Fedora Core 2
(FC2) is the latest offering from the
Red Hat
community driven Fedora Project. It has a plethora of new features including the new 2.6.5 Kernel,
Gnome
2.6,
KDE
3.2, an implementation of SE Linux and the
X.org
X11 windowing system. Fedora Core 2 is a professional distribution that focuses on functionality and ease of use, without patronising the user and keeping the clutter to a minimum.
This review was conducted on three different machines in order to ascertain performance on each of the machines. The first and main machine for which the majority of the review was conducted on was an ageing P3 450mhz machine with 384 mb of Ram, a Voodoo 3 3000 16 mb graphics card and a 17 gb Hard disk. The second machine was an Athlon AMD 1800+ XP with 512 mb of Ram, a Radeon 9600 Pro together with 2 40 gb hard disks. The third machine was a P4 3.06 GHz laptop, with 256 mb of Ram, a NVIDIA GeForce FX 64 mb graphics card and a 60 gb hard disk.
Installation
Fedora Core 2 can be installed via a number of different methods including CDs, DVD, FTP, Network and HTTP methods. For this review I have used the CD method of installation as that is likely to be the most common, the four ISOs were downloaded from the Red Hat server . One oversight on the Fedora Projects behalf I noticed was the removal of a floppy boot image in order to get the installation working, currently only an image for a USB drive is available. This assumes that everyone has a USB drive and also that their BIOS supports booting from the USB drive, which many pieces of older hardware do not support.
Installation of Fedora Core 2 is either via a text mode or with the graphical Anaconda installer. Anaconda is an attractive and simple to use python based installer. Anaconda doesn't offer the user the choice of an advanced installation over a normal installation as in Mandrake 10's installer but instead provides a sensible level of detail which is enough to satisfy most users whilst not isolating the new user. Help is available every step of the way with information displayed about each step in the help pane at the side of the screen.
Partitioning of the system can either be done automatically using the free space on your hard drives or by writing over existing Linux partitions. Alternatively you can choose to do it manually using the provided partition editing interface, which is what I did in all of my installations. I encountered a couple of odd error messages when I was editing the partitions which were cause for some momentary concern. When I deleted the old Linux partitions and attempted to create a new one in its place, then mount a point on it such as /boot, I experienced error messages on occasion such as “/boot is in use”. I was able to solve this by editing my partitions in the exact order in which they appeared so hda1, then hda2 etc. This is something which should not be a problem in such a critical part of the installer, luckily this is not an error which a beginner is likely to encounter as they are more likely to use the automated partitioning technique.
Note: Problems have been experienced recently with dual booting FC2 with Windows XP or 2000, with the result being that grub does not start the windows bootloader. This is a problem which has also been experienced by Mandrake 10 users and is easily fixed, a method of fixing it is available here
Improvements have been made in terms of hardware detection for the installer between FC1 and FC2, FC2 was able to install immediately on the machine with the Radeon 9600 whereas a long complicated work around was required to install FC1 previously. Anaconda also successfully configured my graphics card and choose sensible default settings for the monitor (1024 x 768) on the P3 450mhz machine – something which had previously required a lot of config editing in FC1 in order to achieve. Its certainly nice to see these irritating bugs being squashed by the development team, which brings hardware detection up to par with that of Mandrake
There are three different choices for package selection along with a custom option, although packages can be fine tuned later in the installation:
Personal Desktop (2.3 gb) – the basic desktop packages aimed at the home user or casual businessmen i.e. Gnome 2.6, Mozilla, Evolution, OO.org, Gimp etc.
Workstation (3.0 gb) – the Personal Desktop plus development packages such as the GCC compiler.
Server (1.1 gb) – sets up File Sharing, Print Sharing and Web Services
I chose to go with a workstation environment, but added KDE 3.2 to it. The installation of the system varied from 15 minutes to about 50 minutes on the P3 450mhz machine. Once the installation was complete it was merely a manner of rebooting the machines and completing the post installation steps such as adding users and testing the sound card to make sure that it worked.
