Fedora 8 review

The first ever Linux distribution I used was not Debian or Slackware but Red Hat Linux. In fact, as I remember it, the version of Red Hat I used was ver 6.2. A couple of years back, Red Hat decided to demarcate its Linux offering into two separate entities namely the free as in beer and Free as in freedom Fedora and its paid version but still Free as in freedom offering namely Red Hat Enterprise Linux. The improvements that are made in Fedora, after they go through a period of severe whetting are eventually incorporated into Red Hat enterprise offering or so it seems.

Let me tell you a funny thing, even though I have been using Fedora for many years now, this is the first time I am putting down my thoughts on Fedora. The latest offering from Fedora namely Fedora 8 is in every respect an excellent Linux distribution past compare. As with all previous versions of Fedora, the hard work and quality which is the trademark of Red Hat shines through in Fedora 8 too.

There are numerous features that are incorporated into Fedora 8. Some of the most notable ones being ...

• Inclusion of an advanced sound server called PulseAudio which is compatible with nearly all existing Linux sound systems.
• A new Java environment called IcedTea which is derived from OpenJDK.
• Numerous improvements to tools which interact with other devices such as Bluetooth tool, network manager and so on.
  

Read the full list of features for Fedora 8 code named Werewolf in the official release notes.

But if you ask me, the pertinent aspects of Fedora which place it a cut above most other Linux distributions are for sure the seamless integration of GUI tools to accomplish complex tasks. For example, Fedora has a GUI tool to create and manipulate logical volumes on your machine. There are GUI front ends for setting up a firewall, a set of SELinux tools to view, create and modify policies and so on. And it has been Red Hat's and in succession, Fedora's aim to make sure the different desktops namely GNOME and KDE have a similar look and feel which is evident when you install GNOME and KDE on your Fedora 8 machine.

The installation as such was a painless affair - considering that (as far as I can remember) it was Red Hat which first developed a GUI installer for installing its Linux distribution. And Red Hat installer named "Anaconda" is a fine piece of software that has evolved over time and which does its job splendidly. Check out a slide show of the screen shots of all the installation steps.

Once you boot into Fedora 8, you come face to face with a new default theme called Nodoka which is both a refreshing change and a pleasure to the eyes. Fedora 8 also feature a spartan look and feel called Infinity. GNOME bundled with Fedora 8 is version 2.20.1 and KDE is version 3.5.8.

Shown below are a couple of well designed GUI front-ends which aid the end user in accomplishing a variety of complex tasks - these tasks can also be executed using the equivalent command line tools.

Fig: Dual head display settings

Fig: Advanced Firewall configuration

Fig: Logical volume management GUI tool

Fig: Printer configuration

Fig: SELinux management

Fig: Services configuration

Fig: SELinux troubleshoot browser

Apart from the GUI tools displayed above, there are also GUI front ends for user management, sound management, network configuration, setting up bootloader and so on.

Fedora 8 LiveCD comes bundled with Abiword word processor and Gnumeric spreadsheet which are clean and lean alternatives to OpenOffice.org Writer and Calc. Of course you always have the option of installing OpenOffice.org if you deem it fit via Fedora's Applications > Add/Remove programs interface.

The Fedora team has also been innovating its offering by releasing tools which allow you to roll out (remaster) your own custom Fedora distribution with just the features and software you need. Check out several different spins, which are variations of Fedora built from a specific set of software packages.

On the other hand, Fedora team aka Red Hat is obsessed with making sure that its Linux distribution stays as Free as possible - much to the delight of Free software enthusiasts. A side effect for the end user is that it is not possible to play proprietary audio and video files on a default Fedora installation. If you want to, there is a round about way of enabling some third party repositories (rpm.livna.org and rpmfusion.org) and installing their custom build of multimedia players which are compiled with support for these proprietary file formats. Fedora also comes bundled with a new tool called Codeina which allows you to buy licenses for various multimedia file formats from Fluendo. The prices range from 7 Euros all the way up to 16 Euros for each set of codecs. I haven't installed them so am not in a position to comment on the quality of these bought codecs.

Fig: CodecBuddy (Codeina) allows you to buy licenses for proprietary file formats.

Fedora 8 does feature a GUI tool to easily enable desktop effects (namely Compiz). But then I was faced with a conundrum of sorts which was that without the proprietary Nvidia drivers (My machine has a Nvidia GEForce 2 card), it is not possible to enable the desktop effects. At the same time, it is a round about and messy process to install the proprietary Nvidia display drivers in Fedora; which may be possible if you are running SELinux in permissive mode.

In conclusion, if you are looking for a robust, secure and stable Linux distribution which stands out from rest of the brood in providing an innovative set of GUI tools for system and network administration but at the same time, you are also particular that you would like to use only Free software, then you should seriously consider taking Fedora 8 for a spin. You will definitely fall in love it.