Jump to content

Fedora Linux

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by 72.131.115.96 (talk) at 22:12, 5 June 2007. The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Fedora
File:Fedoralogo.png
Fedora 7 running GNOME
DeveloperFedora Project
OS familyLinux
Working stateCurrent
Source modelOpen source,Free Software
Latest release7 / May 31, 2007
Update methodYum
Package managerRPM Package Manager
Platformsx86, x86-64, PowerPC
Kernel typeMonolithic kernel, Linux
Default
user interface		GNOME
LicenseVarious
Official websitefedoraproject.org

Fedora (previously called Fedora Core) is an RPM-based Linux distribution, developed by the community-supported Fedora Project and sponsored by Red Hat. It aims to be a complete, general-purpose operating system that contains only free and open source software.[1][2] Fedora is derived from the original Red Hat Linux distribution, and it is intended to replace the consumer distributions of Red Hat Linux aimed towards home users. Help for Fedora comes from the greater community; while Red Hat employs many of the Fedora developers, it does not provide official commercial support and services for the distribution. New releases of Fedora come out every six to eight months.

History

The Fedora Project was created in late 2003, when Red Hat Linux was discontinued. Red Hat recommended that commercial Red Hat Linux users switch to Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), which continues to be Red Hat's only officially-supported Linux distribution while sponsoring Fedora as a community project and distribution. RHEL branches its releases from versions of Fedora. See the RHEL page for the versions of Fedora and their corresponding RHEL versions. Fedora is meant to be a fast moving distribution with more of the latest and robust software while RHEL is for enterprises which value commercial support, certification and associated services with a longer lifecycle.

Red Hat's release of Fedora started a popular trend amongst commercial Linux distribution vendors, that of creating a community distribution closely related to a commercial distribution, with the community distribution acting as an open development lab leading to the commercial distribution. (See Commercial and community Linux distributions by the same vendor.)

Software repositories

Since the release of Fedora 7, Fedora has one main software repository. Prior to this release, Fedora had two main software repositories; Fedora Core for the base packages, and Fedora Extras for packages not distributed as part of the core. These were merged with the release of Fedora 7.

Fedora Core

The Fedora Core software repository contained the base packages required to run Fedora.

Fedora Extras

Fedora Extras was a repository for packages not distributed with the base Fedora Core distribution. Extras packages were generally obtained online, and could be downloaded with yum or other package management software. Fedora Extras was only available for Fedora Core 3 and later. For versions previous to FC3 there was another repository called fedora.us, which was the base for Fedora Extras. Nevertheless, Fedora Extras did not modify or overwrite packages from Fedora Core, as Fedora.us used to do.

Naming

The name derives from Fedora Linux, a volunteer project that provided extra software for the Red Hat Linux distribution, and from the characteristic fedora used in Red Hat "Shadowman" logo. Fedora Linux was eventually absorbed into the Fedora Project.[3] Red Hat has been tangled in disputes with the creators of the Fedora repository management software over the name, on which Red Hat has attempted to secure trademark rights.[4]

Fedora is sometimes called Fedora Linux though this is not an official name. The word "Core" distinguished the main Fedora packages from those of the Fedora Extras project, which provided add-ons to Fedora Core. The difference between these two repositories was that Red Hat maintained Core and volunteers maintained Extras.

After Fedora Core 6 a decision was made to merge the Core and Extras repository,[5] with the result of this effort known as Fedora 7.

Overview

Fedora is distributed in a five-CD set or on a single DVD; only the first two CDs are required for a basic installation. Network installations over HTTP, FTP, and NFS are also supported. GNOME is Fedora's default desktop environment; KDE is also included on the official CDs and DVDs. GNU GRUB is the default boot loader. Fedora is designed to be easily installed and configured, including a suite of simple graphical installers and configuration tools. The default file system is ext3 over LVM and the package management system is RPM.

Fedora is intended to be distributed on CD and DVD media, and it only contains a small selection of packages. There are available several software repositories with extra software to complete the distribution. The official ones are Fedora Core, with an image of the whole system, Fedora Updates, with new versions, and Fedora Extras, which contains almost 7,000 packages. There are also many unofficial repositories that provide additional software not packaged by Extras, often due to copyright and patent issues. Fedora 7 will be the first release to include software from the Fedora Extras as well as the Core.

Software package management is handled by the yum utility; graphical interfaces to yum called "pirut" and "pup" (the latter solely for updates) are provided, as well as "puplet", a panel notification applet. apt-rpm can also be used; a multi-lib capable version capable of using native yum metadata is included in Extras. Red Hat and the package maintainers release patches and updates regularly that can be installed with these tools.

Versions

Version Name Date Status
7 Moonshine May 31, 2007 Maintained
6 Zod October 24, 2006 Maintained
5 Bordeaux March 20, 2006 Maintained
4 Stentz June 13, 2005 Discontinued
3 Heidelberg November 8, 2004 Discontinued
2 Tettnang May 18, 2004 Discontinued
1 Yarrow November 6, 2003 Discontinued

Fedora Core 1

Fedora Core 1 in KDE

Fedora Core 1 is the first version of Fedora. Its release name was Yarrow, and its status is discontinued. It was released on November 6, 2003. Fedora Core 1 was based on Red Hat Linux 9 and shipped with version 2.4.19 of the Linux Kernel, version 2.4.0-1 of the GNOME desktop environment, and version 3.1.4-6 of KDE(the K Desktop Environment).