Installation Screen Shots
Left: First Screen, Right: Partitioning The Hard Disks
My first impression upon logging into the default session of Fedora Core 2 (Gnome) was one of awe. Awe at the speed in which the OS loaded, the 2.6.5 kernel which is included in FC2 provides some very impressive speed improvements. On the same machine FC2 felt about 30% quicker than in the previous Fedora Core 1 with its 2.4 series kernel. The difference is so much so that you'll wonder how you ever survived when you used those slow 2.4 kernels. As ever the kernel has been full tweaked by the Fedora and Red Hat kernel hackers and is very stable.
Booting into Gnome...
The logo and loading images of Fedora Core 2 have also been changed to provide a more professional look. This, together with the default Bluecurve theme, is a welcoming sight. One of the first things you notice once you've loaded up the desktop is the new “Computer” icon on the desktop, which is a product of Gnome 2.6. Upon closer examination you'll find that it loads a nautilus session in spatial mode linking to your “file system”, Disk Drives and “Network”. It is an entirely logical addition to the desktop instead of more icons cluttering your workspace.
Packages
Fedora Core 2's default package selection is one which seriously focuses on allowing you the user to get your work done, something which is an obvious reflection of the projects test bed status for Red Hat Enterprise Linux. Mozilla 1.6 provides the default browser, together with Ximian Evolution for email, Gaim for instant messaging and the obligatory Open Office.org for an office suite. The lineup is strong and one which "Just works" without you having to fiddle around with anything, its just a shame that the Ximian Evolution Connector was GPL'd just too late for it to be included in Core 2, although I'm sure it will be available shortly on one of the public repositories. Outside of the default packages there are a wide array of other packages available on the CDs including favourites such as GnuCash and FreeCiv. There are however some omissions from the CDs such as Scribus, Firefox or Thunderbird which would help to make the distribution feel that more rounded if they were included on the CDs, but nonetheless the package selection and availability is good in FC2.
Configuration Tools
As with any distribution the configuration tools which are used to administer the system play a central role in the distribution. Fedora Core 2's Graphical configuration tools are small programs which perform the task they are required to do with ease and a minimum amount of fuss, take the Services control panel (found under System Settings > Server Settings) for example. This is a great little tool which enables you to configure what services run when and at what run level, along with allowing you to start, stop and restart any service on the system. The clear and concise GUI makes it easy for anyone to use it but without patronising you a theme amongst all of the configuration tools. The only tool which is a let down is the Add/Remove Program utility, its such a shame that the utility is reduced to merely adding and removing programs from the installation media. The tool would be much more useful if it was to act as a front end for Yum, thereby allowing users to go online and download programs not available on the disks such as Mozilla Firefox. However, according to the Fedora Website the Fedora Project does have plans to update the Add/Remove Program utility at some point in the near future.
Left: Services Control Panel, Right: Add/Remove Packages application
Bluecurved
Ever since Red Hat 8.0, Red Hat have been developing their Bluecurve theme for their distributions and Fedora Core 2 is no different. Some of the icons have been redeveloped or modified slightly such as the “user home” icon found on the desktop. More importantly though Fedora Core 2 sees the first properly Bluecurved application in the Open Office.org suite. Virtually all of the icons have been changed to the Bluecurve style in Open Office which dramatically improves the normally ugly aesthetics of Open Office making it more user friendly.
OpenOffice.org 1.1.1 Writer in Fedora Core 2
My only real complaint is that they haven't gone far enough with the new Bluecurve theme, Mozilla for example is desperately crying out for a default Bluecurve theme to bring it into line with the rest of the system and so is Evolution and Gaim for that matter. By theming all of the default applications in Fedora Core with the Bluecurve theme they would certainly make the system feel more consistent (especially with the configuration tools) and professional, rather than stumbling upon the odd out of place icon which destroys the whole professional feel to the system.
