Is Fedora Linux Still Relevant?

[Zebaztian]

http://forums.fedoraforum.org/showpo...5&postcount=14

As said in that post, I left Fedora, but it's even more said if this below is true (I post the entire text from http://www.daniweb.com/blogs/entry4459.html ):


"Jun 19th, 2009, 10:42 am
I've been in discussions with a group of other writers, Linux distribution watchers, Linux community leaders and developers in the past few days concerning Linux commercial vs. Linux community versions and some of us came to the conclusion that Fedora's relevance has waned. In fact, it might be time to scrap it completely. Or maybe it's time for Red Hat to step up and support it formally and unconditionally.

Fedora is the only major community Linux edition that has no commercial support option from its commercial benefactor. Even OpenSolaris has commercial support from Sun.

This brings me to the question, "Does Red Hat really care about its community?"

The answer, from its policies, tell me no.

Don't get me wrong, I love Red Hat Linux--or did until my recent negative experiences with it. My first negative Red Hat experience was a few years ago when they decided to scrap what was then known as Red Hat Linux that ended with version 9.0 in 2004. They then began the infamous Fedora Project to which this post is aimed.

It seems to me, and others, that Fedora is nothing more than a early adopter testbed and package foundry and not a serious linux distro with strong community support with commercial support options.

This is unfortunate since many, like me, saw something special in Red Hat in the latter 1990s and adopted it as their platform of choice. To say the least, I'm disappointed. To Red Hat's credit, they are one of the most successful open source businesses and a true success story for the Open Source Community in general. For this, I applaud them.

Contrary to what you might believe, I am not anti-Red Hat but I do find that some of their corporate policies have become community-unfriendly. In my opinion, if you don't have a good relationship with your community, your level of success is going to be limited. They might not have experienced this yet but they will when adopters realize that there is no support from the mother ship.

So, what does this all mean? It means that you should move to something that is better for your company in terms of support, validity, stability and viability. My suggestions are CentOS, Ubuntu or Debian. Ubuntu is Debian-based and CentOS is actually Red Hat Enterprise Linux created from source--so if you like RPM-based distributions, CentOS is a great choice. If you require vendor support, Ubuntu or openSUSE would be my choices--although Ubuntu's prices are significantly higher than others.

It's time for Fedora to be mothballed and to enter Wikipedia as a historic and defunct distribution.

Since Red Hat has turned its back on me and others in the community twice in the past few years, I bid them adieu. I do wish them the best of luck in their endeavors but until they make a new and convincing effort, I'll use something else.

What kind of experiences have you had from Red Hat--good or bad? Write back and let me know."

Written by Ken Hess http://www.daniweb.com/blogs/entry4459.htm

[bob]

(Moved to Reviews, Rants & Things That Make Me Scream) *yawn*

[Dan]

Well, CRUD!

I was just in the middle of moving this ... thread, and it suddenly wasn't where it used to be. Quick work there, Bob ... but now I feel sooooo left out. <....>

[JN4OldSchool]

double yawn. The writer has no clue.

Hey, if Fedora is not relevant for you then move to something else.

[Dan]

... Methinks he did. Just not quite soon enough, though. <....>

[Zebaztian]

Originally Posted by JN4OldSchool

double yawn. The writer has no clue.

Hey, if Fedora is not relevant for you then move to something else.

The question is really: "Does Red Hat really care about its community?"

I'm intrested in all linux distributions progress, but I understand that to spread out in general, the symbios from a commercial company, is important as with Ubuntu(Canonical(/Debian, Red Hat/Fedora and Novell/openSUSE.

I switched recently from Fedora to openSUSE, and I promise you all, that the main reason for me to use linux, is usability. With that follows stability, security and scalability. If one of these "guiding stars" is missing then my usability concept is gone.

For me, the issue is about a commercial company that's backing up the distribution. The company is the guarantee to back up these "guiding stars".

I rather use a linux distribution that can have bugreports from 100 000 000 users, than use a distribution that will be forgotten in a couple of years. Now, I don't believe this will happen with Red Hat and Fedora, but a user has to be blind if he/she doesn't follow what comes from the mothership, read Ubuntu (Canonical), Red Hat, Novell.

[JohnnyLinux]

Lol. As interesting as this thread seems I have to umm... go do something. I will be back (not really I'm already bored)

[JN4OldSchool]

Then you are wrong on a few counts. First of all Fedora is a Red Hat sponsored and community-supported open source collaboration project. What part of "community-supported" do you not understand?

the main reason for me to use linux, is usability. With that follows stability, security and scalability. If one of these "guiding stars" is missing then my usability concept is gone.

Good for you! And my main criteria is for Linux to remain completely modular and transparent. I detest being forced to use something that I cannot completely control. That is why I chose Arch Linux. But why would I complain about Fedora? Your problem is you simply do not understand what Fedora is and is meant to be. Neither does the dude whose blog you quoted. He is correct, CentOS is the clone of RHEL, not Fedora. Fedora is indeed a bleeding edge testbed. Take it or leave it. You are happy with SuSE. Good. More power to you. Why are you posting here then? Many people are happy with Fedora as it is. Just leave them be. This is open source, this is not market driven.

[snakernetb]

Originally Posted by Zebaztian

For me, the issue is about a commercial company that's backing up the distribution. The company is the guarantee to back up these "guiding stars".

