Distrowatch Review of Fedora 7

[johannlo]

http://distrowatch.com/weekly.php?issue=20070604#feature

[bob]

Not a bad review. The writer takes a new user stance and is understandably shaken by not having any of the codecs to handle mp3's, etc. Perhaps he could have mentioned the FOSS philosophy involved with Fedora and why there are no direct references from the installation notes to available tutorials. Perhaps he could have also mentioned the help and directions available here at the Forum since it does leave others with the idea they too would be wandering in the wilderness and looking for answers.

[johannlo]

Yeah I think its pretty spot on.

I had a heck of a time getting FC4 up and running with no linux experience, a lot of googling basically. Ooh some of the lessons I learnt the hard way (FC4 SELinux = no samba, etc.). But if you're OK with enabling external repos and typing various yum commands (yes Java is a bit tricker and ditto with browser plugins, which I haven't got 100% least of all SHOCKWAVE which is windoze only as you know), most of the common formats are OK. (for me that's basically Xvid in AVI containers, and mp3s).

I also understand the FOSS reasons behind why we can't include them out of the box, that's the way it goes I suppose. Though a working 'codecbuddy' would be light years ahead.

Aside from that though, aside from tinkering in vmware, I'm not touching the new Fedora until a nice incubation period of at least 3-4 months! (been bitten before! hehe) FC6 is working so nicely I'm loathe to upgrade

[JN4OldSchool]

hmmm, I didnt get much past firstboot before i got bored with the whole thing. Just the same ole "the color scheme remin ded me of the early 90's...nautilus opened a new window for every file..." I am so tired of people's out of the box impressions with distros. "Oh, I didnt like debian etch because the wallpaper was too ugly..." Do people just not get it? I was afraid if I kept reading that review and actually got to the codec part I would have blown a head gasket. At least the dude's nv driver worked for HIM! That would have totally blown the review had he had to go in and actually modify xorg.conf to even boot. I mean how backwards is THAT? I dont know why it bothers me so much, I have been like this for months now. I should be growing more tolerant but the opposite is happening. Maybe I just need to find another hobby...

[Dan]

... "Oh, I didnt like debian etch because the wallpaper was too ugly..." [Sarcasm Alert]

They may have a point there. It looks like a cross between re-runs of "The Time Tunnel" and openoffice.org 1.0! And it takes, what -- 30 seconds -- from my precious day to change it!

Sheesh! What a terrible inconvenience!

[/Sarcasm Alert]

Morning, JN4! <..:p..>


Dan

[JN4OldSchool]

<grumble, stumble, farrrt...grumble>

Hey Dan...

[Flyboy917]

http://distrowatch.com/weekly.php?issue=20070604#feature

Also, on Distrowatch, change the Hits Per Day to last 7 days, Fedora is at an all time high!
Above Ubuntu even!
:D

[Dies]

I thought the review was dead on, I really did.

I actually think the reviewer did very well considering the first thing he mentions is that he hasn't used Fedora in ever. It's apparent to me that he did his research regarding Fedora as opposed to some other reviewers who are just complete idiots.

I kind of liked the fact that he made it clear that if you are new to Linux or don't want to bother adding all the "good stuff" then it's not for you, rather than dogging on Fedora for not including stuff like some other reviewers do.

I didn't like the wallpaper in Etch either, for me that was actually the last straw. :p

[Dan]

... I didn't like the wallpaper in Etch either, for me that was actually the last straw. :p Hmmm. I just exchanged it for something with a little more pizzazz!

http://www.fedoraforum.org/gallery/showimage.php?i=3082

Meet the flight crew. Genuine American Heroes! Every one of 'em!


Dan

[Dies]

Hmmm. I just exchanged it for something with a little more pizzazz!

http://www.fedoraforum.org/gallery/showimage.php?i=3082

Meet the flight crew. Genuine American Heroes! Every one of 'em!


Dan


Yeah, I saw that pic when you first posted it to the gallery, pretty sweet close up but I thought it was just a random shot. The fact that you know the crew makes it that much cooler. :cool:

[sailor]

Fair review...at least he show others how he figured things out and got the livna repository.


JN...nah...nah...nah...my nv driver worked fine :p

[Dan]

Wow!

That's cold, Sailor. Really cold!
<..:p..>

Dan

[AllanPen]

Hi Bob pardon me for butting in here but wanted to get some help from you. I seem to recall discussing something like the following with you before.
Anyways I had Fedora and Ubuntu running beautifully together and decided to install Debian Etch. This is where the trouble started. I got it installed and added to Ubuntu's menu.lst ok. Now though when I boot into Ubuntu I get a couple of errors. One tells me to view the log at /var/log/fsck/checkfs which isn't there. Secondly it claims apt-get not installed; install by typing apt-get install apt which doesn't work. I even restored a previous backup image of Ubuntu and still get the same problems at boot where I press Ctrl-D to continue boot and all appears ok once on the desktop.

