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Fedora 25 Now Available -- Makes It Easier To Switch From Windows 10 Or Mac (betanews.com)

Reader BrianFagioli writes: After the release of both alpha and beta versions, Fedora 25 is officially here and ready for production machines. If you aren't familiar with the popular Linux-based operating system, please know that it is the distribution of choice for the founder of the Linux kernel, Linus Torvalds. One of the most endearing qualities of Fedora is its focus on only offering truly free open source software. Also, you can always count on a very modern version of the Linux kernel being available. Despite having very up-to-date packages, it is always very stable too. My favorite aspect, however, is the commitment to the GNOME desktop environment; other DEs are available, though. The team says, "Fedora 25 Workstation now makes it easier to for Windows and OS X users to get started, with Fedora Media Writer serving as the default download for those operating systems. This tool helps users find and download the current Fedora release and write it to removable media, like a USB stick, allowing potential Fedora users to 'test drive' the operating system from that media environment. Fedora can then be installed to their systems with the same process".

154 comments

  1. It's a hell of a lot easier to switch now! by tlambert · · Score: 4, Funny

    It's a hell of a lot easier to switch now!

    Good job, guys!

    I was having a hell of a time switching to your software before you released it. Now that it's released, the experience is 1000X better!

    (still sucks, though..)

    1. Re:It's a hell of a lot easier to switch now! by Joce640k · · Score: 2

      This will finally be the year of Linux on the Desktop.

      (About time, too! It's been in the pipeline for ages...)

      --
      No sig today...
    2. Re:It's a hell of a lot easier to switch now! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Fedora 25 is officially here and ready for production machines

      Fedora will never be ready for production machines, sorry.

      please know that it is the distribution of choice for the founder of the Linux kernel, Linus Torvalds.

      I highly doubt that Mr Torvalds would accept such a steaming pile of a distro, let alone recommend it.

    3. Re:It's a hell of a lot easier to switch now! by saloomy · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I feel like the time for the Linux Desktop has come and gone, and it is such a shame too. Linux desktops could have absolutely changed the game in terms of computer use. Why? Because of the infrastructure, and Apple IMHO is in the lead on this. I have Macs at work and home, so does my wife. We have Apple TVs, iPhones, iPads, and the whole ecosystem really does work. With the latest iteration of iOS/Mac OS, our desktops sync, our documents sync, and our settings sync. All of our setups follow us from computer to computer. As long as we stay in the walled garden, we have a fantastic computing experience. The sad part is: Linux already rules the cloud. So why couldn't it deliver the same seamless experience across all the screens that Apple as (and it seems Windows is not very far behind). The barrier used to be the application support. Now, its the infrastructure in between.

    4. Re:It's a hell of a lot easier to switch now! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Fedora 25 is officially here and ready for production machines

      Fedora will never be ready for production machines, sorry.

      I run Fedora 24 in production and I think it works just as good as any other distro. Do you have any actual reasons why you think Fedora is a no-use for that?

    5. Re:It's a hell of a lot easier to switch now! by Tough+Love · · Score: 1

      With somewhere between 40 and 80 million desktop Linux users already, the year of Linux on the desktop arrived some time ago. You may be confusing that with the year of Linux world domination of the desktop. Not sure when that is, but judging by the strength of the products recently released by Microsoft and Apple, it may not be far away.

      --
      When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
    6. Re: It's a hell of a lot easier to switch now! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Fedora was the "bleeding edge" of Linux with RedHat being the stable, production distro. Is that no longer true?

    7. Re:It's a hell of a lot easier to switch now! by flacco · · Score: 1

      > (still sucks, though..)

      I think it's pretty awesome.

      Which computer company is letting you do some things on your computer?

      --
      pr0n - keeping monitor glass spotless since 1981.
    8. Re:It's a hell of a lot easier to switch now! by OneHundredAndTen · · Score: 1

      I feel like the time for the Linux Desktop has come and gone, and it is such a shame too.

      I agree that it has come and gone, but I think that's great. I do not want for the illiterate masses to use Linux. I want for them to stay with Windows, so that criminals will target mostly Windows. I do not want for my desktop environment to be dumbed down so that everybody can use it - if Linux were ever to become relevant in the desktop, it would be in the way of the asinine desktop environments that Red Hat and Canonical are pushing. In that situation, it would soon be the status quo that applications would be developed with those environments in mind. And then everybody would have to use those environments. No, I prefer things the way they are. Not being a gamer or anxious to use the latest and greatest hardware, for me the price to pay is worth it. I hope (and expect) that Linux will never get much traction in the desktop.

    9. Re:It's a hell of a lot easier to switch now! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Because it will grind your disks to dust endlessly indexing files for a search tool you don't event want. Also making the disks less accessible for what you do want. Fedora is not even remotely suitable for a usable workstation or server. It is just as bad as Windows Vista/8/10.

      "Index all the searches! All the time! We know you have no idea where your files are, you cannot possibly know! We must index it all for you! Constantly!"

      Also, redhat/fedora does not follow any of the *nix standards of filesystem structure or system functionality. Redhat/Fedora is not Linux, it is something else. It is for fools and suckers.

      There is no way Torvalds cam seriously believe it is a good distribution. If he says that, he is being paid to say it and can no longer be trusted.

    10. Re:It's a hell of a lot easier to switch now! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If I could afford to redo my entire house with Apple products, I would do so. From what little devices we do have, they are great. Everything works perfectly, everything communicates with each other beautifully, etc.

      *Not an employee, just a very satisfied customer.

    11. Re:It's a hell of a lot easier to switch now! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The "Year of the Linux desktop" has ALWAYS been considered as the year when Linux desktop users become the majority. That year never came and most likely never will. In the face of that embarrassing failure, lying assholes like you have "moved the goal posts" to prematurely declare victory. Don't think that even novice users haven't taken notice of your slimy behavior.

    12. Re:It's a hell of a lot easier to switch now! by Tough+Love · · Score: 1

      The "Year of the Linux desktop" has ALWAYS been considered as the year when Linux desktop users become the majority.

      By who? You? According to me, and most probably, according to the vast majority of Linux desktop users, it is the year that Linux became usable as a full function desktop. Not sure which year that was, but it was long ago. Other definitions, such as yours, we typically hear from trolls with some vested interest such as being a Microsoft employee.

      --
      When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
    13. Re:It's a hell of a lot easier to switch now! by tlambert · · Score: 1

      I highly doubt that Mr Torvalds would accept such a steaming pile of a distro, let alone recommend it.

      Apparently, you have never used 'git'...

  2. An unsecure OS has been detected. Fix now? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    This is the prompt that should be displayed if Fedora is run from removable media on a Windows machine. If the use clicks Yes, the Windows install is nuked and replaced with Fedora. If the user clicks No, the machine waits 10 minutes and then without warning BLAMMO nukes the Windows install and replaces it with Fedora.

    You know, kind of like the upgrade process from Windows 7 to Windows 10, to keep in line with what Windows users are used to.

  3. How does Fedora compare to Ubuntu? by Qbertino · · Score: 2

    Can anyone who know both Fedora and Ubuntu say how they compare to each other?
    Unity aside, is there a solid reason to use Fedora over Ubuntu?
    What do you like about Fedora - if you are a Fedora user?

    --
    We suffer more in our imagination than in reality. - Seneca
    1. Re:How does Fedora compare to Ubuntu? by brickhouse98 · · Score: 2

      Ubuntu is easier to get into in my opinion. It allows for easy install of codecs, etc. that are otherwise slightly harder to get on Fedora. If you want that same type of ease of use but on Fedora, go for Korora. Pretty stable and a decent mix of new stuff with reliability. Offers an LTS version if you want good reliability/durability. Fedora is one of the best distros for using the latest technologies, one of which is the latest Gnome DE edition to drop. It's good for previewing things that will eventually come down to RHEL and CentOS. Little harder to get stuff like flash, MP3, etc. working because it relies on RPMfusion (or United RPM if you want) which usually are slightly behind Fedora's quick release schedule. Although it's more bleeding edge than Ubuntu it is pretty stable if you ask me. I use both and they're both fine for what they are. I've moved to Fedora on my workstations simply because I like Gnome and it offers the latest Gnome and doesn't mix them like Ubuntu (3.22 Nautilus with 3.20 shell for instance.)