Fedora Core 2

Fedora Core 2 was released on May 18, 2004. Its release name was Tettnang, and its status is discontinued. This was the first release to include version 2.6 of the Linux Kernel. It was also the first release to include SELinux, a Security-Enhanced version of Fedora; however SELinux was by default deactivated due to concerns that it radically altered the way Fedora runs (in later versions of Fedora, SELinux is by default activated)[6]. In Fedora Core 2, XFree86 was replaced by the newer X.org, a merger of the previous official X11R6 release (XFree86 4.4.0rc2), which additionally includes a number of updates to Xrender, Xft, Xcursor, fontconfig libraries, and other significant improvements.

Fedora Core 3

Fedora Core 3 was released on November 8, 2004. Its release name was Heidelberg and its status is discontinued. With this version Red Hat introduced Firefox in addition to the Mozilla web browser.

Fedora Core 4

Fedora Core 4 was released on June 13, 2005. Its release name was Stentz. Its status is discontinued. In this version, Red Hat introduced Clearlooks as the default theme. Xen, a high performance and secure open source virtualization framework, was also introduced.

Fedora Core 5

Fedora Core 5

Fedora Core 5 was released on March 20, 2006. Its release name is Bordeaux and its status is currently maintained. Fedora Core 5 was the first Fedora release to include mono and tools built with it such as beagle (a desktop search interface), f-spot (a photo management utility), and Tomboy (a note-taking application). It also introduced new package management tools such as pup ( a simple interface for system updates) and pirut (a new package manager that replaced system-config-packages). Fedora Core 5 also introduced the Fedora Bubbles artwork. It also was the first Fedora release to not include the long-deprecated (but kept for compatibility) LinuxThreads, replaced by the Native POSIX Thread Library. Therefore, the LD_ASSUME_KERNEL environment variable will no longer work.

Fedora Core 6

Fedora Core 6

Fedora Core 6 was released on October 24, 2006. Its release name is Zod and its status is currently maintained. In Fedora Core 6 the Fedora Project used the Fedora DNA artwork. They also introduced support for Compiz (a compositing window manager for the X Window System) and AIGLX (a program that enables GL-accelerated effects on a standard desktop). According to the Fedora Project, there are more than two million users of Fedora Core 6. Codename Zod derives its name from the archrival of Superman from the Superman DC Comic Books. Fedora Core 6 comes with OpenOffice.org 2.0, an open-source office suite managed by Sun. The default web browser is Firefox 1.5. This version includes Smolt, a tool that allows users to inform developers about the hardware they use.

Fedora 7

File:Fedora 7 Murrina Deviant.jpg
Fedora 7 using the Murrina Deviant Theme

Fedora 7, codenamed Moonshine, was released on May 31, 2007. The biggest difference between Fedora Core 6 and Fedora 7 is that Fedora 7 heralds the merging of the Core and Extras repositories. This release includes a new visual style, dubbed "Flying High". It can be seen at Fedora 7 graphics.

Fedora 7 is also the first release of the distribution to feature spins. A spin is a release of Fedora targeted at a specific kind of user. Fedora 7 spins will include Live, a live CD that allows users to try out the distribution; Prime, targeted at desktops, workstations and servers; KDE, containing the K Desktop Environment; and Everything, containing all packages. It includes a tool named Pungi to make customized spins. The live CD also allows the user to install Fedora 7 to the hard drive.

Another important feature of Fedora 7 is the inclusion of version 2.18 of GNOME.

Distributions based on Fedora

  • Berry Linux, a medium-sized Fedora based distribution that provides support for Japanese and English.
  • Fox Linux, a Fedora based distribution made in Italy, designed for basic home computing tasks such as browsing the Web, writing and printing documents, using multimedia and burning discs.
  • BLAG Linux and GNU, a stripped down 1-CD Fedora with Debian's apt system.
  • LinuxTLE, a Thai distribution produced by NECTEC
  • MythDora, a distribution based around MythTV's media center capabilities.
  • Yellow Dog Linux, a Fedora based distribution for the PowerPC platform.
  • Aurora SPARC Linux, a Fedora based distribution for the SPARC platform.
  • YOPER
  • CCRMA is a music/realtime distribution based on Fedora
  • BlankOn, a Fedora based distribution with Bahasa Indonesia, developed by YPLI (Yayasan Penggerak Linux Indonesia/Indonesia Linux Mover Foundation)
  • ASPLinux is a Russian Fedora based distribution which includes its own installer. ASPLinux also includes closed source NVIDIA and ATI drivers, and supports proprietary audio and video codecs.

Fedora's wiki also has a list of derived distributions.

See also

References

  1. ^ "Fedora Project Objectives". 2006-12-19. Retrieved 2007-02-12.
  2. ^ Max Spevack. "Fedora Project Leader Max Spevack Responds". Retrieved 2006-12-17.
  3. ^ "Fedora Network Proposal". Retrieved 2006-07-28.
  4. ^ "Red Hat Inc.'s Use of The Fedora Name". Retrieved 2006-07-28.
  5. ^ "Fedora 7". Retrieved 2007-01-17.
  6. ^ "Fedora Core 2 - SELinux". Retrieved 2007-05-02.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/enwiki/w/index.php?title=Fedora_Linux&oldid=136166206"