The Red Hat CDs had HOWTOs in them, you could use them to get many things done step by step. If there was a packaged version you would prefer that, but not a l

The Red Hat CDs had HOWTOs in them, you could use them to get many things done step by step. If there was a packaged version you would prefer that, but not a lot of stuff was packaged in RPMs at the time. When Ubuntu came out and they started sending CDs for free worldwide (kudos to Mark Shuttleworth), that's when the Ubuntu/Debian started dominating.