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Review: Fedora Core 2
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CommentsThough the installation for me was flawless, I am a firm believer in clean installs, so I have not tested how well FC2 does an upgrade installation. Also, there are reports that installing FC2 in a dual-boot configuration with Windows 2000 or XP might cause the Windows side of the machine to fail. Readers contemplating this configuration should thoroughly read bug #115980. (It is hard to resist the temptation to ask whether this is really a bug or just a security feature, and why anyone would want to run Windows anyway.)
Owners of nVidia graphics cards should be aware that nVidia's proprietary, binary-only drivers for FC2 are not due to be available until somewhere around the time this article sees print.
Last January Red Hat became a victim of its own success when Fedora Core 1 (FC1) became so popular that the update repositories hosted by Red Hat could no longer keep up with the demand for downloads. This was a tragedy because there were plenty of mirrors to distribute the load and the configuration fix was an easy one to make. Unfortunately, not enough people found out about it, and Red Hat ended up with some serious egg on its face.
FC2 solves this problem in a truly elegant fashion: <kbd>up2date</kbd> is now configured to get updates from any one of several authorized mirrors, which it seems to pick from the list at random.
Kernel improvements
After the software was installed, real testing began well. FC2 runs noticeably faster than FC1, which in turn ran faster than its competitors from Mandrake and SuSE. There are a great many other improvements as well, such as support for CD burners without a SCSI emulation layer and better support for laptop hardware. Unfortunately, FireWire support had to be pulled back at the last minute because of show-stopper bugs.
The kernel improvements that excite me the most are in the security arena: NTFS-like ACL support in filesystems, the SELinux improvements contributed by the U.S. National Security Agency, and -- my favorite -- a crypto API. This last will enable easy setup and configuration of encrypted filesytems and IPSec networking, which will in turn make the world a safer and more secure place.
The tools to implement most of the kernel's new security capabilities are still at an early stage, so it will be a while before most people can take advantage of them. But for anyone working with next-generation security FC2 will probably be required study material.
System administration
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Over the last couple of years Red Hat developers have been building a set of Python-based GUI tools to simplify the tasks of system administration. These live in the System Settings submenu in the Gnome and KDE environments, and have come to be known as the redhat-config-* scripts because their command-line invocations all start with that phrase. Now they'll be known as the system-config-* scripts. As usual there are a few new ones, making a total of about two dozen now. That's a good thing.
However, SUSE's YaST (Yet Another Setup Tool) still beats the pants off of every other system administration tool. Now that Novell has decided to release YaST under an open-source license I am hoping that we will start seeing it in other distros.
Packages
I think we're all finally getting used to the idea that Fedora is not a consumer product and was never intended for use by Joe Sixpack. Rather, it's a testbed for future releases of Red Hat Enterprise Linux, a collection of core components from which tinkerers can build something useful, and that is exactly what Red Hat Corporation wants to see happening.
In this release the Fedora Project has given us more to tinker with than usual (read: lots of stuff doesn't work). If you need a distribution that "just works" out of the box, FC2 is not for you. For everyone else, there is a growing list of third-party repositories to explore. A list of them can be found in this Slashdot post. You also won't find your skills with the <KBD>make</KBD> utility getting rusty anytime soon.
You won't find any proprietary software in FC2, such as Acrobat Reader, RealPlayer, or Flash player. You also won't find any apps that might infringe on a patent, which unfortunately leaves out MP3 support and mplayer. This is frustrating to people who want a Windows-like experience out of the box, but a benefit to the Open Source movement in the long term.
There are a few apps that should be included but are not, such as Abiword, Quanta (Web authoring) and Audacity (audio editing). Curiously, the first two are actually included on the installation CDs but are not available to be selected from the Package Manager.
Correction: As the author points out in a comment to the story, both Quanta and Abiword are present.
On the plus side, there is cool new stuff, such as KGPG (a GPG keyring tool) and K3B (CD burning tool).
What's broken
Unfortunately, all of FC2's admirable qualities cannot save it from its congenital defects. These range from annoyances such as broken audio drivers to the abomination known as Gnome 2.6, and are serious enough to make the Fedora Project's second litter of pups unsuitable for any use other than as laboratory animals.