    2. Re:How does Fedora compare to Ubuntu? by willoughby · · Score: 3, Informative

      Just uninstalled Ubuntu 16.04 here after about three weeks & installed Win 10. The file manager in Ubuntu would constantly cease to function. If you clicked on the icon the background would pulse with changing color as if it were launching then, after about 20 seconds, the pulsing would stop. That's it - no response, error message, crash report - nothing. And it's not just a file manager, it also handles auto mounting of flash drives, external hard drives, etc..

      There were also crashes of something in the background with the crash report icon appearing in the dock. But the freezing file manager was finally intolerable. I might have had more patience or tried to diagnose if this hadn't been a long term support release. I had to reboot Ubuntu 16.04 more than my time with Win 8, 8.1, & 10 combined.

      If this is the best LTS release Ubuntu can come up with I'd advise using anything else.

    3. Re:How does Fedora compare to Ubuntu? by kwalker · · Score: 2

      I still install RPMfusion right after installing Fedora, but starting with F25, MP3 decoding is enabled out of the box. I'm assuming their legal counsel has reviewed the MP3 patents and decided they've expired or are no longer enforceable.

      --
      Improvise, adapt, and overcome.
    4. Re:How does Fedora compare to Ubuntu? by kwalker · · Score: 4, Informative

      Fedora is usually one or two releases ahead of Ubuntu. Fedora is usually quick to fix issues with their shipped software and doesn't necessarily wait for the next distro release to release a new version of a specific package or to add new packages. Fedora ships with (usually, depending on release schedules) the latest versions of GNOME and GNOME software.

      Ubuntu supports some things that Fedora can't/won't because of patents/copyright. Ubuntu is Debian-based, so if you're more familiar with that family of distros, you'll be more comfortable in Ubuntu.

      --
      Improvise, adapt, and overcome.
    5. Re:How does Fedora compare to Ubuntu? by bigfinger76 · · Score: 1

      Fraunhoffer's mp3 codec patent did indeed expire this year. I think I even read about it here.

    6. Re:How does Fedora compare to Ubuntu? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      About 85 % or so of the packages in Ubuntu is from what they call "universe", these are packages that are often directly imported from a Debian snapshot and may not work at all. This include server software with open and unpatched security issues. And with this I'm not saying that Fedora is always perfect, but at least every package has a maintainer and that's not the case with Ubuntu.

    7. Re:How does Fedora compare to Ubuntu? by ausekilis · · Score: 4, Informative
      Some of the bigger differences:
      • Fedora is "bleeding edge" while Ubuntu favors stability - Fedora typically has newer versions of libraries sooner than Ubuntu does. While Ubuntu packages arent as old as Debian (which it's based on), Ubuntu is typically a bit more conservative and stable.
      • YUM (DNF) vs APT - Fedora uses YUM (now DNF) with RPM packages while Ubuntu uses APT and DEB packages. Functionally there isn't a lot of difference between the two, but the naming conventions for packages differ.
      • RPM vs DEB - Ubuntu is a little wider spread and has a bit stronger support. If you should need some obscure package/game/library, somebody likely has a .deb file of it, while you may be stuck with a manual compile/install on Fedora.
      • Repos - Ubuntu has a much larger number of third-party repos while Red Hat is slightly more consolidated (RPMFusion project).

      Both will give you KDE (again, Fedora's version may be newer), MATE, LXDE, Gnome, etc... You can set either up however you'd like, and the default repos largely contain the same stuff.

      Personally, I run Fedora since my work uses RHEL and that keeps me in the same mindset. I tend to bounce between Linux Mint and Fedora, and have found the only real difference for me comes down to some obscure libraries on (very rare) occasions. Folks complain that Fedora is unstable, and that's generally true for the first few weeks after release. I've had the same problem with Ubuntu, though... so YMMV

    8. Re:How does Fedora compare to Ubuntu? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I've used both and the feeling I got from the communities was that they work very differently when it comes to contributing upstream. Ubuntu is Ubuntu, Fedora is Linux.

    9. Re:How does Fedora compare to Ubuntu? by r1348 · · Score: 4, Informative

      All the patents regarding mp3 decoding expired, but there's still one covering encoding, and that's why only playback is enabled for now.

    10. Re:How does Fedora compare to Ubuntu? by Yonsy · · Score: 2

      In my case. My work commonly is put online/offline linux servers in cloud providers. And i don't like the idea for update my laptop Linux every year for something magic/new so I use Ubuntu 16.04 LTS that have 5 year support (not 9 months like the other versions or Fedora too) and for anything new for example latests Ansible versions, I added the PPA for this projects.

      Fedora is a workcamp for Redhat, they experiment in Fedora new changes and updates with Gnome and now Wayland. This is the same work that Canonical do in Ubuntu (Unity and Mir) but with one difference, Redhat give long term support ONLY to Redhat Enterprise that is a stabilized Fedora release worked by many years, yes you can use CentOS instead but any support will come from the community. Canonical is a bit more "elastic" with their support for desktop/laptop machines on my view with a LTS release every two years and PPAs for community packages (for example i deploy servers with 14.04/16.04 LTS but with nginx and mariadb deployed from their PPAs)

    11. Re: How does Fedora compare to Ubuntu? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      But why bother with oldfashioned mp3? Ogg compress better, or you can have better sound for the same filesize. Mp3 lost, and freeing it up wont help that.

    12. Re: How does Fedora compare to Ubuntu? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yep, the LTS is great until your developers come and say that they need a newer python, and now you have to update your entire OS or build from source.

    13. Re: How does Fedora compare to Ubuntu? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I don't see ogg support listed on the car stereo, MP3 is.

    14. Re:How does Fedora compare to Ubuntu? by barc0001 · · Score: 2

      I haven't used any desktop Linux in a while but when I played around with them I found Ubuntu's were easier to initially set up, but Fedora was more stable. There were still bizarre integration problems with applications though, like different apps using different file manager plugins so that one application works across the whole file system no problem, but another can't browse into mount points, which means you need to move files out of that mount to use them, then put them back, etc. A small mountain of little annoyances like that eventually drove me back into the arms of Redmond.

    15. Re: How does Fedora compare to Ubuntu? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Most popular software offers PPAs for Ubuntu so you can get the latest version and keep it updated if you're running an LTS.

    16. Re: How does Fedora compare to Ubuntu? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Do you know of a reputable ppa for python?

    17. Re:How does Fedora compare to Ubuntu? by umafuckit · · Score: 4, Informative

      Just uninstalled Ubuntu 16.04 here after about three weeks & installed Win 10. The file manager in Ubuntu would constantly cease to function.

      I'm not a big fan of 16.04 either. On two machines I work with the ethernet port randomly stops functioning every so often and until I unplug/replug the cable, similar deal with pulseaudio, systemd refused to boot the machine because one of the network shares in fstab had a syntax error, and there was a clusterfuck the one time I tried to install an ATI graphics card. However the file manager... You could just install a different desktop environment (I'm guessing you were using Unity?) and that problem would go away. I might try uninstalling systemd, TBH. I reckon half of my problems come from there.

    18. Re:How does Fedora compare to Ubuntu? by fnj · · Score: 1

      Your goddam hardware is obviously bad or just plain shitty. Big whoop.

    19. Re:How does Fedora compare to Ubuntu? by _merlin · · Score: 1

      Fedora is a lot like CentOS/RHEL, so if you're developing for one of those, it's a good desktop environment to use. It also gives you a preview of what might go into future releases of CentOS/RHEL and gives you a chance to adapt to it or complain about it. (CentOS/RHEL are relatively well-supported by software and hardware vendors and hence popular in environments where stuff has to "just work".)

    20. Re:How does Fedora compare to Ubuntu? by clonehappy · · Score: 2, Funny

      Your goddam hardware is obviously bad or just plain shitty. Big whoop.

      Annnd this is why no one wants to run Linux.

    21. Re:How does Fedora compare to Ubuntu? by squiggleslash · · Score: 1

      I have some terrible hardware that runs Windows with numerous problems too. It's not a GNU/Linux issue.

      --
      You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
    22. Re:How does Fedora compare to Ubuntu? by willoughby · · Score: 2

      My hardware is a Dell Optiplex 9010 - 3rd gen core I7, 16 gig of ram, CoolerMaster 500 watt PSU, GTX750Ti, Mushkin Reactor 1tb SSD. And this motherboard might as well be an engineering prototype from Intel. Every chip is Intel and even the "Dell drivers" downloaded from Dell support are just generic Intel driver packages.

