Fedora Coverstory in Linux Format

[Andy Green]

Andy Hudson wrote:

> Ubuntu will resize NTFS partitions to make room - this is correct, and
> in my view something that is extremely handy if you are trying to
> persuade a friend/colleague/total stranger to give Linux a go.

I can see the advantages (if it worked ;-) ) but I guess we can't expect 
it from Fedora, since AIUI Redhat won't deal with NTFS on patent 
concerns.  But of course it makes your original point quite valid. 
Still the way things are headed with MSFT patents Canonical may find 
they will need to take on some of RHAT's caution on these things.

>> There is actually a project for Fedora live CDs
>>
>> http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Kadischi
> 
> I'm aware of Kadischi, and am broadly familiar with their objectives,
> but the fact is that Ubuntu comes delivered on one CD, which just so
> happens to be a live CD that allows you to test the distro out before
> you install it, again with that one CD.

I see, that would have advantages in terms of assessing what the exact 
driver situation is going to be like before disturbing, say, a Windows 
install that is proposed to be moved to Linux and is simpler than 
getting the same thing with a separate Live CD or doing an install on a 
fresh HDD keeping the Windows one aside.  I guess the live CD part 
doubles as the bootable rescue CD functionality that Fedora has.

>> Do you have an opinion on why Ubuntu has a higher profile at the moment
>> than Fedora, if you even agree that is the case?
> 
> I do agree that this is the case. From my viewpoint I see a phenomenal
> marketing campaign being waged by the Ubuntu community, not to mention
> the great geek idol they have in Mark Shuttleworth. With this alone,
> it is no surprise that they have so many converts. You also have to

Well I see it happening too on places like Digg, but it's surprising to 
see such different outcomes because Ubuntu also has a commercial outfit 
behind it, basically they contain the same core stuff, Xorg, Gnome, 
OpenOffice.  Maybe its a cultural thing that Fedora users on average 
have one eye on RHEL/CentOS, and are somehow more buttoned down?  There 
seems to be a lot of internal help in the Fedora user communities but 
there is much less external evangelism than I see going on with Ubuntu. 
  I don't know quite where the difference crept in that there is no 
shortage of people strongly associating themselves with the Ubuntu brand 
as it were, like people with Apple iPods, and somehow Fedora is not 
inspiring people to want to plaster it all over themselves (or get girls 
to squish themselves together to make the logo, for example).

> consider that they have no back story to Ubuntu, other than building
> on Debian so they are starting with a clean slate. Fedora, however,
> will always be tied to Red Hat (whether people like it or not this is
> the case) and can suffer from any negative community feelings.

Hum well I see the large amount of work that RHAT put into Fedora itself 
when I have a box on the development branch, and I also see @redhat.com 
addresses contributing to all kinds of upstream projects, so I didn't 
find any negative feelings to feel about Redhat yet.  Sometimes 
decisions get made that are not liked by the users, but the bulk of the 
time there is very little conflict and huge benefits arrive to the 
Fedora and other contributed upstream users.

> Something else that I've been thinking about for some time, but have
> kept to myself, is the fact that Fedora seems to be creating so many
> different teams - at the moment there are 15 distinct projects all
> falling under the Fedora banner. That seems like a lot to me, and
> without knowing how active each project is, I'd argue that perhaps
> Fedora is spreading itself a little thin. Of course, each group might
> be a hive of activity, in which case I apologise now.

I don't know much about it, I'm afraid.

> Also what Chris Jones says in his post should be taken on board.
> Ubuntu wants to just work (within the framework of a free as in beer
> distro), Fedora wants to be totally free (as in beer and as in
> speech). However I think that this approach, while admirable and one
> that I agree with, may not be what the majority of potential users
> would either understand or benefit from.

Benefit can be a bit hard to pin down, if nobody had done anything about 
saying no to proprietary, there would be none of the benefits from FOSS. 
  Without open-only systems we might not have ended up with the great 
open video driver stuff from Intel, for example, that I am enjoying on 
this laptop.  Canonical are going in the opposite direction, bundling 
ATI and nVidia binary drivers on the next version, I read, that is 
really going to validate and perpetuate the binary-only situation there 
and is that really a benefit in the end?

-Andy