Category: Linux

Linux and the Open Source Lifestyle

More on Fedora

by
Linux distribution
Image via Wikipedia

After our post yesterday on Fedora, we received a comment from Paul W. Frields, who is the Fedora Project Leader and chairman of the Fedora Project Board. He wrote:

I think the idea that we’re “regaining” users implies that we lost them somewhere along the way, which isn’t what our statistics show. Rather, as the total size of the Linux-user pie has become larger, we’ve continued to grow consistently. There will always be distro-hoppers looking for that elusive perfect Linux distribution — and more often than not, failing in that quest — but in general the strength of our development model, rapid release cycle, and putting the freshest software in front of users in a stable, easy to manage platform have retained users’ hearts for a long time. It’s true that we may not have the marketing push of Ubuntu; it’s a fine distribution and community, but given the choice between marketing features and creating them, we definitely choose the latter. We’re very happy that many of the features we create are adopted by other distributions, because that shows, first, the strength of the free software development model; and second, that our policy of working directly with the upstream, as opposed to creating a crazy quilt of technically questionable patches in our own distribution alone, is the winning strategy for long-term sustainability.

And he is right, we were inaccurate with the title. Fedora is improving its share of the overall Linux market, which continues to grow. There has been a lot of growth on the Ubuntu front, because of their aggressive marketing push. We’ve noticed developers seem to be releasing Ubuntu packaging and not is offering up-to-date Fedora packing.

Three pieces of software we’ve referenced on this blog come to mind. Dropbox, Boxee, and XBMC. Dropbox is a file sync application which offers a current Ubuntu package, but only a Fedora 9 rpm(which fortunately works with Fedora 10). XBMC and Boxee are both supported under Ubuntu, and maintained there, but require a series of source code hacks to work under Fedora.

Now, this is hardly a reflection on Fedora. XBMC and Boxee contain multimedia packages that Fedora cannot include for legal reasons…nor can Ubuntu for that matter. It is a reflection on our original point…essentially that Fedora(which we use) is gaining popularity. As Paul reminded us, one of the best parts of Fedora is that they work directly with upstream maintainers…those who write the packages Fedora is assembled from, such as the Gnome Desktop, which is a major part of multiple distributions, so that the alterations are done at a level above the individual distribution. Thus Fedora enhances the overall Linux experiences for all users, by being involved.

Reading a draft of this article on Fedora, it states that “the Fedora project has four basic foundations, the 4 Fs, its corner stones. Freedom, Friends, Features and First are the core values that govern us.”

“Freedom” represents the dedication to free software. It lays emphasis on the creation, usage and promotion of free, open source alternatives to proprietary or closed source solutions. Our aim is to provide software that is reliable as well as a hundred percent legally redistributable to everyone.

“Friends” signifies the strength of the community. The project consists of people from different parts of the world with different ideas and views with belief in Fedora’ s core values as their binding force. Everyone who wants to help is welcome at the community. Our decisions and steps are taken after a consensus is reached, as between friends!

“Features” represents our commitment to excellence. Fedora is responsible for the creation and constant improvement of software that takes the Linux world forward. It is for the benefit of all users of free software regardless of their distribution of choice.

Lastly, “first” represents our commitment to innovation. It signifies that every major step in the project is taken with a view of the future. Fedora is described as a bleeding edge distribution that always provides the latest available for Linux.

Fedora has some great features/goals for Fedora 11. They include, to name a few:

  • 20 Second Startup – Part of their continual goal to speed this up
  • Automatic Font and Mime Installer – Allowing programs on the desktop to automatically install fonts, codecs, and clipart
  • CrashCatcher – to help users with bug reporting
  • Ext4 – Replace the default ext3 partitioning scheme with ext4, its successor.
  • Updating the following included programs: Firefox to version 3.1, gcc to 4.4, Gnome to 2.26, NetBeans to 6.5, Python to 2.6, Thunderbird to 3, Xfce to 4.6, Xserver to 1.6.
  • Improved Fingerprint Reader support
  • Multiseat support – making it easy to  a single computer to operate with independent keyboard, mouse, and monitor for multiple users
  • Improve Power Management
  • Presto – Presto supports upgrades using DeltaRPMS. A DeltaRPM is a file that only has the differences between the last version of the software and the new one, allowing it to be much smaller. The DeltaRPM can be used to generate the updated package. This will reduce overall load on servers by not requiring users to download pieces of a file they already have.
  • Volume Control improvements – There have been problems with volume control since Fedora added Pulseaudio
  • Windows Cross-Compiler – Allows users to compile Windows programs without Windows

And many more…We look forward to enjoying them.

