor driving a flat-screen 19in Dell UltraScan Trinitron monitor, leaving the four 32-bit PCI slots and one PCI/RAID port free. Internal components include an 866M Hz Pentium III with a 133MHz front-side bus (FSB) and full-core-speed 256KB secondary cache, an 18GB Quantum Atlas Ultra2 SCSI hard disk, LiteOn 48-speed ATAPI CD and an ATAPI Iomega Zip250 drive. It is certainly a powerful and expandable high-end workstation with very few corners cut. However, all-SCSI storage might be more preferable and the 3D card, while ideal for gamers, is somewhat wasted in business use. However, the real interest lies in the operating system installed: Red Hat Linux 6.1. (Since this machine was supplied, Dell has upgraded this to Red Hat 6.2.) When appropriately configured with a GUI desktop, Linux isn't much harder to use than Windows or any other graphical OS; the hardest part is often getting it installed. Buying a pre-configured system is therefore attractive, as the vendor does this for you, but what matters is how well the job is done. The system boots into the Linux loader, LILO, offering a choice of kernels -- the default multiprocessor one and one for single-processor machines. Choosing either takes you straight into X and the GNOME login screen. There's only one pre-configured user account, root, with no password. Logging in as root reveals a standard GNOME default desktop, but with Dell-logo wallpaper. The installation is largely a default Red Hat one with some minor tweaks, such as the AfterStep window manager offered as an alternative to Enlightenment. Most of the system's hardware was correctly configured. XFree86 was correctly set up for the graphics card with a default resolution of 1,024 x 768, the SCSI controller, Ethernet, Zip and CD-ROM devices were all configured, and TCP/IP was set to auto-configure itself using DHCP. Red Hat's linuxconf tool made it easy to check and adjust the various parameters, and a Dell directory of drivers and basic documentation was provided on the hard disk to accompany a slim paper manual introducing Red Hat Linux. One area where Linux is more complex than Windows is disk partitioning. Dell has chosen sensible settings: a 20M B boot partition close to the start of the drive, a 5GB (root) partition, 2GB /home and 10GB /usr volumes, plus 128MB of swap space (larger for machines with more memory). There were some niggles, though. The mount point for the Zip drive was created as a symbolic link instead of a directory, which had to be corrected before the Zip drive could be used, and the GNOME desktop icon for the CD-ROM drive didn't work correctly. As Red Hat doesn't support the onboard CS4614 sound chip, the machine was mute; a SoundBlaster Live will be fitted if the customer requests sound capabilities. Although it's the most popular distribution in the US, Red Hat is quite spartan, with few added extras, but we tried popular programs such as StarOffice, WordPerfect 8 and VMware without a hitch. Internet access was easily configured, too. Dell also bundles 90 days' free phone and email support through LinuxCare alongside the three-year on-site warranty. The system has some teething problems, although they aren't critical and as shipped it was usable - but they would require some Linux expertise to repair. Once these are smoothed out, though, this will be an excellent high- specification Linux workstation. LIAM PROVEN DETAILS PRICE PS3,053.83 (PS2,599 exVAT) CONTACT Dell 0870 152 4699 www.dell.co.uk PROS Well-built, high-specification hardware; reasonable Linux configuration CONS Some rough edges to Linux configuration; no sound support; no ISA slots OVERALL A good first try. Dell's inexperience with Linux shows, but the problems are minor and the hardware is excellent [Scan on Imgur] [PLMvpnR] [Source on the Internet Archive] * Previous Entry * Add Memory * Share This Entry * Next Entry --------------------------------------------------------------------- * Reply --------------------------------------------------------------------- Profile liam_on_linux: (Default) Liam_on_Linux LinkedIn profile & information * Recent Entries * Archive * Reading * Tags * Memories * Profile September 2023 S M T W T F S 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 Most Popular Tags * acorn - 6 uses * amiga - 9 uses * android - 6 uses * apple - 7 uses * archimedes - 4 uses * arm - 8 uses * atari - 4 uses * beos - 4 uses * bios - 3 uses * classic - 3 uses * classic macos - 3 uses * commodore - 4 uses * desktops - 6 uses * dos - 8 uses * dr-dos - 5 uses * fosdem - 4 uses * foss - 5 uses * gem - 4 uses * gnome - 11 uses * history - 3 uses * humour - 4 uses * ibm - 6 uses * ios - 3 uses * linux - 22 uses * lisp - 8 uses * lxde - 3 uses * mac - 5 uses * macos - 6 uses * microsoft - 4 uses * mint - 4 uses * nostalgia - 4 uses * nt - 3 uses * oberon - 5 uses * os/2 - 6 uses * pc dos - 4 uses * plug - 4 uses * powerpc - 3 uses * psion - 3 uses * rant - 6 uses * risc os - 5 uses * sinclair - 5 uses * smalltalk - 4 uses * st - 5 uses * ubuntu - 13 uses * unity - 9 uses * video - 3 uses * virtualbox - 6 uses * windows - 17 uses * writing - 17 uses * xfce - 6 uses Style Credit * Style: Neutral Good for Practicality by [personal profile] timeasmymeasure Expand Cut Tags No cut tags Page generated Sep. 10th, 2023 11:01 pm Powered by Dreamwidth Studios Top of page