The “Multimedia Issue”
Red Hat distributions are renown for their lack of “out of the box” multimedia capabilities and Fedora Core 2 is no different. Many people make a lot of fuss about this and Red Hats unwillingness to put themselves in a position in which they could be sued, but I don't believe it to be an issue which really affects FC2. “Out of the box” XMMS in Fedora Core 2 is unable to play mp3s, yet one 168KB download from the Livna RPM repository is all thats required to obtain that functionality. Likewise a small download is required for Flash, Mplayer and Xine which is at the end of the day not a big deal and anyway once you've downloaded it you're not going to need to do it again. People just need to bear in mind that Fedora Core 2 is supposed to be a working distribution as a test bed for Red Hat Enterprise Linux, its not trying to be an all singing all dancing multimedia orientated distribution.
SELinux
SELinux or "Security Enhanced Linux" was a feature of Core 2 which was much hailed in the initial testing stages of FC2 but does not occupy a prominent position in the actual implementation of Core 2. SELinux for those not in the know is an implementation of the Mandatory access control in the kernel - which closes off parts of the system to programs or users which should not be able to access them when running normally therefore making the system more secure or so the theory goes. SELinux is installed by default but only in a disabled non restrictive capacity, in order to install it "selinux" must be input to the installation prompt before running the installer. I experimented with SELinux on one of the machines in which I installed Fedora Core 2 on but my experience with it wasn't a particularly happy one. When trying to use the system I ran into too many conflicts and was unable to perform many actions, this was however my fault and due to my poor tinkering with the SELinux policies. As it currently stands there is no graphical interface tool from which to edit the policy, and the development team are still working on defining a sensible normal policy.
Gnome 2.6 and KDE 3.2 Implementations
As you would expect the Gnome 2.6 implementation in Fedora Core 2 is better than the KDE 3.2 implementation, but that’s by no means saying that the KDE implementation is lacking. The Gnome desktop feels more integrated than the KDE desktop with the appropriate “Computer”, “gareth’s Home”, “Trash Can” and “Start Here” icons on the desktop, bizarrely the KDE desktop doesn’t feature an icon linking to your home folder only a “Start Here” icon and a “Waste Bin”.
Left: Gnome 2.6, Right: KDE 3.2
The new nautilus in Gnome 2.6 has the widely acclaimed “spatial” settings turned on by default. “Spatial Nautilus” if you’re unaware of what it is, is a system by which whenever you open a file or folder in nautilus a new window opens up containing the object. The genius bit about it though is that the window will remember exactly where you left it and at what size you left it after you close it and attempt to navigate to it again in the future. The idea behind all of this is that if an object stays where you left it, it becomes more “real” in a sense and therefore makes for a much more intuitive browsing experience. I have to say that I agree with the Gnome developers, spatial mode is a much better way of navigating through files than the normal browsing experience as occurs in KDE’s Konqueror. I implore you to stick with Spatial Nautilus for a while just to see how good it is, but if you don’t like it then its easy enough to turn off - details of which can be found here .
Nautilus File Manager in “Spatial Mode”
All in all both the Gnome 2.6 and KDE 3.2 implementations are clean, easy to use and exactly what you’d expect a new desktop environment to be like in a distribution. The only problem I have with it involves the menus in both Gnome and KDE, for some reason not all of the KDE programs have had their icons set so that they only appear in the KDE menus and vice versa for Gnome. So its not uncommon to find an icon for KSnapshot in Gnome under the Graphics menu, it would be nice to keep some consistency in the desktops by keeping specific KDE and Gnome programs apart. This is a minor issue, but one I feel which, is easily corrected and therefore shouldn't be in the final edition of Core 2.
Package Management in Fedora
Fedora comes with the Yum package manger installed by default. This is a handy application which allows you to easily manage the packages on your computer, even if there is no GUI. One of the first things you should do once you install Fedora Core 2 is to replace your /etc/yum.conf with this one , this will set you up for the excellent Fedora.us and Livna.org repositories. After updating your headers you'll be able to update your system, find new packages, install them and let Yum resolve any dependencies in no time. Alternatively apt and the GUI front end for it “Synaptic” are also available for Fedora Core 2, which may make package management easier in Fedora. Hopefully Fedora Core 3 will include a GUI front end for Yum but it really isn't much hassle to use the command line, a nice tutorial on using Yum can be found here .