[bob]

The real problem is in /etc/fstab where the UUID numbers don't match what's expected due to the modification. What I did was go into /etc/fstab and remove the associated UUID and change /media/hdxx to /dev/hdxx The rest of the fstab should be okay. For instance, here's my current /etc/fstab:

# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# <file system> <mount point> <type> <options> <dump> <pass>
proc /proc proc defaults 0 0
# /dev/hdb1
UUID=612b7d8f-402b-47c5-a6fc-182e58172a68 / ext3 defaults,errors=remount-ro 0 1
# /dev/hda1
/dev/hda1 ext3 defaults 0 2
# /dev/hda3
UUID=3871c963-c69b-4127-a67e-2e403478e1b6 /media/hda3 ext3 defaults 0 2
# /dev/hda4
UUID=cdb4fd6c-9bb9-438b-8482-b4514ef44891 /media/hda4 ext3 defaults 0 2
# /dev/hdb2
/dev/hdb2 ext3 defaults 0 2
# /dev/hdb3
UUID=d7072ff4-8dd9-4d94-8320-ae0b34c86a3f /media/hdb3 ext3 defaults 0 2
# /dev/hdb5
UUID=261550cd-1a45-4e07-bae3-450a314e5fc1 /media/hdb5 ext3 defaults 0 2
# /dev/hda5
UUID=d3fbf8b1-17e9-4629-b84a-07a291865fc0 none swap sw 0 0
# /dev/hdb6
UUID=048e8b46-80c2-4336-9d19-107b9af288de none swap sw 0 0
/dev/hdd /media/cdrom0 udf,iso9660 user,noauto 0 0
/dev/hdc /media/cdrom1 udf,iso9660 user,noauto 0 0
/dev/fd0 /media/floppy0 auto rw,user,noauto 0 0

You can see that I've modified hda1 and hdb2 to handle the problem.

[AllanPen]

Thanks Bob I'll check that out

[AllanPen]

Here is my fstab bob. Fedora is on sda1, Ubuntu on sda3 (I think) and Debian is on sdb1. It looks like a real mess to me and is not what it used to be me thinks.
I'm not sure what to change here:

# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# <file system> <mount point> <type> <options> <dump> <pass>
proc /proc proc defaults 0 0
# /dev/sda3
UUID=023819bb-3502-434d-b5e6-c9d8a71feaae / ext3 defaults,errors=remount-ro 0 1
# /dev/sda1
UUID=5005084e-5e33-4f0d-b11d-5320aa074ed4 /media/sda1 ext3 defaults 0 2
# /dev/sda4
UUID=de06b44d-0302-45da-91b3-822163674372 /media/sda4 ext3 defaults 0 2
# /dev/sdb1
UUID=4f8f1d8a-e33b-4359-94d4-02ece2e1a87d /media/sdb1 ext3 defaults 0 2
# /dev/sdb3
UUID=ed9010ee-f4bc-495b-b037-606165eeaabb /media/sdb3 ext3 defaults 0 2
# /dev/sda2
UUID=97348229-7a57-43d7-960a-57d70cdf6cf8 none swap sw 0 0
# /dev/sdb2
UUID=eaf729ce-8d4a-4652-876a-e91eb7b279a8 none swap sw 0 0
/dev/scd0 /media/cdrom0 udf,iso9660 user,noauto 0 0
/dev/scd1 /media/cdrom1 udf,iso9660 user,noauto 0 0
/dev/fd0 /media/floppy0 auto rw,user,noauto 0 0

[leadgolem]

Fair review. I do agree that the theming needs some work. Though it is much better in F7 then earlier releases. The file browser default behavior should be set to always open in browser window. Be honest people, does anyone actually have that option disabled?

It was a bit unfair knocking fedora for lack of proprietary software. Personally, I think by release 10 we will have java jre and java web plugins installed by default. Since java will soon be opensource.:) Then a simple yum install java-jdkwill do it for anyone wanting the development kit.

[gleadhach]

It was a bit unfair knocking fedora for lack of proprietary software.

I agree, Fedora isn't the only Distro that does this, many others do, and I feel that while there was a point to be made, the reviewer shouldn't have made a big deal about it in a review about Fedora and convey the message that the issue was exclusive to Fedora.

[AllanPen]

Thanks Bob

What I did though after a tip from a Ubuntu poster was "sudo blkid" and changed the corresponding fstab uuid's; worked like a charm. I'm sure others are faced with this problem and it would be nice to have some direction to this solution.

Regards, Allan