Audio drivers
The bug preventing Rhythmbox from working on a rather large number of sound cards has a workaround posted, but it causes a royal pain every time I want to listen to music. Also, my sound card outputs constant "white noise" to my speakers that is too loud ignore.
OpenOffice.org 1.1.1
Let me make this as clear as I can: PDF files hundreds of kilobytes in size are unacceptable for a single-page text document, especially when the only fonts in that document are native to Acrobat Reader. OO.o 1.1.1's PDF export worked fine in Red Hat 9 as long as I used only those fonts, but PDF output has been horribly broken ever since. For those of us who produce content for a living, especially on the Web, this is a show-stopper.
Evolution and GPG encryption
For a long time, Evolution developers have had an attitude problem with old-style (non-MIME) GPG encryption. Now they seem to be treating both ways equally: there is no support for GPG encryption at all in Evolution 1.4! At least I couln't find any, and believe me, I looked.
Correction: The author didn't look closely enough. Evolution has handled cryptographic signatures and message encryption correctly for a long while now.
The GIMP 2.0
Color management using icc profiles is an important tool for anyone doing serious photography work. To date, Mac OS X (v. 10.2 and above) is the world's only operating system that fully implements color management, but a few rudimentary tools are available to Linux users, including a partially functional plug-in for Gimp 1.2. While that plug-in's developer told me he plans to make it available for Gimp 2 eventually, it is not available today.
Gnome 2.6
If you're going to install and use FC2, don't bother installing Gnome. Yes, it is that bad. Nicholas Petreley barely scratched the surface in his scathing criticism of Gnome 2.6 a few weeks ago. To his remarks about the sheer stupidity in the new Nautilus design, allow me to add a couple more observations:
The File Open dialog box
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Those of us who administer systems need a fast, easy way to edit configuration files. We know where most of those files live, and can usually type them in to the File Open dialog a lot faster than we can get to them via the browsing tool. But my favorite tool, gedit, is no longer suitable for that purpose, because, as you can see from the screen shot at right, there is no longer any way to type a filename into the File Open dialog!
The Help system
We all know how unwieldy man pages can get. I remember one that ran more than a hundred printed pages. A GUI help browser is a real timesaver to system administrators. Guess what? Man and Info pages are gone from the new Gnome help browser. What were these people thinking?
Fortunately, KDE's help system is excellent. It's even better than Gnome's was. And so are KDE's mail client and file manager (KMail and Konqueror). I might eventually learn to like KDE.
Conclusion
Fedora Core 1 has proved to be a remarkably stable and well-supported distribution suitable for home and office desktop work, after the missing (non-open source) pieces are installed.
Fedora Core 2 is not. It is bleeding-edge technology that will become mainstream in a year or so, and as such is an important distro for people who will be working with next year's technology. It's an important step in the evolution of Linux, and I'm glad it's here to experiment with, but I won't be using it for production work anytime soon.
Ken Barber teaches Linux system administration at Lane Community College in Eugene, Ore., and writes open-source-related technical articles and user documentation when he isn't roaming around in the nearby woods and mountains.
Comments
on Review: Fedora Core 2Note: Comments are owned by the poster. We are not responsible for their content.
just edit<nobr> <wbr></nobr>/etc/sysconfig/desktop and type in "KDE" instead of "GNOME" - then kde is the default desktop for the system *except* for user accounts that have explicitly switched themselves.
much more convenient.
switchdesktop KDE<nobr> <wbr></nobr>...or something like that... I might have the command line wrong but I think tha tis the name of the command... just tab complete to find out for sure. I'm not at any of my beloved Linux boxes at the moment.
Red Hat used to have a gui version of switch desktop but I'm not sure where it went.
Red Hat haters will always find an issue to moan about. I am looking forward to the Suse 9.1, to see if it lives up to the hype.
the window bar dissapear.can somebody help me?
As to the lack of ability to type file paths in the new open dialogs, well, that was the removal of a non-intuitive portion of the interface. The majority of "joe users" will browse for the file anyway, rather than remembering its full path and name. And of course a previous respondant pointed out the whole "root" access issues with editing config files.
have we come so far as to require changes via the CLI?LOL
I"d have thought changing it in oh I dunno..'preferences' might have sufficed for most users ?
sssssssssssigh,,remember people the target we're striving me..joe sixpack?..well this isn't a positive step in that direction now is it..:(
l8r
g.leej
Who would ever think a possibility to enter a filename directly in non-intuitive? Browsing a filesystem folder by folder is inherently slow and clumsy! You provide it as a help for unexperienced users. But note that beginners gain experience. It's not sensible to force them to stay with their "childish ways".
