No, no, no…

This isn’t some “how-to” post. This isn’t about things I’ve learned about RPM’s, or yum or KVM…nothing like that. This is about things I have learned about what Fedora is about as a project, and what it’s mere existence means to the entire Linux landscape - in fact, I might stretch that even more… This is about why Fedora, along with other Linux distributions is so important to Linux, Computing, the Internet and beyond.

In this post, I will make some profound statements. Many “fanboys” will not agree with some of the things I am going to say, but if you will think outside of your boxes, you might be able to see the whole picture.

Many people say that Linux can never be a viable player on the desktop because there are too many distributions. I don’t think that is a problem, because the way I see it right now there are only three Linux distributions that are not only constantly innovating, but shape the entire face of Linux, and Open Source Software as we know it.

So, what are the three distributions?

• Ubuntu, which brings the Linux desktop to the masses.
• openSUSE, which brings interoperability to Linux.
• Fedora, which brings the best new technology and features of Open Source software to the enthusiast.

Ok, we’ll start with Ubuntu (since it’s probably the most obvious to most people):

Quick Note: I will go ahead and say that although Ubuntu is built upon Debian, it’s not one of the three. I think, personally, that Ubuntu could exist on it’s on without Debian at this point. Ubuntu is no longer a sanitized snapshot of Debian “Unstable” (Sid) as it was in it’s infancy - in fact, aside from sharing a package manager, there is little compatible between the two now…at least from the way I understand things…I could be wrong, however.

There is one very important area that Ubuntu has been very successful, and that is bringing Linux and Free, Open Source software to an entirely new audience. As important as that is, that doesn’t bring new features into the world of Linux. That doesn’t bring new areas of interoperability into the world of Linux, and that does not make Linux as a whole “better” (although it might make it more “popular”). Ubuntu has found it’s niche - it’s single, yet very important role in the entire Linux landscape - make Linux and FOSS popular with the general public, and not just something for us “geeks”. That doesn’t mean that Ubuntu never sends patches or new features “upstream”, because it does. However, most of what goes upstream from Ubuntu are more like refinements of features that were pioneered in the other two distributions I will discuss in this article.

In other words, Ubuntu is a popular Desktop Distribution, it’s releases are usually stable on a wide range of hardware, and make Linux consumable for even inexperienced users. However, in order to achieve this, it has to be somewhat conservative with what new features it includes and releases as part of it’s stable distribution. Ubuntu relies upon other distributions to pave the way, and bring in the major changes. Ubuntu brings new shutdown menus and a notification system. While those are great things to bring to the table, and add a lot to the distribution, it isn’t ground breaking stuff by any means.

Now, what does openSUSE bring to the table? Simple - Interoperability.

Many Linux fanboys got their panties all in a wad back in 2006 when Novell signed a patent agreement with Microsoft. I’m constantly amazed at how much of the Open Source community just puts on blinders and hates Microsoft for no apparent reason other than just hating them. I love OSS, and I love the model, but get real folks, it is SOFTWARE - not a religion. Don’t take things so personally. Microsoft creates and sells Closed Source software, and makes what is quite literally not only the most used desktop Operating System in the world, but the most used Office Suite as well (not to mention all of their many other products). I don’t hate Microsoft, In fact I use their products every day. I use Windows, I use Office - I couldn’t do my job without them (in fact, Windows is a large part of my job as a Network Administrator, since we have mostly Windows servers at work). In fact, I’m even typing this on a Microsoft Keyboard! They make good stuff. They are big, and they are powerful. By signing the patent agreement, Novell has had the ability to innovate in ways other Linux distributions can’t. Many great Open Source projects have come out of Novell: Mono and Moonlight are two very important examples, but also the Novell build of OpenOffice.org is by far the most widely used in all Linux distributions, and I always recommend the Go-oo build to Windows users wanting to try OpenOffice (the Mac-centric NeoOffice is also based on Go-oo as well). Also, just today, HP announced a new line of business laptops available with Suse Linux Enterprise Desktop (or SLED). SLED is by far the closest thing to a true “drop-in” replacement for MS Windows in most business environments, and has excellent interoperability features with Active Directory and Exchange.  These are some examples of what Novell has done.

Now, for the final of the three: Fedora.