      But maybe you're right and this setup is just shitty hardware. But it's shitty hardware where Ubuntu 16.04 stumbles & Win 10 runs a treat. Maybe someday I'll buy some "good hardware" so I can run Ubuntu.

    23. Re:How does Fedora compare to Ubuntu? by willoughby · · Score: 1

      Oh and, yes, it runs Crysis.

    24. Re:How does Fedora compare to Ubuntu? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I just sent a Clevo laptop back with Ubuntu 16.04 preinstalled on it. We have Xubuntu 16.04 on all of our other laptops and desktops (most with UEFI), but Xubuntu 16.04 refused to install on the Clevo - its installer crashed. With Ubuntu 16.04, this Clevo was refusing to shut down properly (weird messages on shutdown), and occasionally refusing to boot (lost all of its boot devices?).

      We learned our lesson. Don't order a laptop with Ubuntu preinstalled. Get a regular laptop, and install Xubuntu 16.04 instead. The crapware gets removed along with Windows 10; it probably counts as a Windows 10 PC for sales purposes.

    25. Re:How does Fedora compare to Ubuntu? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      linux is linux its realy about the defaults and configuration differences mostly.

      heres a pkg manager rosetta for the most popular ones https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Pacman/Rosetta

    26. Re: How does Fedora compare to Ubuntu? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Nothing of mine outside of my computer supports Ogg. MP3 may not be the best, but it is supported, and if you use a decent encoder, it isn't too bad, audio-wise.

    27. Re:How does Fedora compare to Ubuntu? by danbuter · · Score: 1

      They need a Fedora LTS version, that doesn't require you to pay for Red Hat Enterprise. I doubt it would hurt their business, because when a company buys RHEL, they are really buying support.

    28. Re:How does Fedora compare to Ubuntu? by clonehappy · · Score: 1, Insightful

      Of course. I'm not saying shitty hardware isn't to blame for issues arising from shitty hardware.

      However, I've had issues, stupid ones like the OP's, pop up occasionally on various Linux distros, and the answer you get time and time again is "must be shitty hardware". Even when the hardware is fine and can run BSD, Windows, sometimes even OS X just fine.

      It's that sense of superiority that Linux is perfect and if there are any issues it just must be shitty hardware that turns people off. It's just as smug as "you're holding it wrong".

    29. Re: How does Fedora compare to Ubuntu? by Tough+Love · · Score: 0

      I don't see ogg support listed on the car stereo, MP3 is.

      Where did you get that crap stereo?

      --
      When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
    30. Re: How does Fedora compare to Ubuntu? by Tough+Love · · Score: 1

      Anybody who is able to use ogg instead of mp3 and doesn't is just an idiot. I can see keeping a bunch of mp3s around instead of transcoding, because what's the point of losing even a bit more quality? Unless you need to save space of course. But taking mp3 over ogg any time you have the choice, that's just "kick me in the cluepants" zone.

      --
      When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
    31. Re:How does Fedora compare to Ubuntu? by MSG · · Score: 1

      Almost everything is better refined under Fedora. Most recent example: I support a lab that teaches embedded development. The ARM devices present themselves to a host as a USB network device with DHCP. If we attach those devices via USB to an Ubuntu host, it switches the default route to the embedded device, which means the host loses access to the NFS server and the whole desktop session hangs. On Fedora and CentOS, the hosts correctly get an address and a subnet route, but the default route is unmodified, so the system continues working.

      Ubuntu and Fedora are mostly the same software, so it's hard to find "big" reasons to choose one over the other. Instead, it's the details that really make Fedora stand out.

      The sad thing is that it's always been this way. Ubuntu made a splash in its initial releases, claiming that they'd made Linux "just work". The truth was that Red Hat, GNOME, and other groups had been making all the bits just work for a long time before Ubuntu was released, Canonical merely released a distribution just as those bits were getting finished. Fedora's release at that time was a major jump in usability from the previous release, and "just worked" as well.

      Fedora has always been the more refined platform in a long list of ways.

    32. Re:How does Fedora compare to Ubuntu? by Tough+Love · · Score: 1

      Just uninstalled Ubuntu 16.04 here after about three weeks & installed Win 10. The file manager in Ubuntu would constantly cease to function.

      16.04 was annoying unstable when first released. It's ok now, but 16.10 is the new shininess. But that was unstable too, when first released. I put it on a throwaway laptop and kept updating until it got stable, I think maybe 10 weeks or so, then put it on the rest of my machines without incident. Very nice. I run Kubuntu on it, and highly recommend it. KDE has really matured lately, it's actually very pleasant to use these days. No comparison whatsoever to the Windows experience, it's beyond me how anybody can put up with that.

      Anyway, remember: just don't upgrade to any new Ubuntu version on release day. Just don't do it. I thought everybody knew that.

      --
      When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
    33. Re:How does Fedora compare to Ubuntu? by Tough+Love · · Score: 2

      There were still bizarre integration problems with applications though, like different apps using different file manager plugins so that one application works across the whole file system no problem, but another can't browse into mount points, which means you need to move files out of that mount to use them, then put them back, etc.

      Whaaaa? I've never heard of such a thing, and certainly never experienced it, ever. Maybe you've got a real story to tell, maybe you just made it up, or maybe your mind played tricks on you, trying to remember something annoying that happened in the distant past, I don't know. But file managers on Linux don't do that. And apps don't use "file manager plugins", they use whatever the widget toolkit (usually GTK or QT) provides. Often with customization, and therefore the possibility of bugs exists, but not browsing across mount points? Come on, you're making that up.

      BTW, Dolphin (QT based) is the best file browser on Linux by far. It's worth installing even if you're running Gnome.

      --
      When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
    34. Re:How does Fedora compare to Ubuntu? by Tough+Love · · Score: 1

      Agree about Systemd. I'm not a systemd hater by nature, but I did see a bunch of strange issues over the last year or so that I never saw before systemd landed, and that just don't show up as KDE or Gnome open issues. Those feel like Systemd/dbus things. For example, I might suddenly lose all keyboard input, but the mouse is still working fine. Cure is to restart X, which is to say, low level input handling isn't the problem. Thankfully, those seemed to go away with later 16.04 updates, and 16.10. The latter had other issues early on, but it's been really sweet lately.

      --
      When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
    35. Re:How does Fedora compare to Ubuntu? by Tough+Love · · Score: 0

      Your goddam hardware is obviously bad or just plain shitty. Big whoop.

      Annnd this is why no one wants to run Linux.

      Oh my, a word from a sensitive little snowflake. No, it's not why noone wants to run Linux (which isn't true anyway) it's why people get triggered and have little hissy fits, then get over it and eventually end up doing whatever makes sense to them. For what it's worth, I think the "goddam hardware" guy is an idiot too. But get real. If you want serious abuse, try some phone support from Microsoft.

      --
      When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
    36. Re:How does Fedora compare to Ubuntu? by Tough+Love · · Score: 1

      Don't order a laptop with Ubuntu preinstalled. Get a regular laptop, and install Xubuntu 16.04 instead. The crapware gets removed along with Windows 10; it probably counts as a Windows 10 PC for sales purposes.

      Right, and the crapware makers end up subsidizing your Linux laptop, it's actually a sweet deal.

      --
      When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
    37. Re:How does Fedora compare to Ubuntu? by Tough+Love · · Score: 1

      Fedora is "bleeding edge" while Ubuntu favors stability - Fedora typically has newer versions of libraries sooner than Ubuntu does.

      It's not really fair to say that without mentioning Debian Sid, on which every version of Ubuntu is based. By running Sid you will typically get even fresher packages than Fedora. If Sid is a bit too adventurous for you (packages do break from time to time but many people use it for their primary workstation because it's fun) then try Debian Testing... solid as a rock. Never mind Stable, which actually goes overboard on the stability.

      It's kind of odd how Debian doesn't get mentioned much in these kinds of threads, but it's still very much there, and still very much the thing that the vast majority of Linux desktops are based on these days. And I'm only running it on one machine, why? Hmm. Because I asked google to find me a live install image for a USB stick and the first one it found was Ubuntu? I dunno. No good reason. Next machine (a server) is going to be Debian Stable.