About the "root" thing: This is just a badly chosen example. Of course we wouldn't do root stuff from X, but that does not void the argument: why force the user to stay dumb? They will grow with their tasks, and they will hate the tools that stand in the way between them and their daily work. After all, that's what makes most people chose Linux over Windows.
On the other hand, none of us (the original reviewer, myself, yourself) investigated this file open dialog box much. The original reviewers complaint seems tied directly to the gedit open dialog, which is different from the one which say The Gimp or OpenOffice use. As I never use gedit, I had to launch it particularly to see the behaviour he described, and that behaviour is a pain. But gVim, OpenOffice, FireFox, etc, all use a file open dialog that allows for the entry of the full path plus the file name, or even a relative path plus the file name. This addresses both your concerns; the real limit in this instance was the reviewers attachment to gedit.
Which was because gedit uses gtk's default file open dialog whereas gVim, OpenOffice, FireFox and others don't. Anjuta for example also uses this dreaded file open dialog.
I've been using FC2 in a production desktop environment, with no system problems. The one issue I had was figuring out how to specify a destination CD-RW drive on the IDE bus.
As far as Nicholas Petreley's screed goes regarding GNOME 2.6, so what? The GNOME developers felt no need to consult with Mr. Petreley before changing the Nautilus UI, and after his comments, I can see why.
Regarding the reviewer's complaint about the Open dialog box: If you want to type in filenames, open an Xterm. And if you're editing configuration files, does that mean you're running X as root? Did you log in as root, or did you open an Xterm and use "su -"? Either way, the gripe doesn't hold water.
you're running X as root?
-rws--x--x 1 root root 2019090 Feb 12 16:22<nobr> <wbr></nobr>/usr/X11R6/bin/XFree86*<nobr> <wbr></nobr>:-(
The point is, did he type "startx" as root, or was he already in X and switch to root via an Xterm CLI? Either way, he had the CLI at his disposal. If he's so hell-bent on typing full pathnames, the means for doing so was already at his disposal.
I was fortunate to find the source of the problem without too much digging. Apparently the ALSA driver has support for more inputs to the sound card I was using than the OSS driver that was provided with FC1.
I found one of those new inputs enabled, and at full gain. Hence, the hiss. Disabling this input cured the problem.
That's certainly an issue that could have been easily solved with some pre-sets on sound card inputs.
Like the author, I normally *only* do clean installs, but this time, I was in a hurry and decided to try an upgrade from my FC1 install. In general, everything I've tried has worked, though I haven't pushed the system very hard. Some things, such as my mp3 modules for XMMS, seem to have survived the upgrade. Most of my configuration options rolled forward successfully, though I had to Google for a fix to some of my X settings to move from XFree86 to X.org.
The one annoying problem is in the programs menu. For some reason, I now have TWO copies of each program. Since there has never been a decent Start menu editor in Gnome (that I know of), I don't know where these are, or how to weed out the items left over from FC1. I don't even know if they will work if I click on them, or if they'll horribly break my system.
One comment I've seen numerous times, and really don't understand, is about broken nVidia drivers. Off the top of my head, I don't remember the model I have, but it's an older PCI nVidia TNT card (RIVA 32Meg). For each and every FC1 kernel update, I've had to go back to the build file and re-compile and install the module for the new kernel. It's a pain, but I've gotten used to it. When I upgraded to the 2.6 kernel, I went back to that file and built again, and it just worked. I don't like the way nVidia deals with their drivers, but once I figured out how to do the builds, I've never had a problem with them.
Ken,
I made the correction because readers were already pointing out your error. The settings are "hidden" under the Security tab for each account. It is one of six tabs which must be displayed in order for you to set up an email account. Maybe "Hidden in plain sight" might be a more accurate description.
Whether you prefer the lame in-line Windows type signature -- which does not protect against the addition of or modifications to email attachments -- or the RFC compliant implementation of Evolution is a completely separate matter.
