Jump to content

Fedora Linux

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by 32.97.110.64 (talk) at 16:06, 25 January 2013 (Correct the date on which the distrowatch statistics were gathered). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Not to be confused with Red Hat Linux or Red Hat Enterprise Linux.
Fedora
File:Fedora Project logo.png
Fedora 18 GNOME Shell Desktop
Fedora 18 (Spherical Cow) running GNOME Shell 3.6
DeveloperFedora Project,
(owned by Red Hat, Inc.)
OS familyUnix-like (based on Red Hat Linux)
Working stateCurrent
Source modelFree and open source software (with exceptions)[1]
Initial release2003-11-16[2] It was codenamed Yarrow. Fedora Core 1 was based on Red Hat Linux 9 and shipped with version 2.4.19 of the Linux kernel, version 2.4 of the GNOME desktop environment, and K Desktop Environment 3.1.[3]
Latest release18 (Spherical Cow) / January 15, 2013 (2013-01-15)
Available inMultilingual
Update methodYum (PackageKit)
Package managerRPM Package Manager
Platformsi686, x86-64
Kernel typeMonolithic (Linux)
UserlandGNU
Default
user interface		GNOME 3
LicenseVarious free software licenses, plus proprietary binary blobs.[1]
Official websitewww.fedoraproject.org

Fedora (/[invalid input: 'icon']f[invalid input: 'ɨ']ˈdɒr.ə/), formerly Fedora Core, is an RPM-based, general purpose collection of software, including an operating system based on the Linux kernel, developed by the community-supported Fedora Project and owned by Red Hat. The Fedora Project's mission is to lead the advancement of free and open source software and content as a collaborative community.[4]

One of Fedora's main objectives is not only to contain software distributed under a free and open source license, but also to be on the leading edge of such technologies.[5][6] Fedora developers prefer to make upstream changes instead of applying fixes specifically for Fedora—this ensures that their updates are available to all Linux distributions.[7]

A version of Fedora has a relatively short life cycle—the maintenance period is only 13 months: there are 6 months between releases, and version X is supported only until 1 month after version X+2.[8] This promotes leading-edge software because it frees developers from some backward compatibility restraints, but it also makes Fedora a poor choice for product development (e.g., embedded systems), which usually requires long-term vendor-support, unavailable with any version of Fedora.

In 2008, Linus Torvalds, author of the Linux kernel, stated that he used Fedora because it had fairly good support for the PowerPC processor architecture, which he had favoured at the time.[9]

According to DistroWatch, Fedora is the fourth most visited Linux-based operating system on their site as of January 2013, behind Mint, Mageia and Ubuntu, and it is the second most visited RPM-based Linux distribution.[10]

History

The Fedora Project was created in late 2003, when Red Hat Linux was discontinued.[11] Red Hat Enterprise Linux was to be Red Hat's only officially supported Linux distribution, while Fedora was to be a community distribution.[11] Red Hat Enterprise Linux branches its releases from versions of Fedora.[12]

The name of Fedora 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's "Shadowman" logo. Warren Togami began Fedora Linux in 2002 as an undergraduate project, intended to provide a single repository for well-tested third-party software packages so that non-Red Hat software would be easier to find, develop, and use. The key difference between the approaches of Fedora Linux and Red Hat Linux was that Fedora's repository development would be collaborative with the global volunteer community.[13] Fedora Linux was eventually absorbed into the Fedora Project, carrying with it this collaborative approach.[14] Fedora is a trademark of Red Hat, and although this had previously been disputed by the creators of the unrelated Fedora repository management software, the issue has now been resolved.[15]

The Fedora Project is governed by a board whose majority is elected by the Fedora community.[16]

Features of Fedora

Distribution

File:Fedora 17 PackageKit Update Manager.png
Fedora's Update Manager
PackageKit, the default package manager front-end on Fedora

The Fedora Project distributes Fedora in several different ways:[17]

  • Fedora DVD/CD set – a DVD or CD set of all major Fedora packages at time of shipping;
  • Live images – CD or DVD sized images that can be used to create a Live CD or boot from a USB flash drive and optionally install to a hard disk;
  • Minimal CD – used for installing over HTTP, FTP or NFS.[18]

The Fedora Project also distributes custom variations of Fedora which are called Fedora spins.[19] These are built from a specific set of software packages and have a combination of software to meet the requirements of a specific kind of end user. Fedora spins are developed by several Fedora special interest groups.[20] It is also possible to create Live USB versions of Fedora using Fedora Live USB creator, UNetbootin or dd.

Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux (EPEL) is a volunteer-based community effort from the Fedora project to create a repository of high-quality add-on packages that complement the Fedora-based Red Hat Enterprise Linux and its compatible spinoffs such as CentOS or Scientific Linux.[21]

Software package management is primarily handled by the yum utility.[22] Graphical interfaces, such as pirut and pup are provided, as well as puplet, which provides visual notifications in the panel when updates are available.[22] apt-rpm is an alternative to yum, and may be more familiar to people used to Debian or Debian-based distributions, where Advanced Packaging Tool is used to manage packages.[23] Additionally, extra repositories can be added to the system, so that packages not available in Fedora can be installed.[24]

Software repositories

Fedora comes installed with a wide range of software that includes LibreOffice, Firefox, Empathy, Evolution and GIMP. Additional software that is not installed by default can be downloaded using the package manager.

Before Fedora 7, there were two main repositories – Core and Extras. Fedora Core contained all the base packages that were required by the operating system, as well as other packages that were distributed along with the installation CD/DVDs, and was maintained only by Red Hat developers. Fedora Extras, the secondary repository that was included from Fedora Core 3, was community-maintained and not distributed along with the installation CD/DVDs. Since Fedora 7, the Core and Extras repositories have been merged, hence the distribution dropping Core from its name.[25] That also allowed for community submissions of packages that were formerly allowed only by Red Hat developers.

Also prior to Fedora 7 being released, there was a third repository called Fedora Legacy. This repository was community-maintained and was mainly concerned with extending the life cycle of older Fedora Core distributions and selected Red Hat Linux releases that were no longer officially maintained.[26] Fedora Legacy was shut down in December 2006.[27]

Third party repositories exist that distribute more packages that are not included in Fedora either because it does not meet Fedora's definition of free software or because distribution of that software may violate US law. The primary third party repositories, and the only fully compatible ones, are RPM Fusion and Livna. RPM Fusion is a joint effort by many third party repository maintainers. Livna is still maintained separately as an extension of RPM Fusion for legal reasons and only hosts the libdvdcss package for encrypted DVD playback.

Desktops and Spins

The default desktop in Fedora is the GNOME desktop environment, with Fedora offering the GNOME Shell as its default interface since the release of Fedora 15.[28] Other desktop environments are available from the Fedora package repositories, and can also be installed from the Fedora installer, including the KDE Plasma Workspaces, Xfce, and LXDE desktop environments.[29] In Fedora 18 both the MATE and Cinnamon desktops were made available in the package repositories.[29] In addition, specialized "spins" are available offering these alternative desktops custom configured and offered by default. Other spins are also available targeting specific niche interests, such as gaming, security, design, and robotics.

Security features

Security is one of the most important features in Fedora. One of the security features in Fedora is Security-Enhanced Linux, a Linux feature that implements a variety of security policies, including mandatory access controls, through the use of Linux Security Modules (LSM) in the Linux kernel. Fedora is one of the distributions leading the way with SELinux.[30] SELinux was introduced in Fedora Core 2. It was disabled by default, as it radically altered how the operating system worked, but was enabled by default in Fedora Core 3 and introduced a less strict, targeted policy.[31][32]

Releases

Main article: List of Fedora versions

The current release of the operating system is Fedora 18, codenamed "Spherical Cow", which was released on January 15, 2013.