      --
      When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
    38. Re:How does Fedora compare to Ubuntu? by youngone · · Score: 1
      Thanks Qbertino for asking a sensible question, and brickhouse98 (you're mighty mighty, just letting it all hang out) for giving an informative answer.

      God there are some stupid pointless flamewars on this site, and when I saw this article I hoped this thread might be an exception, but the first bunch of posts are all "Year of Linux on the desktop" crap and grammer Nazi nonsense.

      Then you two come along and start a real thread.

    39. Re:How does Fedora compare to Ubuntu? by lucm · · Score: 1

      If you want serious abuse, try some phone support from Microsoft.

      This was maybe true in the 90s but things have changed, a lot. Microsoft support, especially on cloud products, is excellent. I have a client who uses Office365 and every time a problem occurred in the last year or two, within minutes after the ticket was open Microsoft called to provide assistance, and they stayed on the line until the problem was resolved.

      There are companies out there with even better customer service, especially retailers (like Zappos), but for a tech company Microsoft is top tier in that area. Red Hat also.

      --
      lucm, indeed.
    40. Re:How does Fedora compare to Ubuntu? by lucm · · Score: 1

      My hardware is a Dell Optiplex 9010 - 3rd gen core I7, 16 gig of ram, CoolerMaster 500 watt PSU, GTX750Ti, Mushkin Reactor 1tb SSD. And this motherboard might as well be an engineering prototype from Intel. Every chip is Intel and even the "Dell drivers" downloaded from Dell support are just generic Intel driver packages.

      But maybe you're right and this setup is just shitty hardware. But it's shitty hardware where Ubuntu 16.04 stumbles & Win 10 runs a treat. Maybe someday I'll buy some "good hardware" so I can run Ubuntu.

      In my experience, here's how distros rank for hardware support:

      OpenSuSE > Fedora > Ubuntu.

      The fact that kernels on Fedora are usually bleeding edge helps a lot.

      This being said, very often there's some weird conflict going on that causes problems. For instance, I have a low-end HP laptop that has a wifi adapter that keeps going off in Ubuntu; I had to blacklist a bluetooth controller to get wifi working properly; meanwhile the thing runs flawlessly on Fedora 24 and Windows 10.

      --
      lucm, indeed.
    41. Re:How does Fedora compare to Ubuntu? by barc0001 · · Score: 1

      > And apps don't use "file manager plugins", they use whatever the widget toolkit (usually GTK or QT) provides

      Whatever, I'm a sysadmin not a programmer, and that's what I was looking to call it.

      And it sure as hell did happen. In Evolution:

      https://wiki.gnome.org/Apps/Evolution

      I remember it clear as day because we were corresponding with a client endlessly going back and forth on a project and all of the project docs were on a mount on the office CentOS machine and I was absolutely pissed that I could get to the same mount using a SFTP software and pop things up to the client's server without issue but I couldn't mail them any of the files as attachments without copying them by hand because Evolution refused to even see directories that were mounted. After about the 500th time I had to move files by hand I got really angry, thought about how much time I am wasting moving files to a temp directory just so I can either mail them out or move them to a mount from my inbox and said fuck it and installed Windows 7. And you know what the hell of it was? Windows 7 works well enough for what I expect that I stayed with it.

    42. Re: How does Fedora compare to Ubuntu? by Twilightman42 · · Score: 1

      Just switched from Ubuntu to Fedora 25 after using Ubuntu for a few years (used Mandriva before). Its a really nice solid OS. I found it worked better out of the box than Ubuntu particularly on RAID arrays, and it fixed a sound bug that had been an issue with me and Ubuntu for years. You will have to get used to more of a command prompt based system of contol for package installation and repo contol, with slightly different commands. Not hard to get used to though. One issue I have had though is I switched in part when I learned of proposed better optimus support which as of release has not been implemented. In fact as of release I cannot use discrete graphics at all, which is overall a minor issue but an annoying one.

    43. Re:How does Fedora compare to Ubuntu? by uassholes · · Score: 1

      href="https://www.centos.org/">CentOS?

    44. Re:How does Fedora compare to Ubuntu? by Trongy · · Score: 1

      Something like CentOS ?

    45. Re:How does Fedora compare to Ubuntu? by Tough+Love · · Score: 0

      Can anyone who know both Fedora and Ubuntu say how they compare to each other?

      Just imho naturally. Fedora/Redhat.... everywhere it departs from the teachings of Debian, it seriously blows. Example: RPM. It's just eye-gougingly bad, particularly rpmbuild. Ask anyone who has had the misfortune of having to deal with it as a maintainer. For users, it's not as bad, but its still bad. Example: still uses mainly file-based dependencies. That's package manager brain-damage more than an RPM deficiency per se, but still it's symptomatic of the mindset that Fedora/Redhat maintainers have. Another example: executable scripts to initialize network interfaces. Come on, that's something you'd expect from Microsoft, not a self respecting Unix guru. Oh wait, there weren't any Unix gurus involved when that garbage was invented. There are just countless more flaws, big and little, along similar lines. Not to say that Fedora/Redhat is a complete steaming pile, after all, it shares a lot of DNA with Debian/Ubuntu. But basically, everywhere it departs from Debian/Ubuntu, there you will find big steaming piles of turd.

      Oh, whoops, redhat employee with mod points detected.

      --
      When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
    46. Re:How does Fedora compare to Ubuntu? by Tough+Love · · Score: 1

      Evolution is a Gnome thing, the same guys who brought you Bonobo and a bunch of other steaming piles. Try Dolphin, you'll like it. Personally, I try to stay as far away from GTK things as I can. But when forced to use them because of no other choice, they usually do function as designed, in their stilted, award way. I can't imagine how you ended up with an Evolution build that trips over mount points, Evolution certainly never did that the few times I used it. But who knows. There's no reason to use Evolution and plenty of reasons not to use it, so I don't use it.

      --
      When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
    47. Re:How does Fedora compare to Ubuntu? by qubezz · · Score: 1

      Well sure, since it costs $500 per incident! https://support.microsoft.com/...

    48. Re:How does Fedora compare to Ubuntu? by lucm · · Score: 1

      No I'm talking about the free tier support from Office365.

      As an admin for Office 365 for business, you get free access to our knowledgeable support agents for help resolving technical issues, as well as for pre-sales, account, and billing support. You can also contact us on behalf of Office 365 users in your organization.

      https://support.office.com/en-...

      --
      lucm, indeed.
    49. Re:How does Fedora compare to Ubuntu? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yea and I just rebuilt a Windows7 machine for a friend. After installing the OS the system had no network drivers and didn't even have Universal USB drivers installed. It wouldn't detect a friggin' thumb drive so I could download the drivers from another machine and install them. Also when I went to get the drivers for the system there were 4 wireless drivers and 3 NIC drivers for the same machine. So I loaded Ubuntu and Virtualbox and put Windows in a VM for my friends's one and only app they needed for work. Everything works fine and they are very happy.

      This thing with the file manager I really have to call BS. Sure every OS has its qurks but I've never heard of your problem. Funny I loaded a system which had scanners, printers, wed cams and all sorts of shit hanging off of it and when the install was done the system saw and installed everything perfectly. It even saw the network printers and installed them. Let's see you do that with a Windows install. Another big plus was after the install all the normal apps one would want were installed after 45 mins for work I had a working system ready to do work. Again let's see you do that with Windows when all you get is the OS with no apps and no drivers.

      Dude your a shill. Please go get a real job.

    50. Re:How does Fedora compare to Ubuntu? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      systemd refused to boot the machine because one of the network shares in fstab had a syntax error,

      I dislike systemd as much as the rest of slashdot, but even with older inits the default behaviour of a failed mount in fstab is to halt booting and ask for root password for recovery.

    51. Re:How does Fedora compare to Ubuntu? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Quick to fix? Like how IBoIP has been broken since F23 and still isn't fixed.

    52. Re:How does Fedora compare to Ubuntu? by mattdm · · Score: 1

      Okay, I'll bite:

      > RPM [...] Example: still uses mainly file-based dependencies

      That's not true. It _can_ but primarily does not use file-based dependencies. I think, realistically, from a packaging perspective, you'll find places where both RPM and deb suck, and where they both have strengths — it's kind of half-a-dozen-of-one, six-of-the-other. From a user perspective, it barely ever matters even a little bit.