Related articles by Zemanta
Reblog this post [with Zemanta]

Fedora Regains Users

by
Image representing Fedora as depicted in Crunc...
Image via CrunchBase

We’re Fedora users. Sure, Ubuntu is more popular, and openSuse and other distribution are gaining popularity, but we started with Red Hat 6 many years ago, and have had an installation of each of the Fedora distributions since. They are up to Fedora 10, and we are talking about distributions of Linux, for those of you not familiar with them.

Two years ago, Eric S. Raymond, a Linux evangelist, commented:

“Over the last five years, I’ve watched Red Hat/Fedora throw away what a near-unassailable lead was at one time in technical prowess, market share and community prestige. The blunders have been legion on both technical and political levels.”

Now, we can agree that Fedora has had some problems finding its voice. But now, Paul Frields, the Fedora Project leader, declared that since the release of Fedora 10, they’ve counted about 1 million new installations and approximately 2 million unique visitors to fedoraproject.org each month. Checking out the Ranking of various distributions on Distrowatch for the last 12 months, Fedora is #4, beaten by, in order, Ubuntu, openSuse, and Mint. The site is not a fully accurate indicator of usage, but it does provide a baseline to consider.

openSuse, is a project sponsored by Novell. Mint is a distribution based on Ubuntu whose goal is to provide a more complete out-of-the-box experience by including browser plugins, media codecs, support for DVD playback, Java and other components. Fedora doesn’t include these things in the default distribution for legal reasons.

Fedora 10 included many significant changes, including a new graphical boot system called Plymouth, and boot-time improvements. Speeding up the boot process is a major push for all Linux distributions right now, and developers are looking at unnecessary delays they can remove, such as probing for obsolete hardware, and how they can present the startup screen while loading certain things in the background, so the user can start working while programs are continuing to load. Fedora continues to push the envelope with new technologies, and while there are still some issues even we admit it has.

To map our improvements…wireless support has been vastly improved over the last few versions, and has worked out of the box for us with few disconnects. Some elements of any distribution are upgraded versions of software included…such as the latest version of OpenOffice. For these, any problems cannot be blamed on Fedora itself, except in how the various pieces fit together. So far, no complaint on that front. Multimedia support under Fedora is a bit tricky, because Fedora, for legal reasons, cannot include proprietary codecs, including ones for MP3 or DVD. But there are a variety of start guides that take you through adding 3rd-party support.

For video DVDs, which are encrypted, there is no software you can license to play them. There is only a decryption program which is open-source, and thus disapproved of by the DVD industry, despite the fact they’ve offered no alternative. So, it can be done, but it can’t be included in any distribution to avoid lawsuits.

We’re glad that Fedora is regaining users. We’re hoping it means more projects, Boxee, for example, release their software in Fedora-compatible packaging. We’ve thought about migrating one or more systems over to Ubuntu, but we know the ins and outs of Fedora design, and sometimes you stick with what you know.

Related articles by Zemanta
Reblog this post [with Zemanta]

Fedora Unity Does a Release

by
Image representing Fedora as depicted in Crunc...
Image via CrunchBase

We’re devotees of Fedora Linux, despite alternatives, and the incredible popularity of Ubuntu, which we have spent some time with. But we started with Red Hat 7, and with Fedora as its successor, we know more of the ins and outs of this distribution.

Tonight, we’re using to Jigdo to assemble new DVD images, as the Fedora Unity project has released a Fedora 10 re-spin. For those of you not familiar with these things, some background.

Jigdo is a wonderful thing, and has been used by various Linux distributions for some time, and only recently as a method for Fedora distribution. The idea is this…a CD or DVD for a Linux OS is merely a compilation of various software packages and configuration files. Instead of downloading an entire image, Jigdo assembles it from its components. This has several advantages…for one it doesn’t tax any one site. Jigdo, given a mirror list, can download files from multiple sites to assemble its image.

The Fedora Unity Re-Spin is a Jigdo image of the standard Fedora installation media, using any updates that have been released since the original release. Thus, if you install Fedora 10 on a new system, you don’t then have to download a few hundred megabytes of updated files to each system. We maintain a local mirror we use to update multiple systems at one time, and using it and Jigdo, can assemble a new installation DVD in less than 5 minutes.

