There are many versions of Linux. At the deepest level, there are a few fundamentally different Linuxes, and each of these may appear in one or more, sometimes many, different “distributions.” So, most Linux distributions are based on either Debian, RedHat\/Fedora, Gentoo, and a couple\/few others. Off hand, I’m not sure how many different core systems one has to add together to reach 50%, or 80%, or whatever you like.Ubuntu is based on Debian. Debian is part of the GNU project, and is in some ways the philosophically purest, or main distribution. Many, many people will hate that I said that and comment below, and I look forward to their different perspectives.Gentoo, on the other hand, is a special flavor of Linux that is philosophically driven to be highly customizable. It could be thought of as the geekiest of the standard distributions. Gentoo (soft ‘G”) is a kind of penguin, by the way.Fedora is a distribution that is linked to the commercial product, Red Hat Linux. Get it? (Fedora is a kind of hat….) In a way, Fedora is the “bell labs” of Red Hat, with cutting edge somewhat experimental stuff that would eventually be absorbed (or not) in to Red Hat.Red Hat\/Fedora is a very common distribution used in a lot of commercial settings where support is needed. I believe it is on a lot of servers.It seems to me that for a long time, Fedora\/RedHat was the Ubuntu of Linux. It was often the distribution people would mess around with if they were trying out Linux. Then came along a range of “user friendly” distributions (Suse, Linspire, etc.) which were all eventually supplanted by Ubuntu.Well (and thanks to Virgil Samms for pointing this out), the latest version of Fedora … version 9 … claims to be a very user friendly form of LInux with a lot of cool new bells and whistles.<\/p>\n
The ninth release of Fedora ushers in a number of changes aimed at making the venerable distribution a more newbie-friendly desktop, but longtime users needn’t fear a great dumbing down; version 9 packs plenty of power user punch as well.Fedora is a community-driven distribution sponsored by Red Hat and, while Fedora may be best known as a popular server OS, most of the changes in Fedora 9 are aimed at making the system friendlier for desktop users.The Fedora team has clearly spent a lot of time trying to refine some of the smaller, but perhaps more common user interface elements in some thoughtful ways. Take, for instance, the new setting that allows you to manage power settings from the login screen. It’s a small tweak but it makes shutting down simple. There’s no need to login when you wake from hibernate – just shut down straight from the login screen. Similar attention to these basics can be found throughout the new release.Read the rest here. <\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
I had a Fedora distro for a while. In fact, it was the distro I had working best before installing Ubuntu. I may actually attempt an install of this new distribution to see how it goes. Could be fun.Anybody got it yet?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
There are many versions of Linux. At the deepest level, there are a few fundamentally different Linuxes, and each of these may appear in one or more, sometimes many, different “distributions.” So, most Linux distributions are based on either Debian, RedHat\/Fedora, Gentoo, and a couple\/few others. Off hand, I’m not sure how many different core … Continue reading Fedora 9 seems very fine.<\/span>