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Fedora Core 4 Available

Limburgher writes "As of a few minutes ago, the torrents listed at duke went live. Nothing on the main site yet, however. The more people get on the torrents, the faster they will be. You all know the drill." Update: 06/13 19:07 GMT by T : Also in Red Hat-related news, halfbyte_hosting writes "CentOS 4.1 is now on the mirrors and ready for download."

53 of 550 comments (clear)

  1. Fedora Core 4 is great... by coop0030 · · Score: 5, Informative

    I actually just did a new dual-boot install of Fedora Core 4, and Windows XP, and found Fedora Core 4 (the beta is the one I installed this past weekend) about 10 times easier to install than Windows XP. It was incredibly easier to configure after the installation, also.

    Here is that commentary about my process (I am a first-time user of Linux):
    http://www.mygadgetbag.com/MGBCommentary/tabid/183 /ctl/ArticleView/mid/575/articleId/319/Dualbooting WindowsXPandLinux.aspx

    Also, for anyone wondering, here is a link to the newest updates that are in Fedora Core 4:
    http://fedora.redhat.com/docs/release-notes/fc4/#s n-new-in-fc

    I am very happy with Fedora Core 4 (beta) after using it for a few days. The only thing I am having trouble with is connecting to the Yum repositories, as described on the Fedora FAQ.

    The main Fedora site is updated now, also!

    1. Re:Fedora Core 4 is great... by LDoggg_ · · Score: 4, Informative

      I don't know . . . I think I still prefer my linux from a non commercial entity that isn't just throwing me bits and pieces to test as a guinea-pig for their corporate product.

      Bits and pieces to test?
      Nice troll, the distro has been solid and getting better each release.

      I haven't used RedHat since 1997, but after the whole "enterprise" thing followed by the "fedora" program, I don't think I ever will.

      Well, since you havent used it since 1997, you have no idea what you are talking about.
      You're missing out, I HAVE been using it since 1997. With the exception of a few releases (redhat 6.0 ,7.0,7.1) its been a great distro. I haven't had any problems with the fedora core releases. I was a little upset that FC3 had a few packages removed, but they made it back into FC4

      --

      "If they have both, tell them we use Linux. And if they have that, tell them the computers are down." -Dave Chapelle
    2. Re:Fedora Core 4 is great... by shaitand · · Score: 2, Informative

      Just a note, a glance shows you have a dual boot for WoW. WoW runs flawlessly under Point2Play http://www.transgaming.com/

      Be sure to read the forums. The game will run fine using DirectX emulation, but OpenGL mode is much faster. Using OpenGL mode I get faster framerates than I do on a XP pro system using the same settings and hardware. YMMV.

    3. Re:Fedora Core 4 is great... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

      Well unless you consider SATA to be specialized hardware, Fedora handles it with no problem...with XP you need a driver disk for the SATA controller to even start the install. This was even using a disc slipstreamed with SP2.

    4. Re:Fedora Core 4 is great... by EvilStein · · Score: 4, Informative

      Yeah, I installed Windows and I got support for my RAID card.

      Tried installing Fedora Core 3 and got absolutely nothing, because apparantly the drivers for the very common MegaRAID Enterprise 1500 card were yanked.
      I'm lucky that I wasn't one of the many people that did a kernel upgrade from RHN/RPM repositories to find out that the box would't boot after a reboot.. :(

      Point is, hardware issues affect any operating system. Fedora isn't a magical OS that just works on everything. :)

    5. Re:Fedora Core 4 is great... by Chirs · · Score: 3, Informative

      Actually, I *own* systems where windows needs special motherboard drivers, but linux just autodetects.

      As the original poster said, you can't download up-to-date WinXP isos. FC4 will have support for newer hardware then a WinXP cdrom.

      Note that there are still classes of hardware (laptops in particular) where linux falls short, mainly due to a lack of documentation. This is however improving.

