I am yet to meet a passionate Fedora advocate (I am talking about the Linux distro, not the hat). Usually I am keenly informed about Ubuntu, Mint, Knoppix, or another variation of Debian, possibly Gentoo or CentOS. Sometimes it's openSUSE (if I find myself talking to a European) or Yellow Dog Linux.
No, don't get me wrong. There are a lot of Fedora users but no one seems to be particularly fiery about it. No one advocates it to me, no one tries to hammer into my head that it's.... well, the best thing since sliced cheese on a piece of toast.
This is a shame because, although Fedora doesn't have the same flair and panache of certain other distributions, it's a good product with a lot of nice features. So, if you haven't tried in a while this is a good time to do so... and there's one other thing. The next major version of Fedora was released just a few days ago so let's check it out.
On paper, Fedora 8 comes across as an impressive distro with a bevy of cool functionality. Here are some of the major features that you can find:
Compiz Fusion: the window manager that merges Compiz and Beryl to provide cool 3D desktop effects.
PulseAudio: an advanced sound server that allows hot-switching of audio inputs, individual volume control for each audio stream, etc...
Gnome 2.2 with a revamped Appearance control panel applet and other enhancements.
Network Manager 0.7: a utility that provides better support for wi-fi and multiple devices.
OpenOffice 2.3 with some new features.
An open source Java environment called IcedTea.
A new graphical firewall configuration tool.
To find out about the other features jump here.
Fedora 8 also sports a new look called Infinity and a brand new Gnome theme called Nokoda. The default desktop wallpaper even changes colour to reflect the time of the day. Cool.
We gave Fedora 8 a quick test and it seemed to work well. It was fast and responsive. There have been reports of installation problems (not a first for Fedora) but we didn't come across any (so, let us know if you do).
If you want to try a mature, no-frills Linux distro then Fedora is your ticket. Give it a chance and let us know if you like it.
