I am starting my adventure searching for a new FOOS project to get involved with. I still think that a Linux distribution is one of the most interesting type of projects. We have so much Free Software that is not reaching yet those who would benefit from it.
Yesterday I have switched from Ubuntu 10.10 to Fedora 14 I have chosen to try Fedora because it has an open governance model with a clear leadership. While there are a clear special capacities from the sponsor (RedHat), at the highest level the project is managed by an Executive Board, the board is composed with a mix of RH appointed and community elected members.
Now back to my first day experience, I was afraid that it would be an hard experience, I use Linux for my primary workstation so it really needs to work.
The install was smoothly, I did found a bug on a specific case of setting up an user with an existing home dir containing invalid symbolic links, nothing serious.
I was able to install all my job required tools using Fedora 64 bits thanks to the multiarch supports which allows to install both 32 and 64 package versions, this is something I could not achieve with Ubuntu 64 bits, ia32libs is not sufficient for my case.
All the software that I needed was available from repositories or as an .rpm from upstream: Filezilla, KeepassX, Zim, X-Chat, Skype, VirtualBox, gnomedo, tsocks, eclipse, cairo-dock, geany. dropbox, pidgin .
During a full work day I have found no significant usability differences between Fedora an Ubuntu.
The only issue I had so far was related yum repository errors, this is one of my next steps, to understand Fedora repository types and package building.
I will also try to understand if the distribution itself is effectively governed as documented.
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Oh well. Good luck! I'll stick with Ubuntu. Fedora is just a testing bed. So you're just working for Red Hat indirectly, for FREE.
ReplyDeleteadred, when you say you're "just working for Red Hat indirectly, for FREE" doesn't it apply as well when you use Ubuntu you work for Canonical too?
ReplyDeleteI use both Fedora and Ubuntu. They're both great operating systems.
ReplyDeleteTell us more about your Fedora experience Mr. Pinto.
@adred, your comment is very funny :)
ReplyDeleteEnjoy Fedora! I'm very looking forward to see what they will do with gnome 3 in the 15th release.
Happy ArchLinux user here.
@Jean Austin
ReplyDeleteYah it's the same story, but Ubuntu is not a testing bed :-)
@adred Ubuntu is* (at least in theory the non LTS version) infact a test bed of various technologies. One gets a fact that canonical just throws so many technologies on Ubuntu which the users test and file bugs which are then fixed and stabilize before the next LTS version.
ReplyDeleteI choose to use Kubuntu which to me is the best of both worlds, it is independent from the meddling hands of canonical, supported mostly by the community do decide the direction of the project, and still provide a solid Ubuntu based but with vanilla KDE. same thing can be said of Xubuntu
@adred:
ReplyDeletehow is that different from Ubuntu being the test bed for Canonical ?
You do know that on Ubuntu you are using technology that comes from Fedora right ? Do you feel bad about it ?
Why should I feel any better about doing volunteer work to a project sponsored by Mark Shuttleworth and Canonical's managed community than one sponsored by Red Hat and a Red Hat's participated community ?
I don't have any experience with the Fedora community, so yes, effectively things may happen differently from what is documented, and I may not like it, but who cares ?
That's the great part of volunteer work, you work on something you believe and when you stop believing you just select something else, unlike capital effort, volunteer effort is never lost.
@bigbrovar
ReplyDeleteTest bed or not, bottom line is you still get the best/enterprise version of Ubuntu for FREE.
Welcome to Fedora and drop me a mail if you have any questions, technical or especially on governance.
ReplyDelete@adred,
Ubuntu has proprietary services like Ubuntu one which cannot be made available for free.
The enterprise version is not necessarily the best version. Red Hat sponsors Fedora project for a audience of tech enthusiasts, developers, FOSS contributors and such. Red Hat offers a commercial product targets towards enteprise customers who value the specific and unique features like 7 to 10 year lifecycle, broad range of certifications and so on and do not mind paying for those commercial services.
If you want just the software for free, you are welcome to use a rebuild like CentOS or Scientific Linux
Unlike Canonical, Red Hat does not require you to sign a copyright license agreement and does not implement any proprietary services and makes available all contributions as free (as in freedom) and open source software. It also is keen on pushing changes upstream and thus benefiting everyone including Canonical. If you are a Ubuntu user, you are still using far more Red Hat code than anything from Canonical. Just remember these points while indulging in advocacy.
Why not go back to the mother ship Debian?
ReplyDeleteCharlie,
ReplyDeletewith all respect for the great work from the Debian people, I don't think it is sufficiently end-user oriented yet.
Just as an example, go to http://www.debian.org/ , and check how many steps and options you must take until you get to an the actual Debian .iso, compare it to http://fedoraproject.org/ or http://www.ubuntu.com/ for the same action.
I am not commenting this on a negative way, I understand that they really want people to understand what Debian is and how diverse it is before people actually install it, but I don't think it is an attractive approach for an end user.
@João:
ReplyDeleteIf you are motivated by governance issues, please take the time to also review the role of http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FESCo as the fully elected governance body primarily responsible for technical aspects.
I'm not going to tell you that the role of the Board and the role of FESCo as cleanly delineated. They are not. Just like how in the US federal branches of government will at times have a difference of opinion as to where the separation of duties and powers lie. Because some of the hardest issues span community culture as well as technical aspects both the Board and FESCo can and will interact on issues.
-jef
Oh dear... Have a luck! I've done the switch a couple months ago and switched back than for the one, but a HUGE reason: PPAs.
ReplyDeleteThere are so many already working ppas in ubuntu, that most of the day-to-day use software (like music player, firefox, chromium, etc...) are coverd. even huge projects like libreoffice, kde, xfce and etc. have their own ppas.
the Fedora analogue does not have a 1% off the goodies that ubuntu users have. it's a BIG fail of the Fedora, but most of the Fedora people just doesn't bother of this thing. I don't know why.
> go to http://www.debian.org/ , and check how
ReplyDelete> many steps and options you must take until you
> get to an the actual Debian .iso
Zero steps - the link is on the right upper corner of the page ;)
I was a Fedora user for years - until the time when I used several USB mobile internet sticks. I tried up to Fedora 12 if I remember right and could not get them to work.
ReplyDeleteAnother problem: Skype I often had sound problems.
Those two things and the fact, that there are more applications already packed for Debian-based distros, made me try Ubuntu and there everything worked fine. This was my reason to switch to Ubuntu. IMHO works better on laptops.