Fedora 14 Released and Reviewed — Advanced, and Not For Wimps 200
Several readers have sent word that Fedora 14, codenamed Laughlin, has been released. A brief listing of the major changes has been posted, and the download is available at the Fedora project's site. Reader jfruhlinger points out a quick review of the new version, saying, "Remember the days when being a Linux user was like being part of a select priesthood — arcane knowledge needed, but great rewards? Steven Vaughan-Nichols has tested out Fedora 14, and that was how it went. No Ubuntu-style handholding, but some powerful new features."
KDE (Score:5, Insightful)
I've always used KDE with RedHat/Fedora. He needs more friends that run Fedora.
hmmmm (Score:3, Insightful)
"Remember the days when being a Linux user was like being part of a select priesthood"
Yeah, i do, and that's why linux is having a hard time converting people because most of the community is desperately trying to keep it that way. And before you call me a windows fanboy, I run it all, win7, mac, several flavors of linux.
Probably not worth your time. (Score:1, Insightful)
A review by the baboon who is Steven Vaughan-Nichols, also going by the name of "Cyber Cynic", is most probably not worth your time. The guy's clueless, much like the incompetent bunch of would-be experts (some writers excluded) over at the new LF-operated linux.com.
Re:Wanker (Score:4, Insightful)
Yeah, I saw that too. And then he ends the review with "they need more quality assurance". Apparently someone doesn't know what the term "beta" means.
Re:KDE (Score:3, Insightful)
arcane knowledge needed, but great rewards? (Score:5, Insightful)
Sure, I remember those days. Now that I use Linux for real work, with live production servers, and not just screwing around in my bedroom I don't have time for that nonsense. I greatly prefer the more common state of things where the mostly automated configuration is probably pretty close to what I need, but I still have the option to make use of that arcane knowledge to tweak things if I need/want to.
Don't get me wrong, that kind of distro still has its place in the world, but it shouldn't be the standard way of things.
Re:hmmmm (Score:1, Insightful)
Take heart! There are plenty of niche OS's left!
Re:In Some Ways It Still Is (Score:5, Insightful)
Check your spam folder. I think it was titled "Hot Russian Girls Await You".
Re:hmmmm (Score:3, Insightful)
Terrible review (Score:5, Insightful)
Half the article describes his test laptop and the theme he used. Then he didn't get USB3 to work, and suggested you overwrite your modules file (hint: use 2 > characters, not one). Then he complained about the CD burning program. Who burns CDs anymore?
Nothing about SELinux, nothing about filesystems, nothing about updated packages like SSH, Postfix, Bind, or anything.
a better article summary: "Beta Fedora makes a weak desktop, and I didn't bother to try any of the cool features of Linux"
Re:The bad old days (Score:3, Insightful)
Well, it's like changing a tire, writing your own interrupt handlers, or hand-optimizing memory usage.
It's something everybody should do at least once in their life so they understand the process. And, once you've done it, you will never want to do it again.
It's not at all clear to me why everyone should compile a kernel at least once. Yes, I can do it if necessary but I see no reason why, especially with all the Linux evangelists trying to get it on every desktop, they feel the average Joe should ever know what compiling is let alone have to do it to an entire OS. You use a fork everyday but is really beneficial to know how to forge one? You write or print on paper regularly but should you have to know how to fell a tree and turn it into wood pulp? It seems ridiculous to expect everyone to know everything. Differentiation of information and skillsets is how a society works. Let OS geeks compile operating systems while the rest of us learn how to make them do things kernel developers never thought of.
Another great release (Score:4, Insightful)
Can we get over the quality of the review and celebrate the release of Fedora 14, already? I've been running it since the beta release, and I'm very happy with it. Fedora 14 is another great release by a group of people who are dedicated to Free Software!
Re:The bad old days (Score:2, Insightful)
You're missing a category: People who were enthusiasts for a lot of years and got burned out trying to keep their computers running. I run Ubuntu now.
Re:The bad old days (Score:2, Insightful)
It's something everybody should do at least once in their life so they understand the process.
I'm a little confused. What aspect of the process requires understanding?
Compiling a kernel is: /boot /boot/grub/grub.conf
- make menuconfig
- make && make modules_install
- mv bzImage
- emacs
Maybe I'm just jaded, but I'm missing how this is enlightening and/or instructive. Why is it useful for people to know these steps?
Re:Wanker (Score:3, Insightful)
Apparently someone doesn't know what the term "beta" means.
Very few people do anymore, what with Google releasing all of their products with the "Beta" label and never, ever releasing a production version of anything ;)
IIRC, Google's definition of beta is "not showing a profit"
Re:Wanker (Score:3, Insightful)
Beta (noun): Greek letter used to denote the last build of software before management decides to ship the product anyway.
Hm. I always thought that's called a "prototype". ~
Re:The bad old days (Score:4, Insightful)
Because, the notion that it's a task that is (or should be) reserved only for the tech wizards is intellectually offensive.
One of my university profs (to whom I owe a great debt of gratitude) had very strong ideas about learning to do such things for yourself, and as a result, understanding more of the context and scope of it. You learn a lot more, and you remember it for longer -- it's not some random fact to be forgotten, it's something that you've internalized and that means something. As a result, when I wrote a microkernel as part of my OS theory class, I really got to understand how an OS works from the bare metal up. Have I done it since? Nope. Not at all. Am I grateful for having done it? Youbetcherass.
I'm not saying that literally everyone should compile a kernel -- my mother, for instance, not so much. But, in terms of demystifying the process, I think it's a valuable thing to learn.
I remember several years ago when my father (at the time in his late 60's, and a computer n00b) came to the conclusion he needed to install a printer driver. The chain of thought to arrive at the conclusion that there is a) such thing as a printer driver, b) you need one to make your printer work, and c) determining the steps to install a printer driver is quite impressive. It represents grasping several concepts before you can even move onto trying to find a solution -- but, in the end, he understood what drivers did (broadly), why we need them, and how to install one.
If you just threw up your hands and said "zomg, that's just way too complicated and therefore beyond me", you're going to curl up in a ball the first time things get difficult.
So, yes, if you consider yourself more than a Linux hobbyist, and just want to give yourself a little more in-depth understanding ... compile a kernel. Break your machine like the rest of us have. Panic. Fix it. At the very least, it demystifies the process ... and on the other hand, forces you to understand at least at a high level that there are such things as kernels and drivers, but that it's not some arcane magic.
Now, get off my damned lawn and go compile a kernel or something. ;-)
Re:hmmmm (Score:3, Insightful)
Yeah, anyone who is upset at how "dumbed down" something like Ubuntu is, actually is showing how dumb they are..
Like how due to pressure from ubuntu users xorg disabled the ZAP functionality (ctrl-alt-backspace) by default? Then when the rare occasion where it was needed happened it was useless.
Nobody gives two hoots if they make it easier until by trying to cater to some noob thing they make it harder for the people who actually know what they are doing.
Re:KDE (Score:2, Insightful)
Friends don't let friends use KDE4 plasmoid monstrosity.
Re:ctrl alt backspace (Score:3, Insightful)
I'm a fedora user, ubuntu got xorg to make the change to the defaults so all distros were affected.
I just change my xorg.conf, but still, one more thing to do because of retarded noobs having too much influence.