Some of the features of Fedora 18 include:

Version history

Fedora Core 1 with the GNOME Desktop and Bluecurve theme
Fedora 17 will be maintained until one month after the release of Fedora 19
Color Meaning
Red Release no longer supported[33]
Green Release still supported
Blue Future release
Project Name Version Code name Release date End-of-life date[34] Kernel version
Fedora Core 1 Yarrow 2003-11-05 2004-09-20 2.4.19
2 Tettnang 2004-05-18 2005-04-11 2.6.5
3 Heidelberg 2004-11-08 2006-01-16 2.6.9
4 Stentz 2005-06-13 2006-08-07 2.6.11
5 Bordeaux 2006-03-20 2007-07-02 2.6.15
6 Zod 2006-10-24 2007-12-07 2.6.18
Fedora 7 Moonshine 2007-05-31 2008-06-13 2.6.21
8 Werewolf 2007-11-08 2009-01-07 2.6.23
9 Sulphur 2008-05-13 2009-07-10 2.6.25
10 Cambridge 2008-11-25 2009-12-18 2.6.27
11 Leonidas 2009-06-09[35] 2010-06-25 2.6.29
12 Constantine 2009-11-17[36] 2010-12-02 2.6.31
13 Goddard 2010-05-25[37] 2011-06-04 2.6.33
14 Laughlin 2010-11-02[38] 2011-12-08 2.6.35[39]
15 Lovelock 2011-05-24[40] 2012-06-26[41] 2.6.42[42]
16 Verne 2011-11-08[43] 2013-02-12[44] 3.1.0[45]
17 Beefy Miracle[46] 2012-05-29[47] Mid 2013 3.3.4[48]
18 Spherical Cow 2013-01-15[49] Late 2013 3.6.0
19 Schrödinger's Cat[50]

Derivatives

See also List of Fedora-based Linux distributions
  • Notable Fedora Derivative Linux Distributions:
Source: DistroWatch list of Fedora derived Linux distributions
Source: Fedora WIKI list of derived distributions.
  • Not active (no release for over 12 months):