Synaptic and Display Settings
Fedora Extras and the Growing Community
Fedora in the last few months has made staggering progress in developing a community of users around it which is rapidly becoming a real asset to the distribution. Fedora has it own dedicated RPM repositories in the form of two groups of compatible repositories, Fedora.us and Livna.org form the “official” Fedora repositiories for extra RPMs. All of the RPMs there, are extremely well tested and go through a thorough process before being released to the stable servers, on the other hand the second ring of repositories centered around FreshRPMs , DAG and several others provide a much larger selection of rpms which are good but generally aren’t quite as well tested as those from Fedora.us. What this means is, is that if you can’t find a program for Fedora Core 2 already compiled and in RPM format on your CDs then your likely to find it on the repositories, saving you the time and hassle of having to compile source and giving you all the normal advantages of using pre-compiled programs.
Alongside the great repositories the Fedora user community have spawned a great news and tutorial site with FedoraNEWS , this is an informative news site which is well maintained and features some interesting articles. Columnists include respected authors such as Hoyt Duff co-author of the recent Sam’s “Red Hat Linux Fedora Unleashed”. Other sites of merit include FedoraForum a rapidly growing forum for Fedora related support, this site goes from strength to strength having gained an active community of nearly 3000 members in just over 2 months. FedoraForum’s sister site the FedoraFAQ is also a good place to visit before inquiring for help with some well written frequently asked questions and their solutions. On top of this of course there exists the excellent but often technical Red Hat Fedora mailing lists and support in the official irc room #fedora on irc.freenode.net. This all adds up to a large community of users which have come together in a relatively short period of time, something which was sincerely missing with the previous Red Hat distributions.
It Should Have Been Fixed By Now...
One part of Fedora Core 2 really annoyed me, and there's no excuse for it. The up2date program in Fedora Core 2 is still very buggy and virtually unusable, its a problem which surfaced in Fedora Core 1. Yet the up2date program has gone practically unchanged into the latest edition of Fedora Core, what makes this even more inexcusable is that an up2date applet is enabled by default in the system tray. This certainly does not give a good impression to anyone who is new to Linux, when they discover such a bugged program so soon after installing Fedora Core 2.
Conclusion
Fedora Core 2 is an excellent distribution, which is easy to use, fast, stable and professional. Once you get it installed you'll be impressed with how well the system works and performs, thanks largely to the new 2.6 kernel. At the same time you'll also have a desktop experience which doesn't try and patronise you, instead it focuses on letting you get your work done with the best applications for the job such as OpenOffice.org and Evolution. A growing user community also helps to boost this experience, together with a completely GPL license and no cost of purchase as with SuSe 9.1 and Mandrake 10.
On the downside however, Fedora Core 2 still experiences a few problems such as a bugged up2date program and no GUI for Yum. Real progress has been made by the Fedora Project since Core 1 in many places where bugs once existed. For example in Fedora Core 1 you weren't able to install Fedora without a long workaround if you had an ATI Radeon 9600 or later graphics card, yet in Core 2 your able to do this. Core 2 is a real asset to the developers and if you want to live on the cutting edge, with a professional distribution, thats completely free, then Fedora Core 2 is certainly for you.
Overall Rating
Features: Performance: Usability: Overall Value: Total Score:
About the author... Gareth "Ug" Russell is a Student living in Rural Suffolk in England. Gareth has been a Linux and Open Source enthusiast since July 2001 when he discovered Linux, having started out on Mandrake Linux 7.2, Gareth eventually moved on from Mandrake when Red Hat 8 was released and has stayed with Red Hat ever since. Gareth is an administrator of FedoraForum.org the premier forum on the internet for Fedora Core support. His other interests include gaming, rock music and politics. Gareth can be contacted with questions or comments about the review at gareth AT madpenguin.org