Joe Barr
As Macs and Windows boxes are dis-similar so is Gnome, KDE and XFCE. But the secret to success here is choice.
I'm one of those persons who upgrades at the first oppertunity. I like to use things that may even be in alpha stage so I can't be as critical as you are. I started using the spatial view with an open mind and the speed has outweighed it's short comings for which they are work arounds by the way. Evolution I have had issue with for ages regarding inline encryption. However the defacto standard is to the contrary especially among modern mail clients including mutt. Evolutions menu's and settings have been very stable as far back as the 0.9 release. Their locating for encryption setting also makes logical sense and this is what Gnome programming is about.
As an admin I have multiple mail accounts. Some with different keys and as such I see the advantages of the evolution teams design. I've also followed the developers mailing list in the past and I have to respect those guys. Their thought process is exceptional and decision making very practical.
With Gnome in General it's the same thing. If Desktop distros want to compete in the market they must not be merely seen as clones of Windows or Mac. It must be unique in its own way, intuitive and fast.
The first time I used a Mac I thought the whole design interface was crap not to mention the 1 button mouse. I to know Mac users who despise MS Windows design. Therefore I can understand your pains using Gnome afterall page flipping was my love and metacity got rid of that. However I understand the reasons behind that move.
I am fortunate to not have had any major problems. However being an early GNU/Linux adopter in gerneral perhaps means my experiences become less involved with each release. I triple boot on my laptop with Win98 and XP and I did an upgrade as oppose to a fresh install (that'll come later).
Personally I like Gnome. The new stuff will take getting use to (think Mac to Windows or vice-versa) and I'm up to the challenge. 6 months down the road we'll all wonder how we lived without it.
Audio<nobr> <wbr></nobr>.. non issue using both OSS and Alsa. Therefore I have to believe this is a user issue in which case you are the user. However I also used Alsa in many previous kernels in the 2.4 series and in FC1 and Redhat 8&9 so I knew/know my hardware very well.
OOo<nobr> <wbr></nobr>.. Dissing an app, one of the few office suites that have pdf export because of file sizes of 100k is a rediculous in the days of 250Gb hdd. Not that this is not an excuse but it's a feature the developers have worked hard on and are working hard on to give you an additional feature<nobr> <wbr></nobr>... at no cost. Please don't bite the hand that feeds you. Note - this is not a show stopper just a gripe you have.
Gimp<nobr> <wbr></nobr>.. Not broken. And lots of serious work have been done in the Gimp and some not so serious. For a free app with volunteer developers who love what they do to produce such a master piece is wonderful and I love the Gnome2 port. Give credit where it is due. I'm sure if we plugged a few million into their budget it'll meet everyones needs.
Conclusion: What is important and obvious here is that you have no knowledge of Gnome desktop guidelines. Gnome 2 is young and to be honest still in it's beta stages. But the beta is soooo good, stable and visually appealing that adoption has occurred. The guidelines are important in understanding the development direction. The average user could care less, but you are not the average user. But with each release expect improvements (whether you call them improvements) to be made and things to be different. Enter with an open mind and explore the new desktop. You like most others have become to comfortable in your Gnome version x.x. Expect change and discover the reasons decisions are made. You don't need to agree. Just to understand. If you did your review may have been completely different. As an early adopter I knew what I was in for. I was very impress when I saw the final result and certain show stoppers fixed. All software has bugs but are they all relevant to the user experience.
While Red Hat may or may not have intended Fedora Core to becoming the new consumer mainstream distro, that is what is happening, if you agree with it or not... whether you think it should only be used by bleeding edge testers or not. Many former Red Hat Linux users have decided to move on to Fedora, that that is just a reality. From my perspective, the only difference between Red Hat Linux and Fedora Core is that you can no longer find boxed sets... or install support... but who used install support anyway?
Gnome is definitely not specific to Fedora Core. Perhaps you can take your Gnome comments somewhere where they will have more impact. I greatly respect Nicholas Petreley but most of his negative comments about Gnome have been disproven. Your single complaint about the file selector is not enough to throw away all that is Gnome. I'm sure you use applications all the time that are part of Gnome... I know I do. I have to admit that I don't know much about Gnome as a desktop because I'm a long time KDE user (I compiled the 0.x series from source). I do appreciate the comments about perceived flaws in Gnome but I do think they could be more constructive. Is there any room for a compliment once in a while?
