A review of Fedora Core 6 from 3 perspectives – the end user, the developer and the power user. Also explores the implications of the release as an indicator that the Linux platform is coming together to form a significant competitor to proprietary products.
Slam Dunk for Linux – a Review of Fedora Core 6
About The Author
Eugenia Loli
Ex-programmer, ex-editor in chief at OSNews.com, now a visual artist/filmmaker.
Follow me on Twitter @EugeniaLoli
I don’t think 2007 is going to be the “year of Linux” any more than 2006 was.
I am not sure what you are basing your reply on but the author did not even mention the year 2007 nor “year of Linux”.
No but this was another ‘the revolution has just started’ artice. It seems that linux has been starting its revolution for the last 10 years. We’re still waiting.
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However, that said, Linux usability has suddenly increased dramatically with Ubuntu and Fedora competing for most user-friendly distro, and this latest move by Microsoft suggests that maybe it’s starting to take note of Linux, not something it has had to do in the past.
Meaning it isn’t a “significant” competitor at all.
Someone had to.
Actually, 2007 will be the year of “Linux desktop”.
Gnome 2.20 and KDE 4 will be released.
IMHO, Fedora and Ubuntu/Debian are the distributions with the most potential. I just wished RedHat wasn’t so adamant at sabatoging Fedora. Two things will make it truly a distribution to reckon with: 1) Before a release, if they fully test Fedora (ex. package freeze, release candidates, etc.) and 2) Less updates to a release (it sometimes feels like Fedora is tracking point point releases.) That said, it is still one of the best distributions out there. It just gets me really mad the lengths RedHat goes to to make sure people purchase RHEL.
I think Fedora is an independent project with rawhide as its testing. If Redhat want to make an enterprise version out of Fedora, it is Redhat’s business. They also can make one out of Ubuntu. But then would you say they are sabatoging Ubuntu?
Sometimes people run into a few minor issues and start complaining Fedora being a beta of RHEL which it is not. I’m grateful for the new features and stability provided by the cutting edge software from Fedora that simply I can’t get from any other distributions.
I just wished RedHat wasn’t so adamant at sabatoging Fedora.
They don’t. Simply most people don’t understand how Red Hat plan works and make bad assumptions.
Two things will make it truly a distribution to reckon with: 1) Before a release, if they fully test Fedora (ex. package freeze, release candidates, etc.)
As long there is enough testers willing to help.
and 2) Less updates to a release (it sometimes feels like Fedora is tracking point point releases.)
You can choose to not update.
It just gets me really mad the lengths RedHat goes to to make sure people purchase RHEL.
RHEL target is mainly governments and large enterprise audiences. Remember enterprise user has a different needs compared to home user.
I have heard a lot of good things about fedora lately. I am feeling a download coming down the pipe.:) They seem to have a good commitment to free software which I am being more adamant about just to balance all the people who don’t seem to care about free software.
So have I, but I’m a cynic so I’m putting it down to RedHat marketing. The more Fedora users, the more RHEL users. I’m waiting untill people stop reporting that Fedora acts like a RHEL Beta product before I’ll switch.
I’ve played with the compositing window managers, and I’m not sure they’re really production quality yet so to see them as the default in a supposedly stable release worries me a bit.
If you’re looking for a distro with a strong commitment to free software, you could check out GNewsSense <http://www.gnewsense.org/>. It sounds like it’s basically Ubuntu with proprietary parts removed.
Me personally, I use Debian, and it’s free enough for me. And while I’m not a programmer, I do agree with you about the importance of free software.
Already using gNewSense and loving it. Just not sure I will stay with it since I like picking and choosing which software is installed.
I like Debian also but get tired of the drama and issues and so forth. That is not a slam on Debian, that is simply me not being able to handle the stuff that goes on.
Debian has (almost) always been my main ride, but I am test driving a few others right now. Probably end up back at debian though.
I think while Linux is very close to becoming truly competitive with mainstream OS’s, it will take a beating before it gets there. The vast majority of people won’t react well to the file-system/structure… or the fact that they don’t see their friendly “.exe” (not so friendly). It will take a little professional polishing/bastardization to make Linux as mainstream as other OS’s. Fedora 6 is a great step in the right direction, but it’s still just a little bit short of perfect still.
I think most of them will be happy not to see .exe that usually brings in viruses.
I think you will find the only difference for most users on the “.exe” issue is that in Windows you don’t see it because it is hidden, in Linux you don’t see it because it isn’t there.
Most users who know what an “.exe” is probably know the difference between a program and the OS, or the OS and the computer. We Linux and BSD (and other alternative OS) users keep being told that that particular section of the computer-using public isn’t the majority by any stretch of the imagination.
Although I’ve been using Fedora from the very beginning I always felt some problems with that.
1. Fedora is a second level citizen at RedHat. The main purpose is to test different components in Fedora before they go to RHEL. Obviously it has some impact on Fedora’s quality.
2. Fedora uses experimental components. It is coming from the first point, but anyway it is a big pain. Instead of trying to stabilize Fedora they introduce newer and newer components. The actual favorite AIXL+Compize is a crap. There are crashes, OpenGL performace dropped heavily (try glxgears with that). Some applications are not running with this (for example NetBeans). Actually it is definitelly not a product quality code. The bad thing is that this will be the case always.