      > Another example: executable scripts to initialize network interfaces.

      I assume you mean the legacy ifup/ifdown scripts? The primary and default path is NetworkManager, instead. Or did you _want_ this done with shell scripts? Unclear from your post.

    53. Re:How does Fedora compare to Ubuntu? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I remember it clear as day because we were corresponding with a client endlessly going back and forth on a project and all of the project docs were on a mount on the office CentOS machine and I was absolutely pissed that I could get to the same mount using a SFTP software and pop things up to the client's server without issue but I couldn't mail them any of the files as attachments without copying them by hand because Evolution refused to even see directories that were mounted.

      So you could see the files using SFTP, a program designed to let you access files on another machine over the network, but not using Evolution, a program with no such capability, and you think the the problem is with the file manager?

  4. Wayland is also now the default by neuro88 · · Score: 5, Informative

    Fedora 25 marks the first release of a mainstream distro to switch to Wayland as the default display server (it will set X11 if it's detected that you're using incompatible drivers such as the nvidia drivers for example). I'm surprised there's no front page story about this on /.

    Hell, there's not even token a mention of it in this summary.

    1. Re:Wayland is also now the default by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I actually lol'd that they didn't mention this..

    2. Re:Wayland is also now the default by ilsaloving · · Score: 2

      Seriously? Isn't Wayland kind of a big deal?

      I mean, I can't remember anymore. It's been in development for so long that in my mind it's reached Duke Nukem status. Now I'm going to have to go google it cause I can no longer remember what was supposed to be so good about it.

    3. Re:Wayland is also now the default by neuro88 · · Score: 1

      Not Duke Nukem status. There's been working live CD demos for years now.

    4. Re:Wayland is also now the default by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Why use a replacement with it's own X compatibility server when you can just use the real X11?

    5. Re:Wayland is also now the default by bigchrissd · · Score: 1

      Sounds like the story got Waylaid...

    6. Re:Wayland is also now the default by ilsaloving · · Score: 1

      Because, as I understand it, X11 is a ginormous mess at a level that rivals Internet Explorer. Maintainability and performance is getting worse as a result.

    7. Re:Wayland is also now the default by ilsaloving · · Score: 1

      True, but this is the first time (that I am aware of) that it has been considered good enough to be a first class citizen in a major distro. That's a significant milestone.

    8. Re:Wayland is also now the default by erapert · · Score: 1

      Because most people consider it wise to gradually shift from old to new tech especially when it's such a foundational part of the OS.

    9. Re:Wayland is also now the default by danbuter · · Score: 1

      I use nvidia, so it would still be X for me.

    10. Re:Wayland is also now the default by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Not sure what you mean. Wayland has been continually improved, but it was actually already released 4 years ago. It arrived reasonably soon after the talk about it began whereas DNF took more than a decade.

      What we've been waiting for was for applications and operating systems to rely on Wayland instead of X, which has been taking so long because X is very entrenched. Nvidia, with its X-only drivers, certainly isn't helping.

  5. If I wanted Linux... by unixisc · · Score: 1

    ...why would I pick Fedora? It's one thing if we're talking servers and I needed RHEL or Oracle Unbreakable, but for personal usage? When SteamOS is based on Ubuntu, why not pick a Ubuntu or even a Debian based distro? .deb is a lot easier to handle than .rpm

    1. Re:If I wanted Linux... by brickhouse98 · · Score: 1

      Fedora is one of few distros with the most up to date Gnome environment. That and testing out changes and developing for RHEL and CentOS makes sense on Fedora.

    2. Re:If I wanted Linux... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      .deb is a lot easier to handle than .rpm

      Both Ubuntu and Fedora uses GNOME Software, so the experience is more or less exactly the same on both distros. And even if you're a command line user typing dnf install foobar is not that much harder than typing apt-get install foobar.

    3. Re:If I wanted Linux... by kwalker · · Score: 1

      If you work with RHEL/CentOS servers, running a Fedora desktop will show you what the current/next version of those server distros will look like and give you more insight into their inner workings. Their underpinnings are the same, their os-level services are the same (Though versions may be different). And DEBs and RPMs are basically the same effort-wise anymore for end-users, Fedora COPRs are equivalent to Debian PPAs. And in my opinion, RPMs are easier to build.

      --
      Improvise, adapt, and overcome.
    4. Re:If I wanted Linux... by techno-vampire · · Score: 2

      If Steam and gaming are a major part of what you do with your computer, you're right. If you're using it for work, that doesn't matter. And, if for some reason you need access to the latest versions of various libraries, or want to help test the latest and greatest versions of various projects, you're better off with Fedora. It all depends on what you're looking for.

      --
      Good, inexpensive web hosting
    5. Re:If I wanted Linux... by donaldm · · Score: 1

      ...why would I pick Fedora? It's one thing if we're talking servers and I needed RHEL or Oracle Unbreakable, but for personal usage? When SteamOS is based on Ubuntu, why not pick a Ubuntu or even a Debian based distro? .deb is a lot easier to handle than .rpm

      I prefer Fedora KDE spin but other people prefer different spins (ie. GUI or CLI) such as Gnome and Xfce but there are others to choose as well. The best way to pick one is to download a Live spin and run it from DVD or USB key before making a decision if you wish to install. You can actually do something similar with the Debian (eg. Ubuntu and Mint) based distributions.

      It is important to realize that Fedora is only supported for about a year with a major release approximately every six months and you do get updates fairly frequently although by default they come as delta updates so the rpm packages only contain the data that needs updating. This technique can reduce overall update sizes from 10% to 95%. Like all Linux distributions you are in control of your updates and decide when you want to reboot. Like most Linux distributions you can use the command line or a graphical interface to manage your software.

      Obviously when you get a new kernel you should reboot but you decide when you wish to do this.

      Installation of Fedora is pretty much the same as installing Mint and it only starts to get complicated if you wish to use the Logical Volume Manager and/or a different filesystem (with Fedora 24 "ext4" was the default).

      Basically, if you don't like Fedora then there are plenty of other distributions to choose from.

      --
      There ain't no such thing as proprietary standards only proprietary formats. Standards are by definition open.
    6. Re:If I wanted Linux... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2

      If you like systemd, it's the reference platform. If you hate systemd, it is the worst distro out there. It's their fault.

    7. Re:If I wanted Linux... by Kjella · · Score: 1

      ...why would I pick Fedora? It's one thing if we're talking servers and I needed RHEL or Oracle Unbreakable, but for personal usage? When SteamOS is based on Ubuntu, why not pick a Ubuntu or even a Debian based distro? .deb is a lot easier to handle than .rpm

      Well, most of the "under the hood" changes are pushed by Red Hat so you'll probably see them in Fedora first if that rocks your boat. Ubuntu is trying their own thing "over the hood" with Mir, Unity etc. which may or may not be to your liking. I kinda like KDE but it seems to always be on the sidelines for everyone but SuSE. Right now I'd probably go to Mint Linux's Cinnamon edition but realistically I hope to keep Win7 working a little longer. SteamOS and their Steam Machines kinda went nowhere, so it's still just Linux users pushing for Linux. It scored some big wins like Deus Ex: Mankind Divided and X-COM 2, but I would still miss games like GTA V and Overwatch and it looks like DX11 support in WINE is way off.

      --
      Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
    8. Re:If I wanted Linux... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Who says .deb is easier to handle than .rpm?

      RPM based distros use YUM/Zypper to manager RPM files. DEB based distros use apt/aptitude. Using dpkg or rpm directly isn't a good idea.

