Originally posted by c117152
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Fedora's Scientific & Audio/Music Spins Could Be On Their Last Leg
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The Fedora Project makes distinctions between "labs", "spins", and "remixes", which may be convoluted for some people, for those that are even aware that any of these options exist.
Labs offer curated OOTB setups for niche foci (Astronomy, Design Suite, Games, Jam, Python Classroom, Robotics Suite, Scientific, and Security Lab). I would imagine the appeal of these is convenience for those who use them (not sure how many Fedora users that includes), but perhaps these users could be served just as well by documentation directing them to the appropriate packages/package groups (listed in the respective Kickstart files). Also, as Labs must abide by Fedora Project licensing guidelines, this may affect the degree to which they can tailor their offerings (e.g. the Games lab can't include Steam). I noticed that it isn't unusual for a few of these labs to miss a Fedora release (e.g. there isn't a Games lab release for Fedora 31, there wasn't a Robotics Suite lab release for Fedora 30, there wasn't a Python Classroom lab release for Fedora 29, etc.), so there may be occasional maintainership issues.
Spins are available for users who don't want to use GNOME (i.e. Fedora Workstation) or the network installer. Spins are available for Cinnamon, KDE Plasma, LXDE, LXQt, MATE, Sugar, and Xfce. The Fedora Project could just offer their network installer and nothing else (i.e. no Fedora Workstation and no Fedora Spins) and let users install a desktop environment as they please. However, my guess is that most users prefer that these pre-installed offerings continue. An argument could be made to not only get rid of spins but also only package GNOME for Fedora, since downstream Red Hat only supports GNOME as of RHEL 8, but I feel many Fedora users wouldn't be in favor of that.
Unlike Labs and Spins, Remixes are not associated with the Fedora Project, and therefore don't have to abide by its licensing guidelines (e.g. they can ship Steam, VLC, etc). Like many distro remixes in general, the majority of Fedora remixes end up being discontinued, often due to lack of resources.Last edited by eidolon; 26 January 2020, 01:23 AM.
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Yes I understand and frankly I don’t see any reasoning that makes sense over simply downloading what is needed after a workstation install. All these spins do is thin out the developer base effectively wasting resources.
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Originally posted by eidolon View PostThe Fedora Project makes distinctions between "labs", "spins", and "remixes", which may be convoluted for some people, for those that are even aware that any of these options exist.
Labs offer curated OOTB setups for niche foci (Astronomy, Design Suite, Games, Jam, Python Classroom, Robotics Suite, Scientific, and Security Lab). I would imagine the appeal of these is convenience for those who use them (not sure how many Fedora users that includes), but perhaps these users could be served just as well by documentation directing them to the appropriate packages/package groups (listed in the respective Kickstart files). Also, as Labs must abide by Fedora Project licensing guidelines, this may affect the degree to which they can tailor their offerings (e.g. the Games lab can't include Steam). I noticed that it isn't unusual for a few of these labs to miss a Fedora release (e.g. there isn't a Games lab release for Fedora 31, there wasn't a Robotics Suite lab release for Fedora 30, there wasn't an Astronomy lab release for Fedora 29, etc.), so there may be occasional maintainership issues.
Spins are available for users who don't want to use GNOME (i.e. Fedora Workstation) or the network installer. Spins are available for Cinnamon, KDE Plasma, LXDE, LXQt, MATE, Sugar, and Xfce. The Fedora Project could just offer their network installer and nothing else (i.e. no Fedora Workstation and no Fedora Spins) and let users install a desktop environment as they please. However, my guess is that most users prefer that these pre-installed offerings continue. An argument could be made to not only get rid of spins but also only package GNOME for Fedora, since downstream Red Hat only supports GNOME as of RHEL 8, but I feel many Fedora users wouldn't be in favor of that.
Unlike Labs and Spins, Remixes are not associated with the Fedora Project, and therefore don't have to abide by its licensing guidelines (e.g. they can ship Steam, VLC, etc). Like many distro remixes in general, the majority of Fedora remixes end up being discontinued, often due to lack of resources.
now I understand wasted disk space and other issues with installing random software. However selection of the DE could easily be done at install time. In fact I See this as preferable because it can minimize the effort required to maintain all of these spins. This would be preferable even if it requires a base install of Fedora followed by a DE install once the system is up and running.
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Originally posted by wizard69 View Post
However selection of the DE could easily be done at install time. In fact I See this as preferable because it can minimize the effort required to maintain all of these spins.
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