    6. Re:Fedora Core 4 is great... by SatanicPuppy · · Score: 3, Informative

      Meh. XP is old as hell now. New motherboard, new graphics card, new sound card...All these things will require downloaded drivers. And some hardware doesn't bundle its drivers with windows for whatever stupid reason.

      I also hate how windows update forces reboots after every download it considers major. Really slows things down, and doesn't continue automatically after the reboot with the other stuff you need to download.

      Then there is all the stupid free crap that ought to be included, but isn't. Winzip, Acrobat, putty, winamp, AIM, Cygwin & Firefox (heh heh).

      Then comes all the paid stuff. And all of that has to be updated. Total pain in the ass.

      --
      ad logicam Claiming a proposition is false because it was presented as the conclusion of a fallacious argument.
    7. Re:Fedora Core 4 is great... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative
      So you didn't have that ridiculous boot sector problem that came with FC3?


      That problem was only an issue for people who dual boot. Those of us who don't dual boot never saw it.

      Not to mention that, unlike Fedora which had a single release with a boot loading problem, every release of Windows has a "ridiculous boot sector problem:" They over-fucking-write the boot sector, without asking permission!
    8. Re:Fedora Core 4 is great... by FauxPasIII · · Score: 4, Informative

      > oh come on, now you're just trolling....

      Likewise.

      > nothing has ever come close to XP in regards to device drivers,
      > NOTHING. And to compare that to ANY linux OS is ridiculous.

      Whatever you say. In my laptop bag I am carrying a USB floppy that does NOT work in Windows XP at all (the only driver
      the manufacturer ever released for it was for Win98 and doesn't work.) I have a PCMCIA DVD-ROM that required a hard-
      to-find driver to work in Windows from expnet.com. I have a compact flash bluetooth radio from belkin that doesn't work in
      any Windows OS and NEVER WILL (only available drivers for download are for WinCE/PocketPC and PalmOS.)

      All of these devices _just work_ in Linux.

      --
      25% Funny, 25% Insightful, 25% Informative, 25% Troll
    9. Re:Fedora Core 4 is great... by DaveAtFraud · · Score: 1, Informative

      The yum repositories for Fedora Development got hosed up during the delay for the release of FC4. As I understand it, the repositories for FC4testX point to the Fedora development repositories. When the release of FC4 got delayed (lawyer trouble, not technical), development stuff for FC5 started hitting these same repositories. Installing FC4 final should get you pointed to a Fedora 4 update repository.

      I just ran into the same problem trying to do a re-install and finally gave up until FC4 final is out. Way to many dependency problems to try to fight through when the real thing is out now. There is some traffic on the fedora-test-list that indicates that some people are having trouble getting the final to install. I'll know more when I get home from work.

      --
      They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither safety nor liberty.
      Ben
    10. Re:Fedora Core 4 is great... by Anonymous+Custard · · Score: 2, Informative
      >No, it's the latest Fedora distro and the latest OS from Microsoft. Please understand the difference.

      I do understand. That's why I tried to include other MS products.

      But here's a revision: "It's perfectly reasonable to compare the two, since they are the latest consumer desktop solutions offerings from Fedora and Microsoft." In any case, they're competing products for the title of "What's the first thing you install on a newly built computer to start using it."

      If you're talking about how easy it is to execute and get through the Win XP setup program vs. how easy it is to execute and get through the Fedora setup program, then, even disregarding the fact that a clean and updated Win XP install is much less complete than a clean and updated Fedora install, Fedora's still easier in that it has a fully graphical UI for the install program, unlike windows which uses command line stuff for partition and EULA.

      As for the monopoly claim...

      http://archive.salon.com/tech/feature/2000/04/03/m icrosoft_ruling/

      Specifically, Jackson determined that Microsoft violated the Sherman Antitrust Act by unlawfully "tying" its Web browser to its operating system, and by a series of other anti-competitive acts that included foregoing millions of dollars in revenue through its practice of giving away the browser for free, and applying extreme pressure on Internet service providers and hardware retailers. Jackson also declared that Microsoft's creation of a version of the Java programming language incompatible with Sun Microsystems' Java fit into the same pattern of abusive practices.

