Fedora Core
From Free net encyclopedia
Template:Infobox OS Fedora Core is an RPM-based Linux distribution, developed by the community-supported Fedora Project, sponsored by Red Hat. The name derives from Red Hat's characteristic fedora used in its "Shadowman" logo.
Fedora aims to be a complete, general-purpose operating system from open source software. Fedora is designed to be easily installed and configured with a simple graphical installer and the 'system-config' suite of configuration tools. Packages and their dependencies can be easily downloaded and installed with the yum utility. New releases of Fedora come out every six to eight months.
The name Fedora Core distinguishes the main Fedora packages from those of the Fedora Extras project, which provides add-ons to Fedora Core.
Fedora was derived from the original Red Hat Linux distribution. The project envisages that conventional Linux home users will use Fedora Core, and intends that it replace the consumer distributions of Red Hat Linux. Fedora came about as a result of a new business strategy which Red Hat implemented late in 2003 - Red Hat now positions Red Hat Enterprise Linux as a business-oriented Linux distribution, and all official support is for that distribution. Support for Fedora comes from the greater community (although Red Hat staff work on it, Red Hat does not provide official support for Fedora).
Fedora is sometimes called Fedora Linux, though this is not actually the official name.
Contents |
Versions
Image:Fedora Core 4 desktop.png
Stable
On March 20, 2006, Fedora Core 5 (FC5, release name Bordeaux) was released. It includes GNOME 2.14, KDE 3.5.1, Xorg 7.0, GCC 4.1, version 2.6.16 of the Linux kernel, and, for the first time, the Mono development platform. Mono has not been included until now due to an unclear state of software patents of Microsoft.
Fedora Core 4 (FC4, release name Stentz), the previous stable version, was released on June 13, 2005 for the i386, AMD64, and PowerPC architectures. It includes GNOME 2.10 and KDE 3.4, GCC 4.0, a gcj-compiled version of the Eclipse IDE, and version 2.6.11 of the Linux kernel.
Unstable
There are currently no unstable packaged releases of Fedora Core. The latest release is considered stable.
Bleeding-edge
New packages that end up in Fedora (and later, Red Hat Enterprise Linux) are first added to Fedora Rawhide. Rawhide is in perpetual beta, and may break at any time, but some developers do use it as their main distribution.
Maintained by Fedora Legacy
The Fedora Legacy project is a community project that handles releases after Red Hat has stopped maintaining updates for those who do not wish to or cannot upgrade.
Image:Fedoracore3.png Fedora Core 3 (FC3, release name Heidelberg) was released on November 8, 2004 for the i386 and AMD64 architectures, and was transferred to Fedora Legacy on January 16, 2006. It included GNOME 2.8 and KDE 3.3.0, X.Org Server 6.8.1, the Xen virtualizer, and version 2.6.9 of the Linux kernel.
Fedora Core 2 (FC2, release name Tettnang) reached release on May 18, 2004, and was transferred to Fedora Legacy on April 11, 2005. It included version 2.6 of the Linux kernel, GNOME 2.6, KDE 3.2.1, and SELinux. This version also replaced XFree86 with the X.Org Server. This release occasioned many complaints because of its problems with installation while dual-booting with Windows XP (actually caused by an issue with the 2.6 kernel's handling of partitions).
Fedora Core 1 (FC1, internal codename Cambridge, release name Yarrow) was released on November 6, 2003, and transferred to Fedora Legacy on November 20, 2004. Improvements over Red Hat Linux 9 included automated updates with yum, improved laptop support with ACPI and cpufreq, and prelinking for faster program start time. An AMD64 version appeared in March 2004.
Repositories of extra software
Fedora Core only includes a core set of packages. For downloading and installing programs or codecs not distributed with Core, there are several repositories available. Currently there are two families of repositories. Packages are compatible inside the same family, but incompatible with the other.
- Fedora Extras (maintained by a group of volunteers and affiliated with the official Fedora Project) and Livna (a third-party repository maintained by a group of volunteers). Also Freshrpms claim to be compatible with Extras.
- FreshRPMS (maintained by Matthias Saou), Dag (maintained by Dag Wieers), Dries, and ATrpms (maintained by Axel Thimm)
Packages from both families, in general, cannot be mixed.
The first family has the packages divided according to the license. Extras maintains packages legally distributable in the United States, while Livna maintains packages that may have legal issues within the United States or can be downloaded only by the end user.
The second family has the packages divided according to the opinion of the maintainers.
The incompatibility between the repositories is a subject of some contention within the larger Fedora community. Recently, the second group of packagers have begun working together at a larger project called RPMforge, which claims to be compatible with Extras.
The main tool to install software from repositories is the command yum. A graphical tool called pirut is, together with the update program pup, part of the standard installation since Fedora Core 5. Yumex <ref>http://yumex.python-hosting.com/</ref> is a graphical alternative preferred by some reviewers, and available in Extras.
The Fedora name
Image:Redhat Logo.svg The distribution most likely got its name from the fedora used in Red Hat's "Shadowman" logo. Red Hat has been tangled in disputes with the creators of the Fedora repository management software over the name, which the company has attempted to secure trademark rights on.<ref>Red Hat Inc.'s Use of The Fedora Name</ref>
Version history
Similar to the Red Hat products the Fedora Core Project is using codenames for their distributions.
| Version | Name | Date |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Yarrow | November 5 2003 |
| 2 | Tettnang | May 18 2004 |
| 3 | Heidelberg | November 8 2004 |
| 4 | Stentz | June 13 2005 |
| 5 | Bordeaux | March 20 2006 |
Trivia
- The servers that run Wikimedia are mostly powered by Fedora Core.<ref>Wikimedia servers about page</ref>
References
<references />
See also
External links
Official sites
- Fedora Project homepage
- Fedora Project release schedule
- Fedora Project overview page on redhat.com
- FedoraForum.org Official Fedora Support Forum since May 4 2005
Download sites
Unofficial sites
- The Unofficial Fedora FAQ
- The Unofficial Fedora Starter Guide
- Fedora Forum @ LinuxQuestions.org Fedora Forum sponsored by Fedora Project
- Fedora Forum Gallery Screenshots and workstation layouts
- FedoraNEWS, Fedora Weekly News
- Fedora mailing lists on gmane.org
- Fedora Core Installation Notes
- Fedora Solved No questions - only answers
- Personal Fedora Core Installation Guide
- Template:OSDir
- Template:Distrowatch
Compatibility information sites
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