See also

References

  1. ^ a b "Frequently Asked Questions about Fedora Licensing". Fedora Project wiki. Retrieved 1 March 2011.
  2. ^ Red Hat (6 November 2003). "Announcing Fedora Core 1". Retrieved 18 October 2007.
  3. ^ "Fedora Core 1 Release Notes". Retrieved 19 October 2007.
  4. ^ "Fedora Project Overview". Retrieved 4 November 2009.
  5. ^ Max Spevack. "Fedora Project Leader Max Spevack Responds". Retrieved 17 December 2006.
  6. ^ "Fedora Project Objectives". 19 December 2006. Retrieved 12 February 2007.
  7. ^ Paul W. Frields (12 May 2008). "Fedora 9". Fedora Project. Retrieved 27 July 2008.
  8. ^ Fedora Project life cycle and maintenance, accessed 2009–04–07.
  9. ^ Richard Morris (17 July 2008). "Linus Torvalds, Geek of the Week". Retrieved 3 August 2009.
  10. ^ distrowatch.com. Retrieved 23 January 2013.
  11. ^ a b "Fedora Project: Announcing New Direction". 22 September 2003. Retrieved 18 October 2007.
  12. ^ "The Fedora Project and Red Hat Enterprise Linux, part 4". 22 August 2006. Retrieved 18 October 2007.
  13. ^ "Warren Togami on the new Fedora Project". Retrieved 9 February 2010.
  14. ^ "Why Fedora? (.odp presentation)". Retrieved 30 April 2011.
  15. ^ "Red Hat Inc.'s Use of The Fedora Name". Archived from the original on 13 October 2006. Retrieved 25 June 2009.
  16. ^ "Fedora goes to a community-dominated board". Retrieved 22 June 2009.
  17. ^ Fedora Project. "New Users – How Do I Download Installation Files?". Retrieved 3 April 2009.
  18. ^ Fedora Project. "Alternative Install Methods". Retrieved 3 April 2009.
  19. ^ CustomSpins - Fedora Project Wiki.
  20. ^ Fedora Project (19 November 2007). "Custom Spins". Retrieved 19 November 2007.
  21. ^ Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux (EPEL), accessed 2009–05–15.
  22. ^ a b Stuart Ellis. "Software Management Tools in Fedora Core". Retrieved 18 November 2007.
  23. ^ Fedora Project. "APT and Fedora". Retrieved 18 November 2007.
  24. ^ Stuart Ellis. "Using Repositories". Retrieved 18 November 2007.
  25. ^ "Fedora 7". Retrieved 17 January 2007.
  26. ^ Fedora Project. "Fedora Legacy". Retrieved 18 November 2007.
  27. ^ David Eisenstein (29 December 2006). "Fedora Legacy shutting down". Retrieved 18 November 2007.
  28. ^ "Fedora 15 and the Desktop: Is it Ready?". Retrieved 30 May 2012.
  29. ^ a b "Fedora 17 now available for download". Retrieved 30 May 2012. Cite error: The named reference "Spins" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  30. ^ "Mandatory Access Control with SELinux" (PDF). Retrieved 7 October 2007.
  31. ^ "Fedora Core 2 Release Notes". Retrieved 19 October 2007.
  32. ^ "Fedora Core 3 Release Notes". Retrieved 19 October 2007.
  33. ^ Fedora Project. "Releases". Retrieved 23 June 2008.
  34. ^ "End of life". FedoraProject. Retrieved 25 January 2012.
  35. ^ "Fedora 11 Release Schedule". The Fedora Project. 31 May 2009. Retrieved 10 June 2009.
  36. ^ "Releases/12". FedoraProject. Retrieved 25 January 2012.
  37. ^ "Releases/13/Schedule". FedoraProject. Retrieved 25 January 2012.
  38. ^ "Releases/14/Schedule". FedoraProject. Retrieved 25 January 2012.
  39. ^ "Fedora 14 Release Schedule and Codename - Softpedia". News.softpedia.com. Retrieved 25 January 2012.
  40. ^ "Releases/15". FedoraProject. Retrieved 25 January 2012.
  41. ^ "Reminder: Fedora 15 end of life on 2012-06-26". FedoraProject. Retrieved 1 June 2012.
  42. ^ "kernel". Admin.fedoraproject.org. Retrieved 29 March 2012.
  43. ^ "Releases/16/Schedule". FedoraProject. Retrieved 25 January 2012.
  44. ^ Gilmore, Dennis. "Reminder: Fedora 16 end of life on 2013-02-12". lists.fedoraproject.org. Retrieved 16 January 2013.
  45. ^ "Fedora 16 Release Notes". Retrieved 10 November 2012.
  46. ^ "Fedora Project Wiki". FedoraProject. 16 January 2012. Retrieved 25 January 2012.
  47. ^ "Releases/17/Schedule - FedoraProject". FedoraProject. 5 April 2012. Retrieved 25 April 2012.
  48. ^ url=http://docs.fedoraproject.org/en-US/Fedora/17/html/Release_Notes/sect-Release_Notes-Changes_for_Sysadmin.html#id579836
  49. ^ "Releases/18/Schedule - FedoraProject". FedoraProject. 5 January 2013. Retrieved 5 January 2013.
  50. ^ "Results of Fedora 19 release name". FedoraProject. 16 November 2012. Retrieved 16 November 2012.
  51. ^ Fuduntu - Punny Name, Serious Distro, accessed 2011-03-18.
  52. ^ Rahul Sundaram (Red Hat's Community Engineer) includes MP3 and DVD playback support by adding software from RPM Fusion and Livna software repositories by default.
  53. ^ Designed and developed in Venezuela. The Web site is in Spanish.

Media related to Fedora (operating system) at Wikimedia Commons

Template:Xfce Template:LXDE

Template:Link GA

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/enwiki/w/index.php?title=Fedora_Linux&oldid=534841571"