      >bitching about Microsoft shipping Windows with even basic utility software

      Bundling Firefox with a distro is not the same as integrating IE into Windows. You can un-check the Firefox box when installing Fedora. You can't uninstall Internet Explorer from Windows.

      For the real details on MS's OS/Browser monopoly actions, read http://www.usdoj.gov/atr/cases/f3800/msjudgex.htm# v , especially paragraphs 90, 91, and 92, and http://www.usdoj.gov/atr/cases/f3800/msjudgex.htm# vf.
      As its internal contemporaneous documents and licensing practices reveal, Microsoft decided to bind Internet Explorer to Windows in order to prevent Navigator from weakening the applications barrier to entry, rather than for any pro-competitive purpose.
    11. Re:Fedora Core 4 is great... by Colmao · · Score: 2, Informative
      Michael Dell just invested $100 million into Red Hat
      Small correction: Michael Dell didn't invest 100 million into Redhat; he bought 100 million worth of debt from RedHat. The difference being that he expects RedHat to be financially sound enough to pay back his loan and the interest accumulated from it.

      Rather than buying 100 million worth of RedHat stock which would mean, he has faith / believes / or wants to eventually buy out RedHat because he believes this company can grow and create wealth. You have a good argument Steve, this doesn't detract from it much.

    12. Re:Fedora Core 4 is great... by afabbro · · Score: 2, Informative
      Red Hat is the lowest price point in the server market, even compared to Novell. This is why Microsoft tries to argue facts based on TCO, they can't compete with Red Hat's low pricing and they know it.

      Sorry, but this just isn't true. We recently costed out some 4-CPU servers running x86. In both cases, Microsoft was cheaper over five years. Granted, we're a Fortune 500 company with large Unix and Windows support groups, so that part was not factored into the equation...but head-to-head on the same hardware, Windows was cheaper. RedHat ES is $800 PER YEAR forever...Windows is a larger cost up front (around $1200 I think) and then some percentage after that (15% or so).

      RedHat Enterprise is simply not price-competitive at the low end.

      (Yes, I said price-competitive...as always, there are other factors).

      --
      Advice: on VPS providers
  2. I beat the Slashdot effect by Nighttime · · Score: 5, Informative

    Managed to snarf a copy over the weekend from an unsecured official mirror. Four CDs, each about 630MB.

    Installed it onto my ThinkPad T23, 733MHz/1.13GHz with 512MB RAM. Familiar graphical installation procedure, auto-detected everything in my laptop. Didn't expect it not to, as previous Fedora Core releases did so. When setting up the soundcard though, couldn't hear the test sounds but booting into KDE produced the familiar jingle. SELinux option during installation is Enabled or Disabled, no halfway house as in FC3. Compiling with GCC4.0 has made a noticeable speed difference, especially in KDE 3.4. Start-up time seemed quicker as well.

    As always, read the release notes. They have taken the decision to move some stuff off into the Fedora Extras project. XMMS was the main one I noticed. And yes, this being Red Hat-influenced, there is no support for MP3 or DVD playback straight off the installation discs.

    If you have a Matrox-based card that requires you to use the Matrox-sourced mga_hal module, you're not going to have much luck configuring X until they release a new version for X.org 6.8.2. I get lovely vertical bars every 1cm on my TFTs using a G550 DVI.

    --
    I've got a fever and the only prescription is more COBOL.
    1. Re:I beat the Slashdot effect by MSG · · Score: 2, Informative

      SELinux option during installation is Enabled or Disabled, no halfway house as in FC3.

      I believe that they've stopped offering the strict policy, so "on" would be the targeted policy that was offered in FC3.