Shouldn't some of your comments about Evolution be addressed at the SuSE people... since they bought Ximian?
Here's a more general comment about negative reviews... and not all of my comments are directed at the author of the original review.
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I'm not sure why everyone seems fit to pick on Fedora Core 2 alone... when other distros share many of the same problems. I'm not a Mandrake user but I know a few people who are... and everyone I've talked to who tried Mandrake 10 switched back to the 9 series because they had noticable differences in hardware compatibility. I'm not trying to pick on Mandrake here but it seems to me that the 2.6.x kernel simply isn't finished. I'm not trying to bad mouth the kernel developers... but it is a fact that Linus has not started a 2.7.x devel tree... and that even now the kernel developers are making major changes to important subsystems... in what is supposedly a production kernel.
I'm confident that in a couple of months, once the 2.6.x kernel has been weened from the developers... and all of the issues get worked out at the distribution level... it'll be a clear winner.
On the flipside of the coin, I've installed FC2 on about a dozen machines and have actually found that some hardware that didn't work in any previous distribution release, now works great in FC2. For me, FC2 works quite well on a variety of hardware and I am confident that as some of the minor issues are resolved, it will just get better and better.
I don't know if this is just a mis-perception, but I feel that the Fedora Core team is taking even bolder steps to mainstream Linux than Red Hat was... and Red Hat has always been aggressive in promoting new software technologies. I see this as a good thing. Without that pushing, Linux would not continue to improve and mature at the impressive rate it has enjoyed thus far.
Using Fedora Core 1 and now FC2, I can actually start to see the not too distant future where Linux has a good fighting chance at, dare I say it seriously?... the DESKTOP MARKET!
While it is true that FC2 isn't perfect, no new major release (new kernel, new releases of the desktop environs, etc) is born perfect... and it is unrealistic to think any will or even should. Regardless of the amount of people submitting bugs during the test-releases, in the real world an initial production release is just the next step in shaking out the bugs. It is that way even with Microsoft and Apple... even if they don't want to admit it. The difference is that our community is more open about the bugs and as a result, most of them get fixed and fixed faster.
In summary, quit picking on the fruits of Red Hat simply because you have some resentment about their change in marketing with Red Hat Enterprise Linux and their success in the marketplace. If you want to debate those, do so directly. I don't expect everyone to love them, but give them the fair shake you give everyone else... and have realistic expectations. Long live Linux.
After it was too late to change this review, the Abiword and Quanta packages magically showed up in my package manager! I don't know why I couldn't find them when I looked for them, but they ARE included.
So the only thing still missing from my list of missing packages above is Audacity. My bad.
First of all, a correction of a correction.
I'm sorry I wasn't able to find Evolution's deeply-buried encryption settings, and couldn't find any mention of it in their on-line documentation either (of course not; it's buried under "Account Settings" in the Help system. If one doesn't know that's where it lives, the help system is no help at all). So the Newsforge editors posted a correction saying "Evolution has handled cryptographic signatures and message encryption correctly for a long while now."
But the fact is that Evolution still does not handle in-line encryption. Since most of the encrypted email traffic out there is still using that method, that isn't what I would deem handling encryption "correctly."
Now I shall answer the flames over my criticism of Gnome's new "file open" dialog boxes. Folks, whether or not you can specify the filename from the command line is irrelevant. For one thing, if gedit is already open and you need to edit a second (third, fourth) file you don't have the option of specifying those from the command line.
Software is not supposed to be about how to work around a useability issue. I had way too much of that when I was administering Windoze boxen. The 'nix world has always had a stunning potpourri of tools with which to get one's job done, rather than having to do it a certain way because in some programmer's infinite wisdom I don't need this or that method. And the Gnome Project has taken a giant step backward in that respect, in both Nautilus and the File Open dialog.
My real-world experience is in the area of system and network adiministration, and that is what I teach. I think in terms of "how much will it cost me, in terms of what I have to pay my workers, to make this functional?" In the case of the Fedora releases, the cost is pretty steep.
