Linuxman's Ratings Guide
Required User Level: Beginner/Intermediate
Installation: Based on Redhat source so installion is fairly easy with good default choices.
Support: Excellent - forums & extensive online documentation derived from RedHat's documentation, very detailed
No. of CD's or DVD's: 1
Media: DVD-R

Enterprise class 64bit operating system based on Redhat's class leading solid source code

Based on StartCom Enterprise Linux 5.0.4, this release is compiled for and geared to run on this 64-bit register processors. Roughly four fifth of all applications, including the kernel, are ported and compiled for 64-bit computing and provides two runtime library sets - one for 32 bit and one for 64 bit. Most server applications will run in native 64-bit mode, while some desktop applications will still rely on the 32-bit legacy mode. This release also allows for the development of both modes by providing various backward library sets and compilers.

Version 5.0.4 codenamed Kishuf features the new 2.6.X kernel infrastructure with better and more drivers supported, multi-core and hyperthreaded CPUs support to mention only a few. The improved storage and file system capabilities uses now Logical Volume Management (LVM) as the default installation option. Also the desktop environment offers new enhancements providing a feature-rich, easy-to-use application pool, such as Firefox, Evolution and OpenOffice.

• Most stable Linux 2.6 kernel
• OpenJDK - Fully open source implementation of the widely adopted Java® SE 6
• Support for the new Intel Core i7 (Nehalem) processors
• Security-Enhanced Linux (SELinux)
• Complete Desktop environment
• Management Tools
• Web based Remote Administration Interface
• Up to 32 virtual CPUs
• Cluster Capabilities
• Up to 80 GB Memory
• Multi-Core CPUs and Hyperthreaded CPUs
• With up to 126 CPUs and 1TB main memory physical server limit
• Up to 1TB File system size
• Logical Volume Management (LVM)
• Up to 32000 Threaded Processes

Server Software:

• NFS File Server
• SMB File and Domain Server
• Mail Server
• Web Server
• FTP Server
• Domain Name Server
• Remote Boot Server
• MySQL Server
• Postgres SQL Server
• ODBC Tools
• VNC Server

StartCom will offer commercial advanced support service to subscribers in the near future. Currently available is the StartCom Network up2date feature, which lets you easily manage and update your StartCom Linux System, to ensure timely access to updates from StartCom just like Microsoft Windows Update and RedHat Network. This service is free of charge.