  3. Release Notes by WombatControl · · Score: 4, Informative

    The release notes are here. Major changes include:

    • GNOME 2.10
    • KDE 3.4
    • OpenOffice 2
    • Xen Virtualization
    • PowerPC Support
    1. Re:Release Notes by AKAImBatman · · Score: 4, Informative

      To anyone thinking of downloading this, be warned that these are bleeding edge features! Fedora is the first place they often get tested, and they don't always fit together smoothly. Not to mention that many individual features are not out of Beta testing! So only use this distro if you don't mind getting burned a little bit!

      Otherwise it can be a great way to understand what is coming down the pipe. :-)

      P.S. Parent poster forgot about GCC 4.0. That's a MAJOR feature itself, but also one of easiest to get burned by.

    2. Re:Release Notes by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      There is no OpenOffice 2, it must be a beta 1.99 or something.

    3. Re:Release Notes by Nailer · · Score: 5, Informative
      Fedora is the first place they often get tested

      Er, no.

      Rawhide is where things first get tested.

      After that, Fedora Core 4 beta 1

      After that, Fedora Core 4 beta 2

      After that, Fedora Core 4 beta 3

      After that, Fedora Core 4 beta 4

      After that, Fedora Core 4

      After that, Red hat Enterprise Linux.

      Fedora works. It has a lot of texting. Report a bug, and someone will fix it. That someone probably works for Red Hat.

      RHEL works too. And it's a lot more conservative - which yes, probably means it's a little more reliable, but doesn't mean FC is unreliable or a beta test. See bullet points above. Stability is a yes no thing, it's a more or less thing.

      People don't buy RHEl cause FC is unstable. They buy RHEL so they can install a box this year and get 24/7 support, and training, and not have to upgrade, till 2011.

  4. the mirrors are populated long time ago... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

    http://ftp-stud.fht-esslingen.de/pub/Mirrors/fedor a.redhat.com/linux/core/4/i386/iso/>
    http://ftp-stud.fht-esslingen.de/pub/Mirrors/fedor a.redhat.com/linux/core/4/i386/iso/
    http://ftp-stud.fht-esslingen.de/pub/Mirrors/fedor a.redhat.com/linux/core/4/i386/iso/

    http://download.fedora.redhat.com/pub/fedora/lin ux /core/4/>
    http://download.fedora.redhat.com/pub/fedora/linux /core/4/
    http://download.fedora.redhat.com/pub/fedora/linux /core/4/

    ftp://ftp.tu-chemnitz.de/pub/linux/fedora-core/4/
    ftp://ftp.tu-chemnitz.de/pub/linux/fedora-core/4 />
    ftp://ftp.tu-chemnitz.de/pub/linux/fedora-core/4/

    and many more....

    dont wait for shitty slashdot to report on old news.

    cuz nothin is older than the news of yesterday/yesterhour/yesterminute...

  5. Main Site News by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    Its on the main site now. They must have waited for /. to post it then they could make it official.

    Thanks slashdot!

    1. Re:Main Site News by m85476585 · · Score: 3, Informative

      It was on the main site a few hours before it was on Slashdot. You just had to push refresh.

  6. Installed it already... ;) by prefect42 · · Score: 2, Informative

    The installer couldn't cope with installing into an existing LVM VG which is a shame.

    Switching from init 1 to init 5 requested the root password which was novel. I'll have to track down what that's all about.

    --

    jh

  7. mirrors.kernel.org by hpa · · Score: 2, Informative

    C'mon guys... mirrors.kernel.org is only pumping 1100 Mbit/s so far... plenty of bandwidth to spare :)

    http://mirrors.kernel.org/fedora/core/4/
    ftp://mirrors.kernel.org/fedora/core/4/
    rsync://mirrors.kernel.org/fedora/core/4/

    1. Re:mirrors.kernel.org by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

      how about http://mirrors.playboy.com/? Finally all that pr0n bandwidth used for something :)

  8. Re:Upgrade path by bflong · · Score: 5, Informative

    In short, no.
    There is not even a supported way to upgrade from FC3 to FC4, or even from a FC4 test release. The reason being explained to me was that testing all that upgrading would greatly slow down the release process. Personaly, I'd rather have to wait another month or two for a release then have to fresh install. It's not as big a deal as it is with windows though, since all the user settings are in /home and easy to back up and restore. But for those running servers on FC, ouch.