And yes, this was a review of FC2, and not necessarily Gnome. But guess what? Gnome, Evolution, OpenOffice.org et. al. are integral parts of this distro, and if they're broken then so is the distro. Kind of like having a puppy born with a congenital heart defect....
"For one thing, if gedit is already open and you need to edit a second (third, fourth) file you don't have the option of specifying those from the command line"
This statement is false. All you need to do is type:
# gedit newfile
And newfile will be opened as an additional tab in your existing gedit window. It is probably faster than opening the file dialog box.
cs
And yes, this was a review of FC2, and not necessarily Gnome. But guess what? Gnome, Evolution, OpenOffice.org et. al. are integral parts of this distro, and if they're broken then so is the distro. Kind of like having a puppy born with a congenital heart defect....
But they're also components of pretty much every distribution, so by your rationale all Linux distros would have to be considered broken. If that's the case, then you haven't really communicated anything relevant in your article.
This is a little off-topic, but since I didn't really like this article and since I never seem to see any articles doing anything interesting anymore (anywhere, not just here), I'd like to make a suggestion for a potentially interesting article. Make a short list of usability issues with various apps, like Evolution, Nautilus, GIMP, Mozilla, OOo, and some KDE applications. The more obvious the usability issue, the better this idea works. Then go into Bugzillas for various projects, file the usability issues as bugs or feature requests. Wait a certain amount of time (yes, this article could take awhile to fully gather all the data you need), then go back and check all of them after the next releases and see who has responded and fixed the issues.
I think a lot of Linux users would be interested to see how responsive the various developers are to constructive suggestions and criticisms from the outside. I don't think anyone has made an article like this before, which is a little surprising. Everyone always either praises the whole open source model, or rags on it. But nobody seems to ever actually try to do any open experiments on it like this.
So, I re-installed. This time, I selected "everything" manually. Also, since I was fed up with Gnome and having to remember to select KDE on purpose for each login, I omitted ther Gnome desktop, altogether. What an amazing diference these changes made! KDE is of course the default login. Sound is working, np. And I've found all the tools I was originally missing with the "Everything" selection.
Now I'm enjoying FC2, a lot. (Too bad for Gnome users. What a mess.) Seems like this release was quite a rush job. What have they always said about Red Hat's even releases?<nobr> <wbr></nobr>;-)
Tools -> Settings -> Mail Accounts -> Up -> Down -> Left -> Right -> Circle Logic -> Administration -> (Choose an Account) -> Edit -> Security
(Leave it to Gnome to be so straightforward and intuitive, to boot.)
Try:
Tools -> Settings -> Mail Accounts -> (Choose an Account) -> Edit -> Security
You should now have a screen which allows you to set your encryption key and a couple settings for that particular account.
I thought it was in a logical place.
While it is true that FC2 has more bugs due to kernel 2.6 (no firewire, buggy sound installation), The new nautilus rocks, a huge improvement, not only way faster but the user experience is way more intuitive. And if you don't like - it adjust your preferences to go back to the old school way.
He obviously never used the Macintosh Finder which uses a similar scheme for navigating.
and while i'm at it..whats with the stupid design de cision behind metacity whereby no windows 'remember' their states hence leaving it up to the hundreds of authors yet to come on board with this design..could they not have 'waited' till all commonly used apps were online with this change ??<nobr> <wbr></nobr>;-))..of course not cart before horse is always the better approach isn't it ?<nobr> <wbr></nobr>;(sighsighsigh
and no adjusting preferences does no good to stop itg from popping up new windows for every friggin new file or DIR I choose..that or I totally missed it and if so its not in a very user friendly place to change....so another nock against FC'x'..
no thanks..I agreee totally with author.its NOT for joesixpack and isn't that what linux is striving for ?..if mandrake can do it whats wrong with rh..oh wait I know I know...its not their target market is it?
latre
g.leej
Sorry but this guy either is a newly converted KDE fan who hates both Red Hat and GNOME or he's a horrible reviewer. Take your pick.
Want to say Fedora is a PITA because it ships with little to no mulitmedia abilities out of the box. Fine. Want to say it was completly bone headed to ship FC2 with that dual boot bug? Fine. But don't go attacking the OSS apps that every Linux vendor has to work with and then say its a Fedora issue. Because if it is then every single Linux distro out that includes apps like GIMP 2.0 are broken as well. What a terrible review.