When I read this I could only think of one thing:

Tommy: Let's think about this for a sec, Ted, why would somebody put a guarantee on a box? Hmmm, very interesting.
Ted Nelson, Customer: Go on, I'm listening.
Tommy: Here's the way I see it, Ted. Guy puts a fancy guarantee on a box 'cause he wants you to fell all warm and toasty inside.
Ted Nelson, Customer: Yeah, makes a man feel good.
Tommy: 'Course it does. Why shouldn't it? Ya figure you put that little box under your pillow at night, the Guarantee Fairy might come by and leave a quarter, am I right, Ted?
[chuckles until he sees that Ted is not laughing too]
Ted Nelson, Customer: [impatiently] What's your point?
Tommy: The point is, how do you know the fairy isn't a crazy glue sniffer? "Building model airplanes" says the little fairy; well, we're not buying it. He sneaks into your house once, that's all it takes. The next thing you know, there's money missing off the dresser, and your daughter's knocked up. I seen it a hundred times.
Ted Nelson, Customer: But why do they put a guarantee on the box?
Tommy: Because they know all they sold ya was a guaranteed piece of ****. That's all it is, isn't it? Hey, if you want me to take a dump in a box and mark it guaranteed, I will. I got spare time. But for now, for your customer's sake, for your daughter's sake, ya might wanna think about buying a quality product from me.
Ted Nelson, Customer: [pause] Okay, I'll buy from you.
Tommy: Well, that's...
Tommy, Richard Hayden: ...What?

Than sums it up to me!

[sonoran]

This reminds me of the scene in Animal House where Dean Wormer has just left the Delta House after reading them the Riot Act. Bluto (John Belushi) tries to whip up the boys with a pep talk, and then with a cry of "Who's with me? Let's go!" runs out of the room alone and no one else moves.

(I must admit, though, that Fedora has been on my Double Secret Probation List for some time...)

[Zebaztian]

Originally Posted by JN4OldSchool

Then you are wrong on a few counts. First of all Fedora is a Red Hat sponsored and community-supported open source collaboration project. What part of "community-supported" do you not understand?


".... You are happy with SuSE. Good. More power to you. Why are you posting here then? Many people are happy with Fedora as it is. Just leave them be. This is open source, this is not market driven.

Answers:

1. Community-supported, does that mean without interference or collaboration from Red Hat? (In this case I'm curious about Fedora, because it's a Fedora forum I'm within).

2.Just leave Fedora users alone? I'm interested in how deep the open source concept is in the minds of the Fedora users in a broader sense. For me I wish for a wider amalgamation of all linux distributions. But it's not only a matter of taste and distribution flavours. It's about the linux kernel, GNOME/KDE, netbooks, small devices like GPS or Android phones, package managers and doing the same things (or similar) as I can do in a Windows PC or with an Apple computer.
For me that's the freedom of choice. The rest is just a dialogue....

[Zebaztian]

Originally Posted by snakernetb

When I read this I could only think of one thing:

Tommy: Let's think about this for a sec, Ted, why would somebody put a guarantee on a box? Hmmm, very interesting.
Ted Nelson, Customer: Go on, I'm listening.
Tommy: Here's the way I see it, Ted. Guy puts a fancy guarantee on a box 'cause he wants you to fell all warm and toasty inside.
Ted Nelson, Customer: Yeah, makes a man feel good.
Tommy: 'Course it does. Why shouldn't it? Ya figure you put that little box under your pillow at night, the Guarantee Fairy might come by and leave a quarter, am I right, Ted?
[chuckles until he sees that Ted is not laughing too]
Ted Nelson, Customer: [impatiently] What's your point?
Tommy: The point is, how do you know the fairy isn't a crazy glue sniffer? "Building model airplanes" says the little fairy; well, we're not buying it. He sneaks into your house once, that's all it takes. The next thing you know, there's money missing off the dresser, and your daughter's knocked up. I seen it a hundred times.
Ted Nelson, Customer: But why do they put a guarantee on the box?
Tommy: Because they know all they sold ya was a guaranteed piece of ****. That's all it is, isn't it? Hey, if you want me to take a dump in a box and mark it guaranteed, I will. I got spare time. But for now, for your customer's sake, for your daughter's sake, ya might wanna think about buying a quality product from me.
Ted Nelson, Customer: [pause] Okay, I'll buy from you.
Tommy: Well, that's...
Tommy, Richard Hayden: ...What?

Than sums it up to me!

Fun
I want to fall asleep all warm and toasty inside, with a distrobox under my pillow.

[JN4OldSchool]

You can dig through the Fedora project site, but this is probably a more straight forward answer:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fedora_Project

It is an elusive question that i really dont think anyone fully understands, even those on the board. But in practice it seems to work like this. The Red Hat people have these nifty ideas about where Linux is going in the future. Like frustrated artists they need an outlet to express themselves. That outlet is Fedora. It is not officially Red Hat but Red Hat blesses it and supports it because the technological developments achieved by this project will eventually make it into not only RHEL but all other distros too. The results of this labor are released every six to eight months in a new Fedora version that is usually very buggy though also fairly stable. It will take three months to work the kinks out of the release but it is never fully fixed. Instead everything is carried over to the next release when we start again. Red Hat does not support this distro, it is community driven. Red Hat does retain control of the project though, probably to drive the direction. This is how I see it. You are likely to get some different answers from those actually in the Fedora project but I get the sense that none of them really know what is going on. Everyone has their own different ideas and without a strong sense of guidance Fedora seems to be wandering a bit.

[stefan1975]

i wish you all the best with your choice for OpenSuSe. i hear it is actually a pretty decent distro. i could not see myself using it with the M$ deals and the release cycle they are using, but hey .... that is choice.

bye.
stefan

[Dan]

Hmmm.

I want to fall asleep all warm and toasty inside, with a distrobox under my pillow.

Having had at least one electric blanket burn out whilst I was sleeping under it ... I have absolutely no desire for anything "toasty" to ever again be involved in my sleeping arrangements! <....>