    --
    Why is it so hot? Where am I going? What am I doing in this handbasket?
  9. Re:Linux Trademarked? by SolusSD · · Score: 2, Informative

    no, because its a trademark (tm), not a patent.

  10. Re:Upgrade path by presarioD · · Score: 2, Informative

    I am not sure what you mean by easy. I upgraded last year or so from RH9 to FC2 using 'yum upgrade' and it went smoothly. I still had to do some cleanup by myself since the upgrade is not aggressive and does not change all of the gazillions of .conf files but that was smooth as well.

    My humble suggestion is *not* to upgrade though unless you have too. In a few months FC4 will be obsolete and FC5 will be out and so on and so forth. A recent kernel upgrade that I did (2.6.10-1-771_FC2) broke the ACPI interface on my laptop, so sometimes living on the bleeding edge can be tiresome, especially with your production PCs!

    --
    Yam, yam, uga booga, yam, yam, yade, yade, uga booga, yam, yam, yade, yade
  11. pre-emptive apt vs rpm rebuttal by pyros · · Score: 3, Informative
    You can't compare apt and rpm (command line tools). These are the only comparisons which are valid
    • command line dependency trackers - apt vs up2date/apt/yum
    • binary package formats - RPM vs DEB
    • command line single package management tools - rpm vs dpkg

    If you make any comparisons which cross the above boundaries, you are either trolling or have a fundamental misunderstanding of what you are discussing and should reald up before posting.
  12. Try OpenSolaris. by Martin+Marvinski · · Score: 4, Informative

    OpenSolaris is coming out at the end of June. OpenSolaris is basically Solaris 10 in source code form. The license is the CDDL which is basically the Mozilla Public License with restrictions removed .

    http://www.opensolaris.org/faq/licensing_faq.html

    Anyone can create an OpenSolaris distro, in fact the guy who created cdrecord for linux (Joerg Schilling) is creating one called SchilliX.

    http://schillix.berlios.de/

    The great thing about OpenSolaris is that it is the opensourcing of Solaris 10 which means it has all the features and stability of that Operating system. It also has features that Fedora Core or linux don't have.

    An example is DTrace. With DTrace, one can specify sensors in Solaris 10 and monitor everything. Even user programs.

    You also have Zones in OpenSolaris which are like BSD jails, but are easier to maintain and create. Linux has user mode linux, but that is cumbersome compared to Zones.

    SMF in OpenSolaris is questionable in benefit, but it allows services to be restarted automatically if they fail. Not something I'm interested in, but some people may like it.

    But if you are unhappy with the bleeding edge of Fedora Core, give OpenSolaris a look when it comes out later this month.

  13. Re:Linux Trademarked? by hpa · · Score: 3, Informative

    The USPTO registration number is 1916230.
    http://tarr.uspto.gov/servlet/tarr?regser=registra tion&entry=1916230&action=Request+Status

    (Note: the mentioned William Della Croce is someone who fraudulently attempted to register Linux as a trademark; he got sued and transferred the trademark to Linus as part of settling the lawsuit.)

    Typed Drawing
    Word Mark LINUX
    Goods and Services IC 009. US 021 023 026 036 038. G & S: computer operating system software to facilitate computer use and operation. FIRST USE: 19940802. FIRST USE IN COMMERCE: 19940802
    Mark Drawing Code (1) TYPED DRAWING
    Serial Number 74560867
    Filing Date August 15, 1994
    Current Filing Basis 1A
    Original Filing Basis 1A
    Published for Opposition June 13, 1995
    Change In Registration CHANGE IN REGISTRATION HAS OCCURRED
    Registration Number 1916230
    Registration Date September 5, 1995
    Owner (REGISTRANT) Croce, William R. Della, Jr. INDIVIDUAL UNITED STATES 33 Snow Hill St. Boston MASSACHUSETTS 02113