    9. Re:If I wanted Linux... by reiscw · · Score: 1

      This is a good question and I find myself going back-and-forth on this issue myself. I typically prefer Debian Stable and Fedora. Mainly because I like Gnome 3 (if you don't like Gnome 3, you probably feel differently and that's okay). Ubuntu seems a lot buggier than it once was (I started using it around 7.10). Also, Ubuntu wants to have its own version of everything (Mir, Unity, Snappy, etc.) and they never seem to put enough resources behind any of them to turn out a good product. Fedora on the other hand puts a lot of effort into using other projects (Wayland, GNOME, Flatpak) and contributing to their development, which makes Linux better for everyone regardless of distribution. I still like Debian better but stable gets pretty old quickly. Just the other day I went back to Debian 8 for a little bit and I had to remember that there are lots of little issues with several packages I use that haven't been fixed yet (it also does not run well on 6th-gen intel laptops because the kernel is back at 3.16). Running testing/unstable or using backports doesn't appeal to me (I've had some bad experiences). I went back to Fedora after a few days. Now, IMHO Wayland is still not ready for release (it has broken three applications I use regularly). However, Fedora lets you log in under X11 instead and so that's not really a problem. The one main difference between Fedora and Debian/Ubuntu is that the kernel is constantly being updated throughout the release (Fedora 24 started at 4.5.5 and is now in the 4.8 series).

    10. Re: If I wanted Linux... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Arch Linux is also an option. Rolling release and packages not breaking each other sounds pretty good to me. Things work in Arch Linux, and there are customized desktop distros out there that allow desktop users to install Arch Linux easily. The AUR has tons of software, even Steam.
      sudo pacman -Syyu

    11. Re:If I wanted Linux... by ruir · · Score: 1

      While the experience is similar, deb management is more flexible, and in fact, being the master package databases state being text instead of binary, they do allow interesting things like doing live migrations from 32 to 64 bits instead of reinstalling the server, of getting out of inconsistencies or slight corruption of list of packages and dependencies.

    12. Re:If I wanted Linux... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Deus Ex: Mankind Divided is a real disappointment. Heavy-handed DRM coupled with nickel and dime in-app purchases for practically everything ensures that I will never buy it. Human Revolution was a decent enough game (certainly better gameplay-wise than Invisible War, but not story-wise) but nowhere near as good as the original Deus Ex, which still towers over pretty much every game before or since.

    13. Re:If I wanted Linux... by mattdm · · Score: 1

      For whatever it's worth, Steam runs just fine on Fedora.

  6. Fuck off with this BetaNews crap by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Get better sources and fuck off with this BetaNews 200-words articles. This site is just crap.
    The submissions section is ten times better than the /. frontpage now.... great job mods... fucking great job!

  7. An interesting claim... by __aaclcg7560 · · Score: 1

    I need to test that out. I've never gotten Fedora to run on my 2006 Black MacBook. Mint Linux is the only one I ever got installed since the installer recognizes existing Mac partitions.

  8. I switched to something without systemd by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
    like Windows, OS X, OpenBSD, or DragonFlyBSD.

    Turns out they're a lot better than Lunix, too! Kind of like marrying a beautiful because she likes to play video games and have hot sex 3 or 4 times a day, then finding out her parents are richer than Trump.

    1. Re:I switched to something without systemd by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      like Windows, OS X, OpenBSD, or DragonFlyBSD.

      Turns out they're a lot better than Lunix, too! Kind of like marrying a beautiful because she likes to play video games and have hot sex 3 or 4 times a day, then finding out her parents are richer than Trump.

      A beautiful what

    2. Re:I switched to something without systemd by wonkey_monkey · · Score: 1

      Just a beautiful. Don't you noun?

      --
      systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
  9. systemd no thanks by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    If they are still using systemd I'm not interested.

    1. Re:systemd no thanks by danbuter · · Score: 1

      Red Hat invented systemd...

  10. Linus' distro of choice? by willoughby · · Score: 1

    How do we know that? In the past Linus has always been very careful not to say what distro he uses out of caution that any mention by him would be considered an endorsement, as has apparently been done here. I've read him talking about desktop environments but never distros.

    1. Re:Linus' distro of choice? by r1348 · · Score: 2

      He actually mentioned many times he uses Fedora as desktop/workstation distro, and in his children's laptops too.

  11. Join the torrent now! by l2718 · · Score: 1

    Select your stream here.

  12. Self-advertise much? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Submission by BrianFagioli pointing to his BetaNews post. How meta.

  13. No good on Carrizo by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I downloaded it this morning after seeing it was available. After many minutes of text scrolling up the screen as the (verified iso) installer set the machine up, it finally got to a graphical display that was rotated 45 degrees. HP Carrizo notebook from just over a year ago. I don't have the time do futz around. This is silliness I've no time to debug.

    1. Re: No good on Carrizo by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      45Â degrees! Do you have a screenshot?

  14. Re:An unsecure OS has been detected. Fix now? by SeaFox · · Score: 0

    An unsecure OS has been detected. Fix now?

    Protip: If you don't want people to think you're some Indian scam tech support outfit, you might try using correct grammar.

  15. Re:An unsecure OS has been detected. Fix now? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    oh by golly by gee, I am please to be helping you this day!

  16. world's smallest violin for this loser by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I need to test that out. I've never gotten Fedora to run on my 2006 Black MacBook.

    the violin is too small to display on your non-retina screen

  17. Classic myopia by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Docker, Node.js, multiple flavors of Python, and Rust are not compelling reasons for 99% of people to use a particular operating system.

  18. oh boy! by guygo · · Score: 0

    Oh wow, I just got this great new video card that blows my old one away. I can't wait to plug it in, have the OS find it and load all the correct drivers for it! I am so excited! Wait... what do you mean "What do you think this is, Windows? This is Linux!" Yeah, desktop of the future. Sure. How long have people been saying that? How much has the hardware driver issue been advanced in that time?

    1. Re:oh boy! by Tough+Love · · Score: 1

      Yeah, desktop of the future. Sure. How long have people been saying that? How much has the hardware driver issue been advanced in that time?

      Light years. Linux now gets day 0 support for new 3D cards from AMD and NVidia, for one thing. For another, Linux now supports a far bigger range of hardware than any version of Windows. True. Because Linux doesn't drop old hardware like Microsoft does. Once some piece of hardware is supported in Linux, it stays supported forever. And for most hardware you won't need any vendor driver, the hardware support is built into the kernel (typically as a module).

      For hardware you really care about, like your network card or disk driver, chances are better than even that the Linux driver support is noticeably more stable and performs better than the Windows equivalent. There are exceptions of course, particularly where the hardware vendor is uncooperative for some unknown reason, but Linux generally gets hardware support right.

      --
      When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
    2. Re:oh boy! by guygo · · Score: 1

      Oh good, so you're going to come over and get this Audigy sound card installed correctly for me? Because the OS sure can't. All your platitudes to the side, the Linux I have fails miserably at new hardware additions. Miserably. And has been since Linux was developed. But maybe it's me and I'm not worthy. After all, I've only been doing this for 45+ years. I have so much to learn.

    3. Re:oh boy! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Light years. Linux now gets day 0 support for new 3D cards from AMD and NVidia, for one thing. For another, Linux now supports a far bigger range of hardware than any version of Windows. True. Because Linux doesn't drop old hardware like Microsoft does. Once some piece of hardware is supported in Linux, it stays supported forever. And for most hardware you won't need any vendor driver, the hardware support is built into the kernel (typically as a module).

      For hardware you really care about, like your network card or disk driver, chances are better than even that the Linux driver support is noticeably more stable and performs better than the Windows equivalent. There are exceptions of course, particularly where the hardware vendor is uncooperative for some unknown reason, but Linux generally gets hardware support right.

      0 Day? How about keeping 4-year old cards working? I can't get my AMD Radeon 7870 XT/LE card to work with graphics acceleration since the proprietary driver is no longer supported. I can forgive that, as not dropping hardware support, since it's AMD's fault, but thanks to that, I'm stuck in software rendering mode, which I had to manually enable. I suppose I might be able to find some way to wrangle it to work properly, but am I going to bother?

      So uh, no, for hardware I really care about, it doesn't work, and it's not right.

      Sorry to disappoint you.
         

    4. Re:oh boy! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      But maybe it's me and I'm not worthy. After all, I've only been doing this for 45+ years.

      Seems to me you would have replaced that Audigy sound card by now with something nice, like a Gravis UltraSound or AdLib clone.

    5. Re:oh boy! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Quitcher whinin' and man up, bitch.

    6. Re:oh boy! by Tough+Love · · Score: 1

      I can't get my AMD Radeon 7870 XT/LE card to work with graphics acceleration since the proprietary driver is no longer supported.

      Ubuntu 16.04? You and a bunch of others... it fell between the cracks where fglrx was dropped and AMDGPU support didn't cover some cards. The recommendation at the time for owners of those cards was, don't upgrade. If you inadvertently did, you could consider reinstalling 15.10. Now, on 16.10, "man radeon" tells me that Tahiti is supported.

