Slashdot Mirror
Fedora 18 Released
ultranerdz writes "Fedora 18 has been released. Featuring a new installer UI, GNOME 3.6, Clojure, DragonEgg, KDE Plasma Workspaces 4.9, MATE Desktop, Samba 4, Secure Boot, and updated major packages versions, this is one of the most anticipated Fedora versions yet. After more than two months of slips and delays, Fedora 18 is finally here." I'm glad to see MATE becoming more widely available; it suits me, as a GNOME 2 fan but not a complete troglodyte.
MATE seems to pick up right were GNOME 2 stopped. A few of the program names have changed to avoid conflicts with GNOME 3, but I've been using MATE on Fedora since F16 (been using KDE again too).
I'm starting to think GNU is the problem with "GNU/Linux" these days.
While MATE is nice, it's not as nice as Gnome 2 was in all respects. You don't have compiz, so no wobbly windows or desktop cube, for example.
The renaming also has some side effects when used with programs that expect the gnome naming, so while most things work, not everything does.
Because MATE isn't quite there yet, and because systemd is an abomination unto Nuggan and grub2 doesn't co-exist with other bootloaders gracefully, I'm still on Fedora 14, and strongly considering going back to Gentoo.
So the only thing that keeps me from using Fedora is yum. I do a lot of "experimental" or "temporary" package installations. I want to try out a new editor or a new programming language or something, so I do an installation. All of the various package managers will automatically pull in the dependencies, which is great, but yum doesn't uninstall these dependencies when I uninstall the original package. So, say I install something that requires 9803942834 dependencies. When I uninstall it under Debian, all those dependencies leave with it - when I uninstall it on Fedora, I still have 9803942834 - 1 packages laying around. It's annoying. Get that fixed with yum, and I'll give Fedora a shot again.
...but it's being eaten...by some...Linux or something...
(I have been running F18 with mate since mid december)
Note that fedora 18 repos only have small selection of mate packages. for example mate-panel-applets is missing, so no system monitor in your panel. none of the MATE apps (beyond the file manager and terminal), and when you run gnome3 apps they dont pick up theming. So while on paper fedora 18 has MATE as an option, the integration is poor. Hopefully this will be improved.
There is an unofficial more complete MATE repo, but it does not support F18 yet.
If you don't like GNOME 3, you can pick a different spin:
Available spins as of this morning:
Fedora 18 Desktop Edition
Fedora 18 KDE Spin
Fedora 18 LXDE Spin
Fedora 18 Xfce Spin
Or you can do a minimal install from the installer ISO (Either on DVD, USB stick, or even over a network), then install a desktop of your choice from the following (Incomplete) list:
GNOME 3.6
Cinnamon
MATE
KDE Plasma Workspaces 4.9
Xfce 4.10
Enlightenment
I don't know if dialogs are still immovable, my ISO is still downloading.
http://get.fedoraproject.org/
... And so it comes to this.
What's wrong with systemd?
Where should I start? .ini file format, which is severely sysadmin-unfriendly (grep doesn't understand MSDOS [section]s, for example). ... and quite a lot more.
It abstracts services to the point you can't find them.
It breaks existing sysv startup/shutdown scripts for commercial software. (The reply from vendors of commercial software is pretty unison: We don't support systems with systemd)
It assumes start and stop are always oneliners, so you end up writing startup/shutdown scripts anyhow cause systemd isn't good enough.
It breaks standard runlevels.
It uses the old MSDOS
In short, it was clearly written by someone who didn't come from a Unix background. ... or, just try "systemctl -a | cat"[*] , and compare that to "chkconfig" and "rc-update show".
[*]: Yes, the cat is needed, or else it pauses and waits for input - whoever coded this should know that if the user wants paging, he can pipe it to a pager of choice for that task. But nooo, of course you have to do things differently to be different.
In short, it's as bad as pulseaudio, and for many of the same reasons.