    (LAST LISTED OWNER) TORVALDS, LINUS INDIVIDUAL Assignee of FINLAND 5774 CANNES PLACE SAN JOSE CALIFORNIA 95138
    Assignment Recorded ASSIGNMENT RECORDED
    Attorney of Record ROBERT T. DAUNT
    Type of Mark TRADEMARK
    Register PRINCIPAL
    Affidavit Text SECT 15. SECT 8 (6-YR).
    Live/Dead Indicator LIVE

  14. FC4 rocks by Nailer · · Score: 4, Informative

    I've been running FC4 (actually Rawhide, the equivalent of Debian unstable) on a Mac mini / Hitachi PJXT100 (yes, my computer is 16cm, my screen is 4m) for a few months here. Bluetooth Apple mouse and keyboard too. A pretty weird hardware setup. Everything works reliably.

    In particular, OpenOffice 2 rocks. In FC it comes as individual packages for each app - ie, I get by with openoffice-core, openoffice-writer, and the English language package. In Ubuntu, I have to install and, worse, update a few massive packages.

    Gnome does cool stuff. Like never stealing focus. An app wants focus, it pulses in the task bar. As it should be.

    Extras now works well, it's easy to get a package into Fedora and there's a lot of useful stuff available. The days of having to go to freshrpms and dag wieers to find your app are numbered - FC4, FC Extras, and Livna for the patented stuff will satisfy most people. Other distros never had this problem, but other distros still don't have decent config tools, and other distros don't install menu items when they install GUI apps. Yes, this means you Debian.

    There's a non-poo directory server that has proper ACL support (unlike OpenLDAP, where they were kept outside the directory), multimaster replication. etc as part of the distro. Combine it with JXplorer and you've got a decent Open Source LDAP server.

    Off topic: once installed, OOo 2 is the first version I'd say would be on par with MS Office. The toolbars are decent - they no longer take up an entire row, and can be edited and docked together at will, like you damn well expect. Spell check can count selections. Floating docks becomes sidebars. And, surprisingly, it can work with MS Offices proprietary XML files. All the usual OOo features are still there

    Other nice things about recent Fedoras:

    FC3 and newer: Partitioning uses LVM by default. Online resizing is supported. Ext3 has signficant speed improvements, bechmarks favorably against Reiser, and unlike Reiser, works properly with SELinux.

    FC3 but expanded in FC4: SELinux is enabled by default. For example, Apache is prevented from reading files who don't have the 'web content' context, and cgi scripts can't access particular device files without the right context either. If someone breaks into apachge, the chances of them going further than breasking into your web site are limited.

    One note: while yum is getting better, I don't use it. Instead, I use Smart Package Manager. A command line and GUI tool from the author of apt-rpm and Synaptic, that replaes both those tools, and works with Yum metadata repositories. It's faster (downloads in parallel from each source), has a better GUI, and simpler error messages than yum and apt (no 'but version foo will be installed'-without-any-explanation type stuff).

  15. Ask and though shalt receive! by Danathar · · Score: 2, Informative

    Magnet URI for Azeurus if you don't want to actually download the torrent file....FC4 i386 binary

    magnet:?xt=urn:btih:3QYOKFWIML7MWVELF36AWWW3VTVL DW 32

  16. Re:Now that Debian's back in the game.... by LnxAddct · · Score: 4, Informative

    Nice troll, RedHat didn't leave it. Infact every core engineer is paid for by RedHat. RedHat simply let the decision making process become a little more open. Fedora is not unstable, where as Debian unstable used to break on me monthly. Fedora is highly integrated and easy to use. The same devs working on Fedora are usually the same devs doing the majority of kernel development, Gnome development, Apache, OpenOffice, etc... so things tend to work real nice together. This latest release only goes to show moreso how great it is working out. RedHat however did not just let them go, Fedora is a huge part of their enterprise offering, RedHat still fully backs Fedora.
    Regards,
    Steve

  17. Extras by Mr_Icon · · Score: 4, Informative

    Something that's not mentioned -- this is the first release of Fedora Core with the "Extras" repository enabled by default. Fedora Extras is a volunteer packaging project of various software not in Core, and is currently providing additional 1,000 packages ready to install just by running "yum install foo."