Fedora, as you probably know is a community project sponsored by Red Hat. Love it or hate it, Red Hat is the single largest Linux company in the world. I would also say that combined, Red Hat and it’s “child” Fedora, and the “step-child” (I say this because it’s not officially sponsored by Red Hat) CentOS together have the largest installed base out there, especially in the Server/Datacenter space. Many of the most popular sites on the Internet (can you say Facebook anyone) are built on top of a Red Hat based foundation. Even Oracle uses Red Hat as the foundation for it’s “Unbreakable Linux”, and then there is also Scientific Linux (another RHEL “rebuild”) that is popular in the Science and Education market, along with the Fermilab’s own FermiLinux.

Where does all of that start? With Fedora of course. I would venture to say, that no other Linux distribution out there brings more to the table in terms of new features than Fedora. Somehow, Fedora, approximately every 6 months manages to take the absolute most bleeding edge, innovative features that the Open Source world has to offer, and present it in a usable stable form for the enthusiast to use (and love).

Fedora has come a long way since it’s early days. Originally, Fedora was broken into two separate sections: Core and Extras. Fedora Core was the sole domain of Red Hat employee’s and community members were not able to commit to packages that were part of Core, while Extras was the community playground (if you will). Since the two areas have merged back with Fedora 7, the line between the two has become very transparent, and Fedora has blossomed into not only a great desktop system, but has continued to innovate in ways that no other Linux distro has. Fedora is like a showcase of things to come in other distributions. The Fedora project is committed to contributing as much as possible to upstream projects, and ensuring that everyone can benefit from what goes on inside of Fedora. Fedora is built upon a set of Foundations that state that it will remain dedicated to Free Software, Represent the Strength of the Community, while maintaining a Commitment to Excellence and to always staying Innovative. Fedora is a leader where others are followers and by means of the shared power and talent of the community always tries to create and improve free software and content, and is committed to contributing everything it does back to the Open Source community as a whole.

Just to give an example of how far ahead of other distributions Fedora is, compare the “just released” Ubuntu 9.04 with the now 5 month old Fedora 10, and you’ll see what I’m talking about.

So, who uses Fedora? Click the link to find out, and read the rest of the page for even more info about the Fedora project.

As important as each of these three distributions are, none would be complete without features, innovation and talent involved in creating the other two. As a result of the hard work of the developers and communities surrounding these three distributions, we are able to have and enjoy many different Linux distro’s, large and small, general and specified, free and non-free. We have a choice, and that choice, regardless of what distribution you choose is wonderful.

My choice from now on however, is Fedora.

(Thanks to everyone in the Fedora community that has made me feel welcome and taught me a few tricks in the process - you’ve all been great!)

I haven’t been using my blog much over the ast few months. I have generally been very busy with life in general. Not least of course with work which has been a great player in my life this year. Not in a negative overtaking way but apart from my photography and walking, it has been my main creative output. So, trying to get things back on an even base before I leave once again for a weeks (for Christmas and New Year) it’s about time I updated this blog on my exploits with OpenSUSE 11.0.

OpenSUSE 11.0 Desktop with Firefox 3 and LyX

I think about 3-4 months ago I decided to give the distribution a go to see how it was compared to Ubuntu (which I was getting somewhat disenchanted by with its somewhat sloppy approach to testing it seemed, and the general default aesthetic looking like arse — don’t get me wrong I know it can be changed but first 8.04 was meant to be featuring a new theme, then 8.10 and I can’t see any real difference… Way to go! Especially with so may talented theme makers throwing their ideas into the pot.)

The only thing I have changed since switching to OpenSUSE 11.0 is not the distribution, but I have dropped KDE 4.1 for Gnome. I think KDE has come a long way but to make the most of it, it does need something a little more juicy than a Radeon 7500 (which is what my ThinkPad T40 has, and that chip was out of date when it was put in this notebook in 2003, and yes — I still have the T40 and no I don’t need a new laptop.)

The main thing that I like about OpenSUSE is the way it really does just work. I have had no problems with media, video, general office applications, networking (wired and wireless), sharing files with Windows/Mac OS X… It all just works. Granted on almost 6 year old hardware, the compatibility should be pretty good now

With Compiz, the equivalent of Vista's Aero, you can get snazzy desktop effects. The difference is they run, and quite well at that, on very modest hardware like an ancient Raden 7500 Mobility GPU!

