Re:Not exactly new (Score 1)

Spoken like someone who hasn't installed Red Hat in 8 years. Red Hat's Anaconda installer looks a lot like that even today in text mode. Unlike Debian, Red Hat doesn't care if their distribution runs on anything other than x86 so they can target making an X11 install that looks pretty.

Check your facts. Red Hat Enterprise Linux runs on i386, x86_64, itanium, ibm power, iSeries & pSeries.
Fedora Core 4 is released for i386, x86_64 and ppc. Fedora Core is ported to sparc (aurora linux) and to alpha (alpha core).