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They were not inspired to use the name "Fedora" from Cornell/Virginia's project. I'm pretty sure they actually took the name from the "other" Fedora Project, fedora.us which was an "extras" repository project to supplement RedHat 7-9, and recieved RedHat sponsorship in exchange for running the entire "home version" distro of RedHat instead of just supplementing it. This was so RedHat could themselves focus solely on Enterprise (pay) software. The Fedora.us project is now located at fedoraproject.org although they still maintain their old URL. Interestingly, this Fedora Project is also run by a university, Hawaii in this case. In all cases I'd say they're the "real" Fedora Project, and that Cornell/Virginia's choice of names was just unlucky.

Keep using yum, or install apt. For security and general updates, stick with up2date, or just use "yum upgrade". There are many many repositories out there with thoushands of applications. Just have to add a line to your yum.conf or apt sources. Here are a few of my favorites:
FreshRPMS
Dag
Livna
Fedora.us

Some repositories play nicer with each other then others, i.e. Livna is maintained to be compatible with the Fedora.us repo. Dag has a huge selection of applications, as does FreshRPMS. You should read each site and see which you think is best for you. Personally, your best and easiest bet is to just use the yum.conf provided by FedoraFAQ.org. You may want to uncomment some additional repositories, but if you leave it how it is, you should be fine. FedoraFAQ.org is also a good site for general Fedora information. If nothing else, go in #fedora on irc, everyone there is usuaully always friendly and willing to help.
Regards,
Steve

Debian and Gentoo have built software management policies right into their core system.

So does Fedora (and Red Hat). It's made me an apt fan. :)

Oh, for those who don't believe me, check out bug 1345 which I submitted on March 4. It was ignored until September 7, when it was deemed too old to bother with.

Don't get me wrong... I think Fedora is the best free distribution out there (RHEL being better due to marginally better support). But they really need to have a longer life-cycle if they want people to stick with it. And that primarily falls to the Legacy team, which just isn't cutting it.

If you are a MandrakeClub member then there has been access to a well packaged version of firefox throughout the 10.0 (the good news is that there is a recent version of firefox in Mandrake 10.1 contribs now). Feodra also had a well packaged version for it over at Fedora Extras. The moral is that if you break away from your distro specific packaging, expect problems...

There's the Fedora Legacy project that backports security fixes for RH9 and in the future also for old Fedora Core releases. There's already some testing packages for RH9 available in Bugzilla, once they're approved they'll be up on the RH9 advisories page. You should use yum to download and install the new packages, it's all explained on the website.

> touch pad (really, can't tap to click)

This seems to affect older laptops primarily and has been a relatively easy fix for most people. There has been plenty of list traffic about the Synaptic touchpad issues and a quick google will provide instructions if you need to download an RPM to get running. However, for my wife's HP omnibook XE2 which allowed tapping under FC1 but lost that function under default FC2, all I had to do was add psmouse.proto=imps to the kernel options in grub.conf. Some people have had to download a bios update for their buggy laptop bios.

> XFCE4 (incompatible with xorg?)

Hmm. No problems here. I am happy they included it in the distribution; it's fantastic interface for older pcs.

> wlan card (linuxant drivers)

I don't see how it's the Fedora dev team's responsibility to work out your problem here. You bought a card whose vendor doesn't want to support linux. Linuxant is providing a proprietary interface to that card using propietary Windows drivers, charging what I consider a reasonable fee for their efforts. If these were natively-supported wireless chipsets, you may have a case, but in this circumstance I think you should go to the Linxuant user lists, not indict Fedora for reaching "too far".

Anyway, Linuxant has an rpm for the standard Fedora Core 2 kernel included in the distribution. Are you using a custom kernel or are you running with a kernel from a third party repository? If so, did you try the source-based rpm? In Core 2 I have had no issues with the Linuxant driver for a Dell 1300 (broadcom), nor with recent cvs builds from the MadWifi project for Netgear/Atheros-based card.

