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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".
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..)
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.
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
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.
...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 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.
If they are still using systemd I'm not interested.
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.
Select your stream here.
Just a beautiful. Don't you noun?
systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
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.
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.
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
Uhh, no. A 14 year old wouldn't use the term "ProTip" as they wouldn't be old enough to remember it from GamePro.
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.
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?
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.
Linus Torvalds advanced things a little.
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.
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.
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?
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.
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.
> 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?
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!
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.
Yes there are alternatives, but why don't publishers publish their software on linux?
Atari rules... ermm... ruled.
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.