The glaring gap in the Fedora Jigdo release is that specialty Fedora spins are not released as Jigdo templates. Fedora offers LiveCDs and custom distributions of various types, and these are distributed only as ISOs.

Either way, the Re-Spin system is a good one, and Fedora Unity provides a service. For those of you still on Windows, check out this Lifehacker article on their equivalent, known as slipstreaming.

Reblog this post [with Zemanta]

Why You Should Switch To Linux

by

We were recently reading Lifehacker and found an article on Why its Readers Switched to Linux. We thought we might put our two cents in.

  • Dislike of Microsoft and Windows – We certainly got fed up with them. We admit to being primarily a Linux using now(this blog was built on open-source). Every few years you have to get the new Microsoft whatsis or you’ll be left behind. And, using Vista as an example, the new whatsis isn’t always an improvement.
  • Speed – A lot of the built-ins to Windows slow down the computer. It is why Linux runs faster on older hardware as well as newer hardware. It has background processes and programs just like any other system, but the overhead is usually much less.
  • Customization – This may be a pro or a con. Nothing is so configurable as Linux, with dozens of different packages to expand, change, or customize your experience for most standard functions. Of course, such choice can be be overwhelming to some. In which case you can stick to the defaults. No harm, no foul.
  • Price – 99% of things for Linux are 100% free. There are some commercial license Linux programs, as well as ones that ask for your donation in assisting them. You can forego them, or you can contribute to the community.
  • It’s Just Better – Not a great argument, we know. But our frustration level is way down. We can’t adopt the philosophy that change is impossible because Microsoft won’t let us. If enough people want a change to a piece of software, it happens. And if it doesn’t, if you are a programmer, you can hack it in yourself.

So try out your friendly neighborhood Linux distribution today. We recommend you consider Fedora or Ubuntu. Both have a reputation for being new user friendly and easy for those who have no Linux knowledge to use even if they don’t want to delve into the guts behind the graphical interface. You can even download bootable CD versions to try out before deciding if you want to switch.

For information on Linux distributions and their estimated popularity, visit Distrowatch.

Dell Offers Three Systems with Ubuntu Linux

by

Dell will be offering systems with Linux, based on a customer demand. Three systems will be offering it to start…the XPS 410N(Starting price $849) and E520N(Starting price $599) desktop machines, and the E1505n(Starting price $599) notebook.

Initially, Dell will offer a subset of the component options they support on the three systems and will continue to work with vendors to improve the stability of the associated Linux drivers in order to offer more options as part of a longer-term goal to increase the number of drivers that work at the kernel level.

They have a video available about Linux from StudioDell entitled Linux 101: What’s all the Fuss?.

Ubuntu Linux is available free of charge for download for your existing systems at the Ubuntu Website. Ubuntu is divided into desktop and server editions released every six months. For those of you interested in switching to Linux for daily use…you might want to give it a try. We use Fedora Linux ourselves…but we are creatures of habit.

Fedora 7 Released

by

We use Fedora Core Linux for many of our systems…especially the servers. Today, Fedora(which has dropped the Core from their distributions), released Fedora 7, codenamed Moonshine. We are downloading it for upgrade of our systems as we speak.

OS Upgrade time is always a happy time in our household. We use it as an excuse to dust our system interiors(you should do this regularly) and review our systems for possible hardware upgrades. This year, we’re gutting the interior of our main server. The old pieces will be reallocated to other functions.

For those of you considering jumping on the Linux bandwagon, Fedora 7 incorporates some exciting new features. You can take your Fedora installation disc(usually a full DVD) and customize it…adding or removing packages and software to install…thus you could create a distribution that only installs what you need it to…or that substitutes packages not included in the standard distribution…You can also create a LiveCD that will boot Fedora without needing a hard drive, and customize this as well.

Here are the release notes…Wait a few days to download it…it is going to be overloaded for a bit. We’re hoping it will improve some of the weaker areas of previous distributions…the release notes seem to indicate they’ve worked on those areas.

Dell to Offer New OS Options

by

Dell will once again be offering Windows XP on new machines, as well as Windows Vista. On their suggestion website, a plea to restore the option for XP racked up more than 10,700 votes. It will immediately offer XP again as an option for four models of Inspiron notebooks and two models of its Dimension desktops.

Dell has also said it plans to offer Linux as an option…also due to increased demand. It feels the issue is driver support, however. Their goal is to have all open-source drivers, and that means choosing components with such drivers available, or with the understanding the manufacturer will make them available. Currently, Linux device support can be hit or miss. If they sell a system…it must be preconfigured to work with all the hardware.

We have an Inspiron notebook that we loaded with Fedora Core linux…our current preference. It works flawlessly…after a slightly higher learning curve. Each component had to be configured.

Experimenting with Operating Systems

by

We recently started experimenting with QEMU. QEMU is a generic and open source machine emulator and virtualizer.

As an emulator, it can run operating systems and programs made for one machine on another. It currently can emulate the ARM processor(used in routers and other embedded network hardware), SPARC, PowerPC, MIPS, and more are coming.

As a virtualizer, it can create a virtual computer than can run a complete operating system on it. There is an optional drive available to enhance speed.

QEMU runs on the command-line under Windows and Linux-based computers, but pops up a window or a full-screen display for the operating system it is virtualizing. We have used QEMU to experiment and test bootable CDs. These CDs boot a complete operating system and are often used for diagnostic testing on computers.

You can find the latest version of QEMU for Windows here.

To try QEMU out, get a CD image of a bootable CD in iso format, and run the following command:

qemu -cdrom [iso filename] -boot d

That will boot whatever iso you want in a virtualized window.

We’ll have more on QEMU in the future, but it is a great way to experiment with Linux and other operating systems, if you want to try them without major alterations to your system. For more information, try the QEMU on Windows wiki.

Running a Network Server without a Computer

by

We recently pulled out the Linksys Network Storage Link USB 2.0, aka the NSLU2, affectionately nicknamed the SLUG by enthusiasts. The NSLU2 is actually a Linux-based device, which runs SAMBA, a version of Windows file sharing and has been hacked to run other things.

The NSLU2 is not your only choice for hacking in this manner. You can use the Synology DS101, the Iomega NAS100D, the D-Link DSMG600, or any device that uses the ixp4xxx chipset with attached storage. However, the NSLU2 has the most following, having had an established community for a long time.

There are several options for replacement firmware for the NSLU2. There is Unslung, which allows you to expand the ffunctionality of the NSLU2 without using the original product functionality and compatibility with the original Linksys firmware. However, unlike the stock firmware, Unslung contains support for NTFS(The formatting used for Windows drives), card readers, USB hubs to add extra devices, and other enhancements. Other packages can be installed to a drive hooked into the Slug as it has limited memory and run, for example, a streaming media server.

Alternatives to Unslung include OpenSlug and Debian for the NSLU2, which remove the Linksys functionality in favor of a complete Linux system, and thus are not for the neophyte.

For more information on the various aspects of the NSLU2, visit its unofficial homepage/wiki. We just set one up as a file server at a remote location. It will, as soon as we finish setting up the software, not only backup files from the main server, but allow users at the second site to access local copies of their documents.

Knoppix

by

Knoppix is a distribution of Linux developed by Klaus Knopper. It is designed to be booted off of a CD or DVD. There are many customized versions of Knoppix designed for various different functions. It is useful to users not only for those who wish to run their system off of read-only media, but as part of an arsenal of tools for computer diagnostics.

Damn Small Linux is an even smaller distribution based on Knoppix. It is a 50MB mini desktop designed to be booted from a Mini-CD, a USB drive, or even within Windows. There is a larger variant available that is currently around 85mb for those who wish to take advantage of certain technologies that the smaller footprint does not allow.

KnoppMyth is the Linux equivalent of Windows Media Center Edition. It is a Knoppix distribution that attempts to automate the setup and usage of the MythTV DVR package. It can be used in a variety of ways. We’ll have more about MythTV in the future.

There are numerous other variants. But a plain vanilla Knoppix CD or DVD can mount Windows drives when the Windows OS is corrupted, resize partitions, and thus is a valuable tool. The graphical tools included as well as the standard command-line Linux tools can be a lifesaver.

Recently, a Windows XP computer failed to boot. We could not, no matter how we tried, get it to boot even to Windows XP Safe Mode. We booted the system with Knoppix, backed up the data over a network, then did a wipe, reinstall, and copied the data back.