I think if selinux had been enabled by default, that would have been reaching too far. I lost a lot of hair trying to get my head around selinux while running the release candidates. Otherwise, I think that Core 2 is a fine improvement over Core 1. Everything "feels faster" to me with the 2.6 kernel and I am really enjoying the direction Gnome is going. So are the several Windows users with older PCs who I have helped start running Fedora Core 2 instead of buying a new pc.

Don't forget to add fedora.us to your repository list for extra goodness.

On my FC2 system I use Synaptic. It's a GUI frontend to apt that will handle installing single packages, or upgrading your entire distro.

Just follow the instructions listed on the fedora.us site.

Samba is included, as is the new CIFs driver which replaces smbfs. What isn't included is the NTFS read-only driver module, which you can download as a binary RPM from linux-ntfs. As for the other stuff, I like to use the fedora.us + livna.org* repositories. There is also freshrpms, ATrpms, Dag Wieers, and Planet CCRMA. There are others, and be warned that Dag Wieers and Axel Thim (atrpms) are in a pissing match over Dag obsoleting at least one of Axel's packages for naming it "wrong". (look at the April acrhives of the freshrpms mailing list with some fresh popcorn).

* - The livna.org front page still says they are down and lists the mirror. The rpm.livna.org repo is actually back up, they just never bothered to update the main page to say so.

Bittorrent isn't part of Fedora Core, but *is* in Fedora Extras (a.k.a. fedora.us). This hasn't been completely integrated into the main Fedora project yet, but for now you can find it at http://www.fedora.us/.

1. Fedora was supposed to strike a different compromise between being stable and being up-to-date. It should come out frequently, try new and exciting features, and have the latest versions of everything.
2. The community was supposed to have more of a say in the overall direction. With RH Linux, the company decided which packages would be included in the main distribution and what the defaults would be. With Fedora US (and thus presumably RH Fedora) the users submit and check packages and decide overall direction.
   

You usually can get this from Dag or Fedora.us but they don't have packages ready yet

Initially I'd hoped to take advantage of the Fedora Legacy project, but they just don't seem serious. For example, one of their primary modes of distribution is via yum. They released packages for 7.2 and 7.3, but never for 8.0. I opened this bugzilla report on it nearly two months ago. They're just ignoring it. Hardly the response you want to see from someone you're trusting for security patches.... Maybe someone will mod this up enough that they'll take note.

As a side note, I'm keeping White Box Linux in the back of my mind as an option if FC2 flops. The legal issues are still a little disturbing, though.

apt is available for Fedora, though it isn't included in the install. You can download it from Fedora.us, which also has some instructions on configuring it. You might also want to consider using yum, which is included by default. yum's capabilities are very similar to apt's, including all the good stuff like automatically resolving and downloading dependencies, so it's definitely worth learning. I find that yum is good enough that the first thing I do when installing Fedora is to disable up2date.

FYI, SuSE produces Knoppix-like bootable CD called "SUSE LINUX for i386 Live-Eval". I revieved a copy via a magazine. It is kinda slow and not the best for using from the CD-ROM, but it provides a good intro and demo of SuSE Linux without having to install it to your hard drive.

Notes: I recommend that you try it if you have enough memory - 256MB isn't enough,but 512MB or 768MB should work well (since it has to be loaded into RAM with no HDD install). I perfer Fedora Core 1, but my advice should give you an easy way to try SuSE.

But the thing is that with Linux, you can always back out to Windows, which in this day and age, is just a fine choice. So if I'm gonna install Linux, then be presented with 13 web browsers, 3 desktops, and 5 office suites, I'm much more likely to throw up my hands and say "fuck it" and re-install windows, then to try to deciper everything in Linux.

I think you had the wrong approach when learning Linux. I just recently switched almost exclusively from Windows to Fedora Core 1, and it isn't that bad! You simply can't expect to learn how to do things the "UNIX" way in a day or two. It's just different enough from MS Windows to be confusing.