    If you don't see your favorite package in Extras, you can always become a contributor yourself.

    --
    If you open yourself to the foo, You and foo become one.
  18. Re:Desktop Linux users, don't bother with Fedora by poofyhairguy82 · · Score: 3, Informative

    Now this isn't really fair. I'm like Mr. Ubuntu, but I admit that Fedora has some neat things that Ubuntu lacks currently. Xen, SE Linux, a graphical installer, a Usplash, among other things. Fedora is a good distro and does a good job of hammering out the most bleeding edge stuff before anyone else has too...

  19. Re:Upgrade path by miffo.swe · · Score: 2, Informative

    If your cheap go for Centos or Debian and if you like paid support RHEL isnt expensive compared to a Windows box with supplemental support. Basically if you want to setup a server and forget it make sure to choose a distribution with a long life expectancy.

    That said most configs is easily migrated unless you have been compiling your own brew and have messed around with loads of configs.

    --
    HTTP/1.1 400
  20. Re:Tracker busted. by ratpack91 · · Score: 2, Informative

    oops that should have been magnet:?xt=urn:btih:Q6VZB4EKHWWO7ZU3PYG6CXMI4ID67X G4

  21. Re:Now that Debian's back in the game.... by alue · · Score: 3, Informative
    See here and here.

    Debian and Fedora are different distros w/different purposes. Fedora releases twice a year w/the latest and greatest, while Debian releases far less frequently w/a selection of old moldy stable tested proven software. Whereas Fedora brings the bleeding edge to just a handful of the most popular platforms w/o providing a convenient upgrade path, Debian makes itself available to both more platforms than any other distro and a systematic manageable way to upgrade to future releases. I may as well say this more clearly:

    Fedora
    • released every 6 months
    • latest software
    • supports few mainstream platforms
    • no feasible upgrade path


    Debian
    • years b/w release
    • old stable software
    • supports several platforms
    • well-designed upgrade system


    If you're looking for a desktop distro, Fedora would be an excellent choice. If you're running a server on the other hand, Debian would be the obvious choice.
  22. Re:Upgrade path by Tim+C · · Score: 2, Informative

    Well, under a modern Windows OS all the user-specific settings *should* be in C:\Documents and Settings\, which is just as easy to back up and restore. You can also change that to put it on a different partition (or even a network share, etc) if your Windows-fu is up to it.

    That said though, none of the system-wide settings are in there (but then none of the system-wide stuff is in /home on Linux, of course) and a lot of apps (especially older ones) use the registry for all sorts of things that they shouldn't.

  23. Re:Upgrade path by erroneus · · Score: 2, Informative

    I almost always just do a fresh install. If there's data I want to save, I back it up. With very few exceptions, this has always been the best approach for me. I haven't always found that upgrading packages worked flawlessly every time and in many cases, there is a new way of doing things that you may be missing out on if you run an upgrade. For example, the upgrade will not upgrade you to LVM2 if you aren't already using it. So if you want those features, that's about the only way to get it if you're previously on a previous partitioning scheme. ...even if you are doing an upgrade, it's always a good idea to back up your data first anyway.

  24. Re:Now that Debian's back in the game.... by eldacan · · Score: 2, Informative

    Although Fedora is officially independent, RedHat still contributes heavily to its developement.

    Anyway I don't understand your Debian vs. Fedora view. What about Ubuntu, for example?

  25. Fedora Core 4 Review by SilentBob4 · · Score: 5, Informative

    Mad Penguin published a "progress" review of FC4 not too long ago and it was a pretty good read.

