Linux Fedora

Linux Fedora : A brand new dimension for free, open source software

Fedora refers to a Linux-based operating system which showcases the latest free and open source software. Sponsored by Red hat, The Fedora Project is essentially a collection of projects, created by the open source community in close collaboration with Red Hat engineers. The prominent aim of Fedora is the rapid advancement of free and open source software and content. Fedora is free to be used, modified, and distributed. Fedora or rather, Fedora Core is a yum and RPM-based GNU/Linux distribution; a general-purpose operating system which consists of only free and open source software. Fedora new package is released every six months.

Fedora is mainly distributed through a single installable Live CD/DVD sized images, which are available for x86, x86_64 architectures. Fedora is also distributed via a regular DVD image, available for x86_64 and PPC architectures. Fedora before version 7 was distributed in a five-CD set in which only the first two CDs are necessary for basic installation. However, this has been substituted by Live images. Fedora is compatible with network installations over HTTP, FTP, and Fedora's default desktop environment is GNOME and GNU GRUB is the default boot loader. Fedora's design supports easy installation and configuration and contains a comprehensive array of simple graphical and text based installers and configuration tools. The default file system is ext3 over LVM.

Fedora is basically intended to be distributed on CD and DVD media, and comprises only a small selection of packages. Numerous software repositories are available with extra software for distribution. The official Fedora software features an image of the complete system and Fedora Updates, with the latest versions. Fedora official repository consists of approximately 8,000 packages. However, there are several unofficial repositories which provide additional software that is not packaged by Fedora, owing to copyright and patent issues.

Software package management is carried out by the yum utility. Graphical interfaces known as "pirut|pirut" and "pup"; "puplet", a panel notification applet; apt-rpm; a multi-lib version equipped with the capability of using native yum metadata is available. Red Hat and various other community volunteer package maintainers constantly release updates that could be installed with these tools. The word "Core" is used to differentiate the major Fedora packages from those of the Fedora Extras project, which provides extra features to Fedora Core. The major difference between these two repositories is that Red Hat maintained Core and volunteers maintained Extras. Fedora 7 combines the Core and Extras repository. Fedora 8 Test 1 (version 7.90), the latest package, was launched on 7 August 2007. Fedora 8 is scheduled to be released on 8 November 2007.