In contrast to a "cold-turkey" approach, I viewed my transition as learning a new skill. I read the first three or so chapters of few books, magazines, and TLDP tutorials before even installing the operating system. That way, I had a pretty good overview of the big picture. Things like the command line, shell scripts, and configuration .files weren't unexpected or scary. (Note: that dot is not a typo.) I knew about the limitations in hardware support by googling in advance for the documentation and user experiences. Thus many of the nuances and differences - like the unusual clipboard behavior - wasn't unexpected and allowed me to determine a fix or solution in advance. I understood Linux's inability to reliably write to NTFS partitions and planned my partitions accordingly. Then I partitioned, installed, and tried to break Fedora Core. I tried corrupting configuration .files and databases. I tried manually changing settings and installing hardware. I attempted uninstalling and reinstalling software. I played with dangerous uses of the root account and command-line tools (dd, rm, fdisk, etc...). I tried mixing parts of different desktop environments. I tested examples from my books and notes. In essence, I learned Linux before switching.

Granted there were a lot of things to learn, but I planned on a long transition period. The process never ends, but in about two months I learned a heck of a lot. At least it was enough to understand both the big picture and also the little details needed to accomplish routine tasks. Proper preparation was worth it too: I previously tried changing "cold-turkey" to Linux (over a year ago) and gave up after only two days!

There's a point to my previous three paragraphs other than to document another Linux switcher's success story. Instead of a confusing array of options, I looked at the 13 web browsers, 5 desktop, 3 office suits, 30 text editors and 101 dalmatians as a chance to evaluate my preferences with this new approach. There was time to try out each one and get a feel for their strengths and weaknesses. I previously had no preferences by definition - being new to Linux. This helped me settle in with Fedora Core and enjoy its benefits compared to MS Windows rather than be annoyed by its differences.

It's all about attitude and approach!

lcms is in Fedora Stable. No need to go for third party RPM's.

Yum doesn't seem to find it for some reason, though, weird.

Apt for Fedora Core 1.90 is available here.

It's all I use, and it works great (much better than yum or up2date did).

I have Fedora boxen unpatched simply because the patch system is fsck'd.

• http://www.muug.mb.ca/fedora-updates.html
• http://www.fedora.us/wiki/FedoraMirrorList
• http://fedora.artoo.net/faq/#FedoraYumRepos

apt-get isn't a good package management system?

I was thinking more along the lines of portage, but let's explore apt for Fedora...

Wowee. Four mirrors on this continent. Looks like this whole Fedora apt thing is really taking off.

Nah more like $49.94

Wow. They're giving the zero service box-pusher channel 50 points. The best deal Red Hat would give me direct was $89. Add trolling the CDWs of the world for price quotes to the annual Red Hat ownership ritual.

They said the "desktop was unatainable" wow I never got that memo, do you have a link?

yes.

You forgot Fedora.us, which is has more-or-less official addon packages.

Windows 98 = 8 years of support. I'd rather have 8 years of support for a buggy product than this.

In my experience, Windows 98, even with support from Microsoft, will consume a fair bit of effort just to keep functioning.

My unsupported RedHat 7.2 machines, on the other hand, are pretty much rock solid. The only thing that they really need now is the occasional security update, which you can get from Progency, or from Fedora Legacy, or you can roll your own. Rolling your own RPM isn't too hard, and in a lot of cases you can simply take the SRPM from Red Hat or Fedora and rebuild it for your system. Rolling your own updates for Windows isn't really an option, and Windows 98 would be such an unstable basis that I'd consider it a waste of effort.

No, because redhat is open source he does have an argument.

unofficial redhat patches nr. 1
unofficial redhat patches nr. 2

Now, where are those unofficial windows patches?

Fedora Legacy will be offering free updates for RedHat versions 7.3, 8.0 and 9.

The only reason I'd see to pay for support is when things break... Kind of like car insurance you can buy after an accident... hmm.

7.3's current kernel (released 8.20.2003) has a patch called "linux-2.4.18-mmap-sem-debug.patch" which appears to address this. Similar releases were made for the new RH Advanced 3.0 series on the same date. The only current RH release that did not have a release on this date was for the RH Advanced 2.1 series, which was just updated today. Sounds like it's been patched already. Don't forget RH's history of back-porting security patches so as not to release bugs. A grep of the SOURCES dir after installing kernel-2.4.20-20.7.src.rpm game the above file and 2 more results: linux-2.4.22-security.patch and linux-2.4.22-security-nptl.patch. Sounds like it's covered. Don't trust me. Check for yourself.