I've read every review of Fedora out there so far and none of them have been harping on things like Gnome and Gimp saying that Fedora is broken because of them. If anyone here is reading their first review of Fedora 2 then have a look at the other reivews out there. The vast majority of them say that Fedora 2 is a solid distro and paint a MUCH different picture than this guy does.
end of story..gnome team needs to wake up and get a clue..
l8r
g.leej
Now any window you open in GNOME will use the old browser style of window.
I don't know what you did to get a huge pdf from OOo-1.1.1. I took a two page document and exported in both "press" mode and "printer" mode and got ~7.9Kb for each. Not unwieldy. WordPerfect 11 under windows put out a 24Kb file for the same doc when exported directly from WP. When "printed" to Acrobat Distiller it was 48Kb. OK, I didn't fiddle with all the options to make sure font embedding was the same and all that. Basically I think OOo did a great job.
GIMP 2.0 isn't a function of Fedora Core development. I couldn't figure out how to get ICC working (with a fair amount of struggling) with GIMP 1.2. To complain about a feature that GIMP essentially doesn't have is silly. To install GIMP 1.2 in addition to GIMP 2.0 is a trivial task. I have both coexisting just fine on my FC2 install because there are a things I prefer about each. I also have cinepaint installed. Easy as pie.
Is FC2 for Joe Sixpak? It depends a lot on Joe and on how he seeks help with speed bumps. If he seeks help and solves problems like you then no--Joe's not ready. If he does what I do--google and go to the support lists--then Joe might do just fine. I did and I really like FC2.
My upgrade path? I saved $HOME and<nobr> <wbr></nobr>/etc on another drive. I wiped RH9 off the drive and did a fresh install. I copied $HOME to home. I checked some config files from my old<nobr> <wbr></nobr>/etc to quickly get things mostly like I liked them. I poked around and found out how to get up2date to use yum and apt repositories and solved almost all my missing apps issues with single lines like: "up2date xxxx".
Don
If you actually do anything with a computer other than turn it on and stare at it, do yourself a favor and skip the Fedora Core 2 distribution. In my experience, both as an upgrade from FC1 and as a bare-metal install, unless your time is of absolutely no value to you, there are too many things to fix in Fedora Core 2 to make it useful. It is apparent that many of the bugs were known in the pre-releases and were not fixed.
Can't dual boot with WindowsXP: "Microsoft should fix it."
Can't use nVidia cards: "Don't buy nVidia."
Can't use Samba to view shares: Bug ignored because something other than Samba is under development.
Can't use gedit: "The problem is with gnome and other distributions use gnome."
The list goes on and on. Yes I realize it is a free distribution, but when it is this bad what was the point? Also, the Fedora developers' response to user criticism has been overly defensive and (in my opinion) immature. I have used RedHat for years, but I guess it's time to move on.
I always find these "devil's advocate" articles useful. Thanks for taking the time to write it! I seem to learn the most from this type of article. I'm a faithful Fedora Core 2 user, by the way. Works great on my <A HREF="http://www.emperorlinux.com/meteor.php" title="emperorlinux.com">new laptop</a emperorlinux.com>.
I have to agree that the Gnome 2.6 File Open dialog box sucks. They should use whatever Firefox 8.0 uses... that thing rocks.
Perspective
Posted by: Administrator on May 29, 2004 01:17 AMAudio drivers
I've been using OSS for a long time. It seems to work. FWLIW, I don't listen to music on my Linux systems (I have a CD player for that).
OpenOffice.org 1.1.1
I don't do enough writing to make a comment on this. I have run across an OOo macro on freshmeat that does much better PDF exporting.
Evolution and GPG encryption
Someone already mentioned this already.
The GIMP 2.0
Don't use it. Don't have a need for it.
GNOME 2.6
Again, don't use it. Don't use KDE either for that matter. I've been using XFce for many years and Fedora now includes it as one of the standard desktop environments.
I don't post this as a disagreement with the authors review on FC2. I have no doubt that everything he's experienced is dead on. But I wanted to point out that there are different perspectives on upgrading distros (any distro). Because of the configuration I run I've been able to upgrade from RH 6.2 through FC1 with little or no problems.
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