Rolling, Rolling, Rolling...keep that Linux rolling....

Research Triangle Park - —

In an effort to improve communications with the development community, enable Linux users to test bleeding-edge technology, speed development, and improve the quality of future Red Hat Linux releases (as well as to end world hunger and eliminate human conflict), Red Hat will be releasing development versions of the Red Hat Linux Operating System on a regular basis.

Dubbed "Raw Hide," the releases will have version numbers independent of Red Hat Linux's version. Raw Hide 1.0 will appear on ftp.redhat.com on Friday, August 14 for public gnawing.

How Raw Hide is a Team Effort
The success of Linux and its rapid adoption by an increasing number of users for mission-critical applications has resulted in a growing number of developers. In addition to helping new users discover Linux, this development community continues to bring new features, tools, and utilities to Linux. As the Linux development community continues to push the rapid evolution of Linux, infrequently released Linux distributions have a difficult time providing the latest tools and innovations developers need.

To solve this problem, Red Hat, Inc. is harnassing the rapid development model which has proven so successful for developing individual components of the Linux operating system. This model helps us deliver award-winning OSs, and we anticpiate that Raw Hide will provide similiar benefits. It's our hope that the feedback we receive from the Linux development community will range from notification of errors and omissions to valuable discussions of the technical benefit (or lack thereof) of new features.

http://developer.redhat.com will host a web site devoted to Raw Hide, and the redhat-devel-list@redhat.com mailing list will be the centerpiece of discussion.

Biting at the Bit for Raw Hide
The growing user base of Linux highlights the need for early, accurate, and broadly disseminated information on new features and trends in Linux development. We can't think of a better way of keeping our user base fully informed on what we are up to then regularly posting our development release and source code. Announcements on http://developer.redhat.com and newsletters available from Red Hat will provide our users with constant updates on the evolution of Red Hat Linux.

Raw Hide Can Be a Bit Tough to Chew on So Run at Your Own Risk (and Enjoyment
These releases have not been quality tested by Red Hat's Quality Assurance team. They may not boot. If they boot, they may not install. If they install, they may not do anything other then waste CPU cycle. If anything breaks, you most assuredly own the many fragments which will be littered across your floor.

It may not be possible to upgrade from Red Hat to Raw Hide, from Raw Hide to Red Hat, or from Raw Hide to Raw Hide! If a stable upgrade path is important to you, please do not use Raw Hide.

DO NOT USE THESE RELEASES FOR ANY WORK WHERE YOU CARE ABOUT YOUR APPLICATION RUNNING, THE ACCURACY OF YOUR DATA, THE INTEGRITY OF YOUR NETWORK, OR ANY OTHER PURPOSE FOR WHICH A RESPONSIBLE HUMAN WOULD USE A COMPUTER. (But then again what would be the fun of hacking Linux if there wasn't some risk involved. ;-)....)

These releases will be available from ftp.redhat.com:/pub/rawhide. A list of Raw Hide mirrors will be available as such mirrors come online.

For serious Linux users (those folks who are relying on Red Hat Linux for critical business tasks or for those who are otherwise betting their career on this OS), Red Hat, Inc. offers a variety of technical support services on their "Official" releases. These are available from Red Hat, Inc. , the latest version of which is 5.1, released on June 1,1998. For more information please see http://www.redhat.com/products/product-details.phtml?id=rhl-intel .

Common with UNIX footnote

LINUX is a trademark of Linus Torvalds. Red Hat is a registered trademark of Red Hat, Inc. UNIX is a registered trademark of The Open Group. All other names and trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

  • About Red Hat

  • Red Hat is the world’s leading provider of open source software solutions, using a community-powered approach to reliable and high-performing cloud, Linux, middleware, storage and virtualization technologies. Red Hat also offers award-winning support, training, and consulting services. As the connective hub in a global network of enterprises, partners, and open source communities, Red Hat helps create relevant, innovative technologies that liberate resources for growth and prepare customers for the future of IT. Learn more at http://www.redhat.com.



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