For those interested in keeping up with RH 7.3 next month (only one month left!): Look and help with Fedora Legacy

What's wrong with this one?

That's what the original Fedora project was working towards. Soon it will be known as the Fedora Extras repository.

Before a few days ago I never would have imagined that to install something has common as Mozilla-Firebird I'd have to go and find some website that offered an rpm...

Configure apt/yum to use the fedora.us repository, or just grab the RPM here.

That's what the original Fedora project was working towards. Soon it will be known as the Fedora Extras repository.

Before a few days ago I never would have imagined that to install something has common as Mozilla-Firebird I'd have to go and find some website that offered an rpm...

Configure apt/yum to use the fedora.us repository, or just grab the RPM here.

The last entry on the way back machine doesn't show that TM on the FEDORA Project site.

However, it does appear that they have been using the Fedora name longer than the original Fedora Linux Project, but not longer than Red Hat has been associated with the Fedora.

Founded December 2002 by University of Hawaii Computer Science student Warren Togami, the previous Fedora Linux Project is an international team of volunteer software developers united for the development of high quality 3rd party RPM packages for the Red Hat Linux platform.

Look, this is just one troll feeding off another troll's (OSNews') hot air. Have Fedora on my laptop (only PC I could spare) and it's a 3150H Averatec, at that! Conclusion?

Fedora just rocks!

Here's a hint for newbs: Install EVERYTHING. Yes, I know, it's over 5Gb, but who cares, these days? You will not have anything missing ;-) and no dependencies to worry about. My Canon A70 just worked right out of the chute through USB, etc.

Next step, go get Synaptic

Frankly I have great hopes for Fedora. I had a growing number of misgivings about RedHat and their current direction; I think freeing up a group that's more geek-oriented and less PHB-oriented is the right move.

http://fedora.artoo.net/faq/

Q: Where can I get software for Fedora?
A: There are a few "repositories" (sites that hold software). The primary sites are the highly unofficial rpm.livna.org (for packages with questionable licenses) and the more official Fedora Project Repository. They hold different software.

If you want to use the (illegal in the US if you don't have a license) mp3 decoders, add the livna source to yum.conf and install xmms-mp3 or whichever package you're looking for.

b) Why is she using apt and synaptic? They don't even come with Fedora.

uh, yes it does.

What's the advantage of freshrpms over Fedora's apt utilities and apt repository?

http://www.fedora.us/wiki/FedoraHOWTO

Apparently the new up2date also supports apt repositories.

Check out this for more details.

There's also a lot of extras at Freshrpms (although not updated for Yarrow yet).

It will be a cold day in hell before I ever use Red Hat again, for enterprise or anything else. They have betrayed their base and mendaciously and cynically undermined Linux to justify this shame faced betrayal.

I have a different perspective, I think the opening up of the development of the Red Hat disto via the Fedora Project is a good thing.

The exchange value of a Fedora CD set (or any other Linux distro) is basically the cost of producing and shipping them, there is some money to be made there but not much.

I think this is why Red Hat are concentrating on selling services to businesses.

Fedora is called Fedora in part because of the merger with the Fedora Linux Project, a group who were producing 3rd party RPMs for machines running Red Hat and also to enable the free as in free beer distribution to be reproduced en mass by anyone without having the hassle of removing the Red Hat logo before burning the ISOs.

However Red Hat could do what Mozilla does, sell cheap Mozilla CDs or what OpenOffice.org does, link to people selling OpenOffice.org CDs. After all Red Hat still sells hats, stickers, t-shirts and posters!

I have been lurking and sometimes reading mail on the new Fedora lists and lots of cool stuff has been happening, PPC ports, offers to help on internationalisation, the inclusion of more packages, support for other updaters like apt and yum and even a legacy project to support old Red Hat versions is being started.