      --
      When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
    7. Re:oh boy! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I can't get my AMD Radeon 7870 XT/LE card to work with graphics acceleration since the proprietary driver is no longer supported.

      Ubuntu 16.04?

      Fedora 25, the one this subject is about. No surprise that it impacts multiple distros though. Though it may be different manifestations.

      That's sometimes the worst thing, you can have half a dozen ways things are broken, and having to try to figure out how is even more trouble.

      You and a bunch of others... it fell between the cracks where fglrx was dropped and AMDGPU support didn't cover some cards. The recommendation at the time for owners of those cards was, don't upgrade.

      Oh so, now I do have to go back to an older version, right after you got done telling me it'd be all right. I suppose you are still technically correct, in that it isn't like Microsoft's way, however I can't say it would be forever. Though actually I can't remember what version of Fedora last supported my card effectively. I don't actually care that much, I'm only trying this to keep current on the various major distros.

      Didn't try that Zorin though.

      If you inadvertently did, you could consider reinstalling 15.10. Now, on 16.10, "man radeon" tells me that Tahiti is supported.

      Great, now about Fedora...

    8. Re:oh boy! by Tough+Love · · Score: 1

      If you inadvertently did, you could consider reinstalling 15.10. Now, on 16.10, "man radeon" tells me that Tahiti is supported.

      Great, now about Fedora...

      Good luck with that :)

      I suggest switching to a Debian-derived distro.

      --
      When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
    9. Re:oh boy! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Good luck with that :)

      I suggest switching to a Debian-derived distro.

      Waiting for Linux Mint 18.1 to release.

      Though I'm thinking about trying Ubuntu on this Mac Pro 1.1 I got out of the e-waste dump recently.

      Seriously, I'd have picked it up for the case alone.

  19. Re:An unsecure OS has been detected. Fix now? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Also, if you don't want people to think you 14 years old then you shouldn't use "protip".

  20. Release Notes by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The summary left out a link to the Release Notes.

    Some of them are pretty big.
        Wayland display server by default
        Flatpak

    And its noteworthy that Rust is finally in.

  21. WTF! easier to switch? LOL by fnj · · Score: 1

    How goddam hard has it ever been to change to linux? You just put the goddam CD in the CD-ROM reader or plug in the goddam USB stick and reboot. Sheesh. The way it has ALWAYS been.

    1. Re: WTF! easier to switch? LOL by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Well, now it is harder. Their tool totally futzed out on Windows XP. Bad enough I had to install it, but not even working?

      Whatever.

    2. Re:WTF! easier to switch? LOL by laughing_badger · · Score: 1

      27 floppy disks is all I have to say to that.

      --
      Help children born unable to swallow - www.tofs.org.uk
  22. The real question... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Never mind being easy to switch from windows or mac os, can you actually do an upgrade from previous version of fedora? The instructions used to suggest it was best to nuke previous versions before installing.

  23. Does Fedora have aptitude or similar? by steveha · · Score: 1

    Does Fedora have an ncurses app for exploring packages, such as aptitude? Last time I looked at it, as far as I could tell you had pure command-line tools (rpg and yum) and full GUI tools but nothing like aptitude.

    https://wiki.debian.org/Aptitude

    I particularly like the way vi keys work as expected inside aptitude. For me it is a fantastic way to browse through packages, see what I have installed, etc. I would have tried out Fedora by now if I knew I could use aptitude on it.

    --
    lf(1): it's like ls(1) but sorts filenames by extension, tersely
    1. Re:Does Fedora have aptitude or similar? by Tough+Love · · Score: 1

      If you're currently on Debian/Ubuntu then Fedora would feel like slumming.

      --
      When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
    2. Re:Does Fedora have aptitude or similar? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Rocket Propelled Grenade (RPG) is what I always feel like using on systems that aren't APT aware.

      Just took this Fedora release for a spin, calling "dnf search foo-package" immediately downloaded ~100MB of some kind of data just to display the search result.... WTF.

    3. Re: Does Fedora have aptitude or similar? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That was the package database, how else would it search it? There's an option you can give it so that it doesn't refresh it.

  24. Re:An unsecure OS has been detected. Fix now? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    HellomynemisbowbthankyouvorqawlingdegdammadrnaseehowtlinehowmeyIelpyewtoday?

  25. Re:An unsecure OS has been detected. Fix now? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Uhh, no. A 14 year old wouldn't use the term "ProTip" as they wouldn't be old enough to remember it from GamePro.

  26. Wonderful! by Nethead · · Score: 1

    So now Linux handles Active Directory and DFS shares? I can run Cisco Jabber and connect with my cow-orkers? There is a decent Visio like application I can run? Checkpoint VPN support?

    --
    -- I have a private email server in my basement.
  27. Re:An unsecure OS has been detected. Fix now? by rasmusbr · · Score: 1

    Protip: If you don't want people to think you're some Indian scam tech support outfit, you might try using correct grammar.

    Oh, you mean an outfit that provides tech support to Indian scammers?

  28. Organics by sit1963nz · · Score: 1

    This has all the hype and all the validity of Organic Vegetables. Bottom line is 99% of people dont care, so long as they can still surf porn, chat on Facebook and watch cat videos on youtube the rest is irrelevant to them.

  29. truly free open source software by avgapon · · Score: 0

    Fedora provides truly free open source software, but I need truly free _libre_ open source software!

  30. Hardware support in Linux by nick_urbanik · · Score: 1
    The problem is with companies refusing access to the specs of their hardware so others can write drivers for them.

    Linus Torvalds advanced things a little.

  31. downloading was annoying though by cmorgan503 · · Score: 0

    I wanted to download the ISO to run on my virtual machine software in Windows. Alas, by default, the website detected I was running a browser in Windows, and got this message:

    'We have auto-detected that you are running Windows and have offered that version for download. If we have detected your operating system incorrectly or you would like to download a different version, please click the "View all platform downloads" button below. '

    The software it offered me? Fedora Media Writer for Windows, which I assume is some USB writing software to help me make the transition to Fedora. Please, websites, stop treating every visitor as some clueless "need my hands held" visitor who is incapable of downloading and properly installing software. I'm sure the Fedora Media Writer for Windows is a nice enough app, but, seriously, websites, stop being so fucking "helpful" by being helpful, to the point it's almost unhelpful. If you want to help, don't help. Just link me the damn ISO, the link to the Media writer app, and let me fucking chose my poison. I can perfectly install a different OS to my machine just as easily as hosing my machine, without your help.

    1. Re:downloading was annoying though by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2

      Here's the link:

      https://download.fedoraproject.org/pub/fedora/linux/releases/25/Workstation/x86_64/iso/Fedora-Workstation-Live-x86_64-25-1.3.iso

      BTW, it's right there on the right side of the page, under "Other downloads".

      Just clicking on that would have been a lot quicker and easier than typing up a rant, but who am I to judge someone that just needs a little hand-holding to download an ISO?

    2. Re:downloading was annoying though by cmorgan503 · · Score: 1

      I typed my rant while downloading, as a matter of fact. My mistake for not mentioning that in my rant. However, I still believe that my rant is valid. Quit relying on system detection algorithm to make my choices for me. I don't need my hands held, and I'm sure a large part of the internet doesn't either. Just give us the options and let us choose.

      I've seen games doing things similar to this, relying on some special algorithm to helpfully set up the gaming experience, and often it's not the experience that I want. I don't give a rats ass about having 60 FPS, if I'm not going to get the eye candy that I want. Just give me the damn 40 FPS AND the eye candy, don't start my freaking game so I can get to the options menu, more so when I need to turn the subtitle on. This happened in CoD:Infinite Warefare, and I expect this will continue. I know what my system is capable of, I assembled the damn thing, and I know it's way past time for an overhaul, but damnit, let me make my choice!

  32. Media Writer Doesn't work on Latest Ver of macOS by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Media Writer doesn't work on the latest version of the macOS. It creates an unbootable USB drive.

  33. How does this make it easier to switch? by blindseer · · Score: 2

    When I think of an OS that makes it easy to switch from one I have used before the UI is just one of many things I consider. The article mentions some scripting languages that are supported out of the box, a few applications that are included, and how it's got a great kernel and package manager but those are really important only to software developers and the like.