3. Fedora users are not in the focus. This is not a community project. This is an open test lab. We don’t have any chance to make any impact on Fedora. For example they just decided no to include Firefox 2.0 in FC6. Did they ask the users? Is there any forum when you can tell your opinion? The existing mailing lists are somehow limited, the users try to help each other.
So Fedora will always be, as it is actually, an experience. If you are satisfied with that you can use it. I think Ubuntu is more user-centric and concentrate on quality more, so I expect they will overtake Fedora soon.
Just my 2 cents. You can skip me
Edited 2006-11-08 07:53
“I think Ubuntu is more user-centric and concentrate on quality more, so I expect they will overtake Fedora soon.”
2005 called… er, nevermind. Anyway, these days I think Ubuntu has just about doubled the popularity of Fedora.
Distrowatch.com would support this, but it isn’t my only source for making the claim.
As a side note, I think spinning off RHL as Fedora could have impacted Red Hat’s sales if you look at the trend towards more Debian based distros that coincidently started right around the time RH made this decision.
Edited 2006-11-08 11:03
I think the problem I have with Fedora Core is that there is some “unspoken” pressure from Red Hat on its release schedule because they want a new RHEL release out about every 18 months. Fedora Core 6 kept getting delayed, but not by enough IMHO because of this pressure. FC6 just about got the installer sorted out (which *has* to work because it’s a complete disaster if it doesn’t), but there’s still buggy parts of certain bits of software (nothing seriously wrong, just minor niggles), which I reckon they’d have fixed if they’d added another month or two to the release date.
I don’t think you can complain both that Fedora uses “experimental components” (does it? Seems like GNOME and KDE aren’t to me…) and then doesn’t include Firefox 2.0 (which was released too late to be included in FC6, but I think it should be available via a yum update at some point, otherwise we’re waiting another 8 months and FC7 to see it!).
BTW, I’m now running a *Fedora Project built* Firefox 2.0 on FC6 – I got the “FC7” version from the development tree. Had to trash several other packages (eclipse, yelp, devhelp to name a few) to get it on without dependency clashes though.
I don’t think you can complain both that Fedora uses “experimental components” (does it? Seems like GNOME and KDE aren’t to me…) and then doesn’t include Firefox 2.0 (which was released too late to be included in FC6, but I think it should be available via a yum update at some point, otherwise we’re waiting another 8 months and FC7 to see it!).
Fedora Core 7 will get Firefox 3 instead
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2006-October/msg00…
Your comment sounds just like CentOS would be the perfect distro for you.
I completely disagree with you however, when you say that Ubuntu is more “concentrated on quality” than Fedora Core. I’d very much like to see that backed up with facts.
I personally have very few issues running Fedora Core 5, and although Ubuntu Dapper is not bad, testing it for a few months (Fedora 5 for half a year) I found more flaws in it than in FC5.
For Fedora to get a little bit “cooler” (if anyone desires that), all they’d have to do is make one Live CD/install CD that functions more or less like a netinstall (isn’t Ubuntu essentially a netinstall too?). I wouldn’t see any real benefits in being cooler, I think Fedora Core sells itself.
Or would I be the only one who left Ubuntu for Fedora Core? – no flames please, let’s discuss quality here.
You said:
“1. Fedora is a second level citizen at RedHat.”
Fedora is many things. It is a community distribution that is open to participation by anybody. It is grateful to receive sponsorship by Red Hat. It has a short release-cycle (6 month releases) with emphasis on driving innovation forward. This attracts early adopter, leading edge users who want to help shape the future of Linux. It’s development philosphy empasizes moving FOSS forward by contributing enhancements back to upstream projects. It has a synergistic relationship with the RHEL product which undergoes additional QA and security certification processes needed by the most demanding production environments. Fedora, in time, benefits from these fixes. I don’t mind if you say Fedora is an alpha for RHEL. From RHEL perspective, that is true. But that is just _one_ perspective. From my perspective as a Fedora user, I see Fedora benefiting in many ways from its relationship to RHEL.
“2. Fedora uses experimental components.”
Yes. And as a early adopter, leading edge user I enjoy trying this experimental components, providing feedback, and helping shape the future of Linux. In additional, I find Fedora stable enough for many production tasks, including my main desktop.
“3. Fedora users are not in the focus. … For example they just decided no to include Firefox 2.0 in FC6. Did they ask the users? Is there any forum when you can tell your opinion?”
The DEVEL mailing list is open to all. Please subscribe and contribute your opinion to this thread:
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2006-October/msg00…
Or add your opinion in a comment to one of these two bugs:
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=213177
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=211807
Allen Halsey
Thank you all for sharing your opinion. I respect them
Obviously, it was only my subjective view on Fedora.
Believe me, I would be happy if Fedora would be better, but I’m getting tired of the continuous fighting with different issues of the different Fedora release. That’s all.
Actually I’m more satisfied with FC5 than FC6. Unfortunatelly I’m forced to march with FC6 since FC5 will disappear soon.
On the other hand I’ll keep Fedora
don’t worry.