What is essentially happening here is that the free software mode of production is asserting its nature and getting more into the driving seat -- free software works best when it is developed in an open and free manner.

The free desktop version is no longer being only developed by Red Hat. It is now a COMMUNITY project that anyone can get involved in. The first release is due out soon named Fedora Core 1. Fedora was a project that provided high quality third party RPM's to the Red Hat community. Red Hat has joined forces with Fedora and now this will be the community version. Infact, Red Hat Enterprise Linux will be based on Fedora Core.

The original Fedora project is here and the new Red Hat/Fedora project is here

I have been using Fedora Core 1 test 3 for a while now and it is really great. The up2date client can now get updates from apt and yum repositories and makes it even easier to get third party products into your Red Hat/Fedora desktop. The release of Fedora Core 1 should be out soon. Go to Fedora and get on one of their meailing lists, they are very active and it will give you a much better idea of what is REALLy going on.

The only real difference now is that if you want paid support, you will have to use one of the Red Hat Enterprise versions since Fedora Core will be community supported.

The free desktop version is no longer being only developed by Red Hat. It is now a COMMUNITY project that anyone can get involved in. The first release is due out soon named Fedora Core 1. Fedora was a project that provided high quality third party RPM's to the Red Hat community. Red Hat has joined forces with Fedora and now this will be the community version. Infact, Red Hat Enterprise Linux will be based on Fedora Core.

The original Fedora project is here and the new Red Hat/Fedora project is here

I have been using Fedora Core 1 test 3 for a while now and it is really great. The up2date client can now get updates from apt and yum repositories and makes it even easier to get third party products into your Red Hat/Fedora desktop. The release of Fedora Core 1 should be out soon. Go to Fedora and get on one of their meailing lists, they are very active and it will give you a much better idea of what is REALLy going on.

The only real difference now is that if you want paid support, you will have to use one of the Red Hat Enterprise versions since Fedora Core will be community supported.

First of all you don't have to use up2date to update or install software. Use yum instead which is what I do for several redhat boxes and soon fedora ones. Which brings me to the other point, just because redhat is dropping support for their free version doesn't mean there isn't going to be a free one for you to use. Read http://fedora.redhat.com

Lastly you don't need to waste time "looking for security updates for hundreds of packages" just subscribe to redhat's security errata mailing list instead.

This merger necessitates the removal of certain problematic packages due to licensing issues.

both debian and redhat have their advantages. I run both redhat 9 and debian unstable at home and am highly satisfied with each of them.

<aol>me too!</aol> Choice is one of the greatest things OSS has given us. I love to embrace it.

personally, I have abandoned up2date/RHN in favor of apt-rpm.

I also use apt (or increasinly yum - which is the same kind of thing for those who haven't come across it). RedHat's base distro plus stuff from Fedora and the like and I'm set. It's worth pointing out that yum will be included in the next RedHat release (not sure about apt), with hooks into it from up2date!

they're different distributions with different purposes & I'd say each is the best in its class. kudos for a great 2nd quarter!

Seconded (to all of the above). There are [different] things I love and hate about each of RedHat and Debian, but they both do excellent jobs. I hope they both continue to be successful and improve.

The binaries available on the MPLayer site are pretty ancient - for Red Hat 7..x. If you're using Red Hat, you'll find the download sites / yum repositories / apt repositories at FreshRPMs or Fedora.

This could be good and bad..
Good:
This means less workload for RedHat, and would allow for packages to be maintained and updated more often then RedHat currently does, as mentioned in the Article. (You did read the article didn't you?)
Bad:
However, this means that more people are going to be creating packages and better documentation of how to correctly make a package need to be written and the developers need to be "trained" to make good packages with good dependencies. Fedora is ,however, acomplishing this task, so hopefully RedHAt will pick up on all the work they've done..

Nope, and we probably won't see anything official from Red Hat in this case. I'm sure that projects like Fedora and FreshRPMs will provide everything necessary, just as they have for 8.0.
Hint:
# apt-get install xmms-mp3