So where does this leave me in the future? Well in 4 days I understand OpenSuse 11.1 is released and I shall upgrade to that as well. But the bottom line really does seem to be that as an OS, it works so very well. And if you have a fairly well established system (i.e. not bleeding edge) — I cannot see why unless you have to connect to a Windows managed domain and you need specific applications which only exist on Windows — OpenSuse is just about great for everybody. Even complete novices.

Note: Yes I have skinned my OpenSUSE system to look somewhat like Vista with OS X’s Leopard default background. I like it like this, it works well, aesthetically pleasing and it looks quite professional, which quite a lot of themes for Linux[1] don’t.

[1] : I’m well aware that Linux is a bad turn of phrase here with there being KDE, GTK, Metacity etc. etc. themes but for simplicities sake, this makes sense.

Although they sometimes get a bad rap because of Novell’s agreement with Microsoft, stuff which I could care less about - partly because I’m a MS consumer as well, and I make my living largely by Administrating Windows Server Operating Systems, openSUSE does some great things for the Linux Community.

Personally, on several occasions, I have tried and failed to run openSUSE as my personal distro. I’m not going to get into those reason here, but we are simply not a “match”. That aside, there is a great tool given too us by openSUSE and that is the Build Service and the “KDE Four” Live CD.

The KDE Four Live CD comes in two versions, and both are installable, based on openSUSE 11.0 and are a handy tool to keep up with KDE 4 development.

Both versions are available here, and let me explain the differences.

The first CD is based on KDE 4.1.1 (I’m sure soon to be updated to 4.1.2) and represents the latest “stable” build of KDE 4. The second CD is based on the KDE 4.1.64 development snapshot, which will become KDE 4.2.

Since I’m running Mandriva 2009 with KDE 4.1.2, I opted for the “development” CD to download, and install in VirtualBox. Now, since it’s a LiveCD, I don’t have to “install” it, I could simply boot the ISO up in VirtualBox. My purpose for installing it is to keep it up-to-date over time.

Although I’m using VirtualBox, you could choose to use VMware, KVM, QEMU or any other Virtualization program you choose to check this out, or you could boot up a PC with the live CD, or if you really like living on the edge, you could install it onto your PC.

Once you decide how you’re going to use the CD, head over to the link I provided earlier and download one of the ISO files. I’ll wait…

Ok, now that you have the ISO, for sake of simplicity, let’s just say you’re using VirtualBox, so go ahead and make your Machine, mount your ISO and power on the virtual. Once at the desktop, you’ll notice it’s a plain jane KDE 4 without any openSUSE customizations (this raises a question for me later).

Now, the “installer” isn’t really visible anywhere, and I had to dig a little to find it, but go into YaST, and go to Miscellaneous and you’ll see Live Installer - click that, and go through the install, and reboot your Virtual Machine - again, I’ll wait…

OK! Now you have it installed. By default the standard openSUSE 11.0 repositories are configured, along with the Build Service repo’s for the KDE 4 “Unstable” builds. You can go ahead and do a full system update with YaST, and if you do this regularly, you’ll have an isolated test enviroment to keep up with KDE 4, and where it’s progressing on it’s way to 4.2!

Remember two paragraphs ago when I said the vanilla KDE 4 I got initially off of the CD ended up raising a question for me? Well here it is. After doing the update, and rebooting, I was greeted with KDE 4 with the Aya Plasma theme rather than Oxygen. I’m thinking this is an openSUSE customization (since the little openSUSE Lizard guy is hanging out on the Window Title Bars now), but I can only hope, wish and dream that the KDE 4 team has decided to make Aya the default for 4.2 - I know openSUSE 11 used Aya, and Mandriva is using it as well. I hate that black panel that’s there by default (trying to look like Vista?), and Aya takes on the system wide selected color scheme, which looks far more professional and polished to me. This is personal taste, but I can only hope that distro’s follow openSUSE and Mandriva’s lead by using Aya, although Kubuntu and Fedora so far have been using the ugly black panel. I did like this look I got after I updated the LiveCD, see here for how it affected my personal Mandriva setup.

And now, the obligatory screenshot: