Fedora Looks Fresh and Functions Well

[Benjy Grogan]

On 3/30/06, Rahul Sundaram <sundaram at fedoraproject.org> wrote:
> On Thu, 2006-03-30 at 04:28 -0500, Benjy Grogan wrote:
> > Hello,
> >
> > I'm really enjoying using FC5.  Tomboy is a great tool for jotting
> > down ideas.  I actually put together this email using a few tomboy
> > notes.  I have a few suggestions -- that you can take or leave -- that
> > I wanted to share to help out with 'Fedora's way forward'. :)  Here
> > they are:
> >
> >
> > 1) A welcome to Fedora (or RHEL) tutorial for new accounts and even
> > maybe a tips section everytime you log in.  DAC would be a really good
> > topic for new users.
>
> Do you want to help with that? . Docs project has a number of people who
> introduce themselves but then dont contribute. So the actual
> contributors are extremely low now.
>
> http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/DocsProject

Perhaps, later on during the Summer.  I can't commit to anything now
but that would interest me.

> >
> > 2) Have a place in Preferences set up for the two or three available
> > Javas (Sun's and the OSS ones).  Then when you have installed Sun's
> > Java you have a place to switch back to the old one, and vice versa.
> > (Question: Is a compiled Azureus the same if it's based on Sun or
> > GCJ?)
> >
>
> Fedora wouldnt ship Sun Java. Azureus is GCJ compiled.
>
> http://fedora.redhat.com/docs/release-notes/fc5/#sn-Java
>
> The alternatives mechanism already allows you to switch between any
> implementation of Java as long as it is appropriately packaged. Check
> out the third question in
>
> http://www.redhat.com/magazine/001nov04/departments/tips_tricks/

It would be nice to have an Alternatives menu in
System->Administration, but either way a useful command.

> > 3) I have a question on codecs.  Is it possible to get all OSS codecs
> > these days based on the GStreamer plugin system?  I think the whole
> > audio/video codec problem would go away if there was a GStreamer Codec
> > management system where OSS codecs would be there by default and then
> > the user would go out and get all the proprietary GStreamer codecs
> > he/she is missing.  It should be simple to look at a Fedora system,
> > and say "alright, got those ones, but missing these ones (like
> > mp3/avi).  And I can figure out where to get them."  And this
> > presupposes a future where there are only Gstreamer codecs.
>
> Thats exactly how it is supposed to be working. We are almost there at
> this point.
>
> >
> > 4) Since Firefox is one of the most important pieces of the Linux OS
> > these days, it would be great to have all of the alphas, betas and RCs
> > available in update-testing.  That would allow some users to test
> > Firefox for bugs over an extended period of time before 2.0 or 3.0
> > comes out.  Obviously, under some guidance from Fedora with all the
> > patches they put into it.
>
> fedora updates-testing repository is just for testing updates that would
> almost always be later pushed out as actual updates. Having a
> experimental repository might be a good idea but the current usage of
> updates-testing repository is low enough to not deviate into that.

Something like the aiglx repository for Firefox test releases would be
good.  Aiglx was incredibly easy to install.  I figured it would be
like installing Beagle back when that project was first starting, but
nope it was almost too easy to install Aiglx.  Perhaps the Aiglx
repository could be generalized to include other test software?

Steve