Fedora 8 spins into action The kind, gentle part of Red Hat did its thing this week with the release of Fedora 8. And, true to form, the new operating system comes packed with a host of fine features. For one, users can now have at some fresh "spins." These are variations on Fedora aimed at specific crowds. Each spin contains a unique set of applications …
To be honest I have never been fond of Fedora but I must admit Fedora 8 looks very promising. Now if only my damn surround sound would work on it. My personal favorite addition is pulse audio. Similar to what Windows has when you can adjust the volume for each application individually.
... of becoming a viable alternative desktop OS.
I've been using Linux for just about 10 years now and the current releases - I'm using Ubuntu 7.10 not FC8, but the same is probably true - are the first I've used where everything just works, even on the latest Laptop hardware. Bluetooth, WiFi, native screen resolution, sound, modem, the lot. In fact, there is more out-of-the-box support for my Dell laptop with Ubuntu 7.10 than there is with the Windows XP SP2 CD that shipped with it!
"Man has a point.
You have time: you play with Linux.
You don't - you end up with a Mac.
(variant: you don't have time and you work in a company you don't own: you use Windows)"
Not so... I have no time whatsoever, brought a laptop with vista, format, install Linux Mint, job done. No fiddling, no playing. Now I have a cheap laptop that works quickly and the kids at school can't mess with. It's somewhat of a fading myth now that linux requires a PHD to use properly. It used to be the case, less and less so with every passing release of various distros. With Mint... it really does "just work"
Macs just drive me up the wall...
Linux installs are much, much better then they used to be. Although last time I look, there were more steps to Ubuntu or Fedora installs that Windows.
Give the Vista installation a try - you'll be very suprised. Pop in the disc, select your language / locale and agree to the EULA. Wait 20 mins - enter in your desired username and if you want to have the system automatically update. Log on. Three screens for installation.... and you don't think people can manage? I suggest you check with the latest release before making statements as above.
Considering all of the problems with Vista drivers (especially with slightly old hardware), the chances for an easy installation with Vista are limited.
I installed XP pro/SP2 on a computer - had to download drivers from the web to get it to work. Put Linux on the same computer - everything worked (and used it to download the drivers for the XP partition).
OK, I've not personally tried with Vista, but my point was the one made by "fishman".
Once you've installed the "OS" with Windows, nothing works. No sound, no networking, the graphics cards not working properly. Any other bit of hardware you've got probably needs drivers too. Even if you know this and you've got the whole box load of CDs that came with the PC getting it all working is a total PITA for an experienced user. 99.9% of Windows users aren't and don't want to be computer literate - they just want the damn thing to work.
Once they've got all the drivers working, then they'll wonder why Word is working, where's Outlook gone. How come when ever you download a document off the web you can't read it, coz it doesn't know what to do with a PDF file.
With a modern Linux disti these just aren't problems.
It's all there.
A month after Windows when tits up on one of my main PCs I'm still trying to get XP back into a properly working state.
Everyone's experience is different.
I'm sure that Microsoft has released more drivers for Vista at launch than ANY other OS has. The problem is the larger the user base, the more variants of hardware, therefore the higher likelihood of an incompatibility occuring. I installed Vista Ultimate on a nearly four year old PC with only 1GB of RAM and it runs fine, as does every piece of hardware and software I own. The instal was the easiest of any I've ever done - genuine childs play.
And before anyone thinks I'm a MS lover, I'm not. I would genuinely love to have a Mac as I think their hardware design is great and I love their OS look and feel. I'm planning on getting one in the next few months to see how I get on.
Hold on, why are we talking about Vista. Does every thread about an OS have to end up in a war of words "my OS is better than yours". Sounds like playground antics...
I put a fresh copy of XP home on my home made PVR a few months ago. Setup was something I have done so many times, I can practically do it in my sleep, but it still had lots of problems.
With Windows..
Make a floppy disk for the SATA drivers, which meant rooting out a working(thankfully) floppy drive and scavenging a disk.
Partition the drive, which on a drive of this size takes ages.
Install...Easy enough.
Then find drivers for the motherboard chipset. the sound card, the network card, the video card, the TV tuner card. Install applications one by one. Get codecs for various media types. All the usual stuff. It took hours including the updates and restarts.
And then comes the trouble shooting. Oh Joy!! After about two months, I am finally in a position where I can say that my PVR is stable and seems to be working reliably.... for now.
If Microsoft had to sell Windows as a self installed system instead of getting the OEMs to do all the hard work, people would have such a different view of Linux right now. With 100% hardware vendor support, and equipment designed specifically to run Windows, why do they have such a big problem with getting hardware to work when Linux can pick up most things off the bat and have a useful system on first boot?
Well - just downloaded the live CD of Fedora 8 - I really would like to be able to use Linux.
Booted up my Acer laptop - all looking good. Ah....WiFi doesn't work. Now - I class myself a pretty clued up but all I get is an error "Determining IP information for wlan0... failed". Try Googling that error and find me a single page that a Linux newbie can follow or understand.
Installed XP (and yes - I HAVE installed XP from scratch) and well....WiFi (and erm...everything else on this laptop) just works out of the box.
"How come when ever you download a document off the web you can't read it, coz it doesn't know what to do with a PDF file.
With a modern Linux disti these just aren't problems.
It's all there."
You do of course realise that the reason why Microsoft doesn't include things like PDF readers by default is not because it's such a technically difficult thing to do... it's because Adobe (etc) would sue them.
In fact they did just that when MS tried to include native PDF support in Office 2007.
Isn't that because MS wanted to build it into their own product which Adobe tried to suggest could be viewed as anti-competitve (take the market's biggest office suite and build in PDFs) - then you need nothing other than MSO? I suspect that had MS just bundled Adobe's (or an OS) PDF viewer, no-one (c|sh)ould have complained.
One way to install applications is to use a tool called yum. Have a search around, there are plenty of guides to help you, quite a few on how to improve a basic Fedora installation. Out-of-the-box it lacks a few useful things, like mp3 support and DVD playing. These can be easily added. Try this guide :- http://www.mjmwired.net/resources/mjm-fedora-f8.html [other guides are available]
That's exactly the point of view I see so often and fail to understand. Linux devotees keep telling us Windows users how wonderful Linux is and how easy it is to use and how soon everyone will be using it.
Then we get a problem, are told that we're too stupid to understand and no-one's going to help us unless we help ourselves.
So really, Linux is wonderful and easy and everyone WHO HAS AN IT DEGREE* will be using it.
* or those that don't ever actually DO anything with their PC's but rather spend all their time working out how to use them. Rather like classic car owners....they seem to know their motor's inside out but never actually drive them anywhere.
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