    What I'd think people that are switching operating systems would be concerned about are things like being able to read their existing media and files, has drivers/utilities for their peripherals (like a printer/scanner/fax MFD), can connect to their network (wired, wireless, whatever DSL/cable/satellite/dial-up modem they might have), and probably most importantly can run the programs they are used to and/or invested a lot of money into. There was a brief mention of supporting graphical hardware, and being able to play MP3 files but not much else.

    For long time users of computers they will have a stockpile of older files and potentially software they'd like to access even on a new system. This computing inertia has been a big reason why Microsoft has been so successful, people can move from one version to the next and not worry too much about losing the ability to do things as they did before. This is especially true for technologies like VirtualPC and Boot Camp that allow people to run their old OS on their new computer alongside the new OS. (I realize the two technologies I mention don't do exactly the same thing but it does allow one to run an older Windows OS relatively painlessly and run some other OS with little difficulty for people that wish to do so.)

    Fedora is much like any other Linux based OS I assume, so I assume it can run VirtualBox. WINE is probably available too. I assume it can at least read NTFS and HFS volumes, even if writing is not available the ability to read is huge. I assume it runs a few nice web browsers, office productivity suites, and e-mail programs too. I'd like to hear about those. I'm sure access to games is important to a lot of people so adding that would be a good idea but it won't be much of a selling point to people like me or for corporations.

    I know some of this stuff because I'm a regular user of Linux, Mac, and Windows but honestly I don't know a whole lot about what a recent version of Linux might do to help me ditch one of my non-Linux OSes. I use my Mac for e-mail and web browsing, Linux for writing code, and Windows to run Office. I don't really try to do away with any one OS because I literally have a dozen computers in my basement, I have options.

    If someone wants to sell me an OS as an alternative to MacOS or Windows then they will have to try harder. I believe I am not alone in this.

    --
    I am armed because I am free. I am free because I am armed.
  34. Very happy. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I'm familiar with Unix, and fairly familiar with the inner workings. I've been on Fedora since fedora 20, with only minor issues till fedora 22. There seems to be alot of confusion in the comments. Things like indexing are simpler to manage than changing color of the desktop. Comments such as "Red Hat/Fedora is not Linux" is 100% correct, Fedora is not a kernel, it is an OS. There is also confusion about the stability. Fedora is stable, you can get bleeding-edge Fedora like for any OS, but that is not the subject, and I don't find it necessary. Fedora itself is not a bleeding edge version of Red Hat.

        I install minimal server and add virtualisation, a desktop and only the things I need. I install desktop edition of Fedora, debian, and FreeBSD, wondows 7 and an ol Osx Mavericks only as kvm virtual machines, and the last two mostly to help convert HFS and NTFS disks. It really works great.

        Ubuntu is one of the least Open source linux-based OS, and I have no use for it myself. It is probably still a better choice for someone who is computer illiterate, or transitioning, and also the OS with the most spyware in it. Of course Linus is not on ubuntu. Fedora and Debian and OpenBsd on the Unix side are really great for purists. I can't comment on arch and Suse.

        I would still be hesitant to recommend Fedora for a new user; widows application users need conveniance and choices made for them, the opposite security and customisation.

        That's my perspective. I think the time for fedora desktops is comming, but there is some serious misinformation and confusion in these comments.
        I won't bother making an account just for this post.

  35. Dear Fefora users by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Thank you for being alpha/beta testers of CentOS.

    1. Re: Dear Fefora users by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's called RHEL, CentOS is a copy of RHEL.

  36. Ruminating the good ol' FUD by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    > I agree that it has come and gone, but I think that's great. I do not want for the illiterate masses to use Linux. I want for them to stay with Windows, so that criminals will target mostly Windows.

    That's the FUD only the "illiterate masses" swallow: Windows is more insecure because... it's more targeted.

    So perhaps Windows is for you?

    1. Re:Ruminating the good ol' FUD by getaceres · · Score: 1

      It is. Let's say Ubuntu takes over Windows and becomes the dominant OS. To do that, it should have a way to easily install applications. So you go to scam/malware/adware page X while looking for porn (I know nobody does that) and it says your system is outdated and at risk. To update it just download this .deb file and install it. Now user Joe using Ubuntu will blindly click on the deb file, put its password when asked and the malware will be installed in your Ubuntu system just as easily as it is in your Windows one. The difference is that right now, almost nobody bothers to package malware as .deb packages as they do with .exe files. I've seen Android phones full of malware, more so than many Desktop PCs running windows. And it's based on Linux and it's supposed to be safer. Last week a friend told me to have a look at his MacBook Air because it acted weird. I don't use Mac very much but I was really surprised to find it full of malware and adware just like my other friend's Windows PCs. There's nothing preventing the average user from ruining their Desktop computers. It's a matter of people wanting to target the average Joe user and it's done. Malware is a social and educational issue, not so much a technical one, so a world ruled by Linux desktops will not do much to make it safer.

  37. Fagioli is a retarded blowhard by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Fagioli is a reetarded blowhard. Most of his stuff sounds inane like hell.

  38. How does Fedora compare to Ubuntu? Not well... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I've used both and have used Linux over 25 years as my everyday OS. Fedora is a fine OS except!! It's life time is way too small. Not many people want to reload their OS every 6 months. Ubuntu has Long Term Releases which means you can load the OS once and use it through most of the life time of the hardware without a complete rebuild of the system every 6 months. This is a far far different life cycle than their paid for Redhat or other distros like Ubuntu.

    As for Gnome3, Gnome was a nice desktop for years but then came Gnome3 a desktop trying to be a tablet interface you use with your finders and also a desktop to be used with a mouse. Dear UI developers THIS DOESN'T WORK!! I call the Gnome3 desktop the Windows8 desktop for Linux. It takes 3 times as long and 3 times more clicks to do a simple function that used to take 1 click in Gnome2 or any other DE. Sadly Windows10 has a better and more usable desktop than Gnome3. I am grateful that their are other DEs that can load up on a Linux OS.

    Not long ago Kali Linux went to Gnome3 which I quickly replaced with KDE. The other day I noticed you can now Kali install disks with MATE, Xfce and LXDE. Seems others had the same feeling about Gnome so they added distros with other DEs (By the way I just used the Kali version using MATE what a nice system) Kinda like the old Gnome2 nice simple and EASY TO USE.

    If you want to use a Redhat product for your OS then pay to play and get Redhat. A great OS and it has a very long life cycle.

    Sure Fedora is great for developers with all the newest latest and greatest but most of us are not developers and a stable long lasting OS is what we want and need.

    1. Re:How does Fedora compare to Ubuntu? Not well... by mattdm · · Score: 1

      Not many people want to reload their OS every 6 months.

      Supporting a release for an extended period of time is very expensive, both in terms of actual money but also in demands on volunteer time — and despite Red Hat sponsorship, Fedora is largely a volunteer project. We could choose to focus on a longer lifetime, but that would come at the expense of other areas (like bringing new tech to users quickly while still doing a decent amount of QA). So, instead, we've worked on making upgrades as painless as possible. You definitely don't need to reload your OS every six months — you can do an update, which in this release took me about 25 minutes, the first five-ten of which were downloading the needed packages while I kept working, and the rest could have happened while I went for coffee. Additionally, we test upgrades from not just the previous release, but one back, so if you want, you can take this half an hour once a year rather than every six months.

  39. Solution: Don't use Unity/GNOME... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Don't use Unity/GNOME
    I only run Ubuntu with E17. My friend only runs KDE. They are both usable out of box, although you might need to customize them to get exactly the same behavior as Windows if that is what you are looking for, but both should be faster and lower resource usage than GNOME is now, and E17 tends to be rock solid (when it does crash it warns you it did and has you press F1 to recover. No loss of windows or anything, just some screen flashes as it re-renders all your currently running apps.)

    That said, when Unity DOES work, there isn't a more OSX-like window manager for Linux/X. It would be neat if it was better integrated with something other than the GNOME DE elements, which have been becoming less reliable with each year as PCness has become more important than functionality.

  40. sketchup, photoshop, visio ? by Gunstick · · Score: 1

    Yes there are alternatives, but why don't publishers publish their software on linux?

    --
    Atari rules... ermm... ruled.