Fedora

Fedora is a Linux-based operating system that showcases the latest in free and open source software. Fedora is always free for anyone to use, modify, and distribute. It is built by people across the globe who work together as a community: the Fedora Project.The Fedora Project is open and anyone is welcome to join. The Fedora Project is out front for you, leading the advancement of free, open software and content. what is Fedora Core?

• Fedora 8
• Fedora 9
• Fedora 10 (latest)

Fedora 8 (FC8)

Fedora 8, codenamed Werewolf, was released on November 8, 2007.

Some of the new features and updates in Fedora 8 include:
• PulseAudio – a sound daemon that allows different applications to control the audio. Fedora was the first distribution to enable it by default.
• system-config-firewall – a new firewall configuration tool that replaces system-config-securitylevel from previous releases.
• Codeina – a tool that guides users using content under proprietary or patent encumbered formats to purchase codecs from fluendo; it is an optional component that may be uninstalled in favor of Gstreamer codec plug-ins from Livna which are free of charge.
• IcedTea – a project that attempts to bring OpenJDK to Fedora by replacing encumbered code.
• NetworkManager – faster, more reliable connections;[43] better security (through the use of the keyring); clearer display of wireless networks; better D-Bus integration.
• Better laptop support – enhancements to the kernel to reduce battery load, disabling of background cron jobs when running on the battery, and additional wireless drivers.

Fedora 8 also includes a new desktop artwork entitled Infinity, and a new desktop theme called Nodoka. A unique feature of Infinity is that the wallpaper can change during the day to reflect the time of day. In February 2008, a new Xfce Live CD "spin" was announced for the x86 and x86-64 architectures.[44] This Live CD version uses the Xfce desktop environment, which aims to be fast and lightweight, while still being visually appealing and easy to use. Like the GNOME and KDE spins, the Xfce spin can be installed to the hard disk

Fedora 9 (FC9)

Fedora 9, codenamed Sulphur, was released on May 13, 2008.

Some of the new features of Fedora 9 include:
• GNOME 2.22.
• KDE 4, which is the default interface as part of the KDE spin.
• OpenJDK 6 has replaced IcedTea.
• PackageKit is included as a front-end to yum, and as the default package manager.
• One Second X allows the X Window System to perform a cold start from the command line in nearly one second; similarly, shutdown of X should be as quick.
• Many improvements to the Anaconda installer;[49] among these features, it now supports resizing ext2, ext3 and NTFS file systems, and can create and install Fedora to encrypted file systems.
• Firefox 3.0 beta 5 is included in this release, and the 3.0 package was released as an update the same day as the general release.
• Perl 5.10.0, which features a smaller memory footprint and other improvements.
• Data Persistence in USB images

Fedora 9 features a new artwork entitled Waves which, like Infinity in Fedora 8, changes the wallpaper to reflect the time of day.

Fedora 10 (FC10)

Fedora 10, codenamed "Cambridge", was released on November 25, 2008.[2] It flaunts the new Solar artwork. Its features include:[51]

• Faster startup using Plymouth (instead of Red Hat Graphical Boot used in previous versions)
• Support for ext4 filesystem
• Sugar Desktop Environment
• GNOME 2.24
• > KDE 4.1.2
• > OpenOffice.org 3.0

We installed it on an Intel Core2 Duo machine with 512 MB RAM and the installation was sruooth. and similar to its earlier release. It very well detected all the hardware and everything worked fine. We also compared the installation time and booting time with its predecessor Fedora 9. For this we installed Fedora 9 on the same system on which Fedora 10 was installed, without changing any hardware. Surprisingly there was hardly any difference between the two. Both the distros took almost half an hour to install and took approximately same amount of time to boot. The installation was done with default package selection. But what's worth mentioning here is that the number of default packages to be installed in Fedora 9 was 928 whereas in Fedora 10 it was 1070.

Next we installed Fedora 10 64-bit on HP Pavilion dv6000 for checking the performance on a laptop. As most of the laptops these days come with a processor that supports 64-bit OS. and also as a 64-bit open source OS doesn't cost you any extra penny. so its worth having one. The installation process was smooth and was over within 20 minutes. After the system got restarted, there was no text booting sequenceand was removed by a three phase graphical sequence. Some difference there with the previous cUstro. When the login screen prompted us. we tried the finger print scanner which didn't work at all. However. we logged ourselves in by providing username and password. Like the previous distro, th,is also failed to detect the NVIDIA graphics card. Hence we were required to download the driver from NVIDIA's site and then install it. It worked fine afterwards. However, you could face the same problem with Windows as well for some specific graphics cards. The support for webcam is pretty much enhanced and this was proven when it promptly detected the laptop's in-built web cam. Even applications such as 'Cheese Web Cam Booth'. which use this hardware. accessed it without any problem. Later we installed Skype, for making calls and checked both input and'lQitput sounds. Skype is only available for'31'-bitOSes, so we had to forcefully install 32-bit pulseAudio sound driver. But things didn't work as per expectations. After doing some research we found it was the pulseAudio driver creating probt lems. Hence uninstalling the pulseAudio, and working with ALSA solved the problem. Everything was perfect after this step, Wireless connectivity was good and we got the laptop connected to a WPA secured WiFi with ease. You also have the option for connecting to hidden wireless networks which is indeed going to find favor with a lot of people. This feature was missing in the previous versions of Fedora, where manually connecting to these hidden wireless devices was a pain. Now since terror is at its peak these days, you better make your organization's WiFi system hidden, which makes it hard for others to access. Overall. this distro proves itself to be a good competitor to others and is definitely worth a try. We have provided Fedora 10 with this month's DVD. Just boot your machine with the DVD and install it. Who knows. with the economy in recession and IT budgets taking a hit. you might be tempted to give it a shot across desktops!