  26. Re:Upgrade path by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    Sorry, but no. Upgrades from any FC release to any newer FC release are supported. Upgrades from any RHL release (well, since RHL 3.0.3) to any newer FC release are supported

    What's not supported is upgrades from tests (like FC4 test3) to stable releases (like FC4). That's it. Tests are not meant for use on production machines, or non-production machines by those who don't want to deal with the pain of actually, you know, testing stuff

  27. Re:Pardon me, why use fedora? by ehaggis · · Score: 2, Informative

    The latest release for WBEL4 was in May 2005. It is the equivalent of RHEL4.

    CentOS also looks like a good alternative.
    --
    One ring to bind them - should probably have more fiber and less rings in their diet.
  28. Re:Upgrade path by mattdm · · Score: 4, Informative

    There is not even a supported way to upgrade from FC3 to FC4, or even from a FC4 test release.

    That's not true at all. Upgrading from release to release is completely supported -- not in the "call Red Hat and they'll help you" sense, but in the "designed to work and if doesn't it will get fixed" sense.

    Upgrading from test releases to final releases isn't supported (sometimes last-minute back-outs of dead end ideas makes that hard) but generally works.

    And live update of a running FC3 system to FC4 via yum isn't officially supported, but also generally works just fine.

  29. Re:Best slashdot ever by EggMan2000 · · Score: 2, Informative

    My rates have increased. I went ahead and upped my u/l rate to 100KB/s my d/l rate is now up to around 80KB/s. I will let mine seed for a few hours as well. (Probably all night) I should be done in about 18 hours I estimate...

    --
    what? what I thought we were in the trust tree in the nest, were we not?
  30. Re:What about multimedia? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    I know about patent problems, but ...

    Bu... Bu... But what?
    Then you know why you can't play eg. MP3s out of the box.
    You also know that it's a piece of cake to get support for MP3, video players and whatever from places like eg. FreshRPMs.

    Since I download the distro itself and don't buy it on a CD/DVD, it's no problem for me personally to also download the 3rd party apps and media support I need.

    I'm not that fond of the Fedora "GPL or bust" policy, but it's not an obstacle for me.

  31. Re:Upgrade path by mattdm · · Score: 2, Informative

    If you have backups already, the HOWTO goes basically like this: boot from install CD, choose "upgrade", hit "next" a couple of times, done. I don't think there's really any other big precautions. If you have any weird packages installed from fringe 3rd-party repositories, you may want to uninstall them first, but all of the reputable ones shouldn't cause any trouble.

  32. Re:What's the difference of posted ISOs? by Jaelle+Kitty · · Score: 2, Informative

    The one with "SRPMS" in the name is a source CD; the other is an installation CD with binaries.

    ~ Jaelle Kitty ~

    "It is important that students bring a certain ragamuffin, barefoot, irreverence to their studies; they are not here to worship what is known, but to question it."
    - Jacob Chanowski

    --
    In a world without walls and fences, who needs Windows or Gates?
  33. Re:RPM Working Yet? by thesman · · Score: 2, Informative

    Maybe this can help you: APT-RPM.

    And about some RPM including last known name and version about the RPMs it depends on... it always worked that way, the problem was that you had to solve the dependency tree all by yourself -- something you don't have to do anymore if you use APT.

  34. Re:Quick question by warhoofd · · Score: 2, Informative

    The kde-redhat project usually has non crippled rpms available pretty quickly: http://kde-redhat.sourceforge.net/

  35. Re:Don't bother with Ubuntu by poofyhairguy82 · · Score: 2, Informative
    After the install, I got several errors related to the GUI, then I was dropped to a command prompt. Ubuntu was DOA for me.

    Hello. I am a mod on the Ubuntu Forum and I run into that problem a lot. That means that the install CD you used was bunk. An OS is much more sensitive than a regular CD so try washing it off then reinstalling or burning a new install cd at lower speeds. Thanks for your time.