Initial Benchmarks Of Fedora 32 Linux Performance

[andyprough]

Codecs are a legal issue. Fedora can't legally ship H264 codecs and unlike Ubuntu it's not based in a tax haven without software patents.

I read that and was thinking, "that's kind of an odd comment, since Canonical is based in London, England, probably one of the most heavily taxed places on the planet".

But then I saw they have Canonical Limited and Canonical Services Limited incorporated on the Isle of Man, which has 0% corporate tax. Kind of a smart move actually, especially if there is also protection from patent lawsuits.

[skeevy420]

Codecs are a legal issue. Fedora can't legally ship H264 codecs and unlike Ubuntu it's not based in a tax haven without software patents.

Fedora is good if you want an up to date desktop (none of this crappy old package stuff) that uses next-generation software. Putting filesystem to the side for now (XFS really should be default though on Workstation imho), you've got the distro that constantly showcases and pushes new open-source technologies such as Wayland, OStree, Flatpak, firewalld, Pipewire, systemd (not really new I guess now) and more. The only other distro you get this with is Tumbleweed and Arch.

Doesn't mean that codecs can't be easier to add (for Silverblue) either as part of the installer or as part of a noob helper program like most other distributions do.

There's nothing stopping anyone from using anything that you listed on any other distribution outside of some distributions simply having software too old to work very well compared to Arch/Fedora/Tumbleweed. Fedora offers nothing special that we can't get anywhere else in that regard so, IMHO, it comes down to how it's implemented.

Bleeding Edge? You listed alternatives.

New Open Source Technologies? All those are all available elsewhere in various degrees. I'm not trying to diminish Fedora's work behind it all, but we can also use Cinnamon outside of Mint if you catch my drift -- just because Fedora/Red Hat is behind it doesn't mean they necessarily have the best implementation or are the best way of doing it.

BTRFS is a fine example of that because SUSE showed up and went "well that's cool and all, but we're gonna show y'all how to really use it" and they are still delivering one of the best BTRFS setups a person could want while the Hats are dropping support of the FS they started and are starting over...which is why I have a hard time in wanting to adopt Stratis -- are y'all just gonna drop it like y'all did with BTRFS? I know I can't be the only person wondering that.

So other distributions implement X just as fast as Fedora can release it, have features Fedora doesn't necessarily have, and they also make it easier for newer users to sit down and use their system with minimal frustrations. Based on that, there really is nothing special to make a random person want to use Fedora. Once Silverblue gets a few hiccups under control it will be that special thing, but it currently feels too alpha/beta to be the Prime Time edition of Fedora.

I'd argue that a workstation is better off with a better file system strategy than just XFS. At least Silverblue keeps us covered with ostree rollbacks so the file system used is more moot than with other distributions and root setups.

Like I said before, I'm not trying to talk trash them or be overly negative or critical. It's just that when I look at Fedora, I just don't see that special "IT" that makes a distribution really standout and shine since all their old school "IT" things are pretty well covered with other distributions these days.

[Britoid]

Doesn't mean that codecs can't be easier to add (for Silverblue) either as part of the installer or as part of a noob helper program like most other distributions do.

It actually does, you have to be super careful. If RHEL started shipping with loads of unlicensed h264 codecs there almost certainly is going to be a legal case given how popular RHEL is.


Fortunately, there's both the Flathub and Cisco h264 codecs so this issue is a bit less of an issue now.

[spstarr]

Maybe boot time is slower due to more services? If so, i'll disable them more... In addition /etc/xdg/autostart/ more things to rip out.. libexec service daemons I don't want running - and have no ability to disable - without manual intervention

[andyprough]

Maybe boot time is slower due to more services? If so, i'll disable them more... In addition /etc/xdg/autostart/ more things to rip out.. libexec service daemons I don't want running - and have no ability to disable - without manual intervention

By the time you are done ripping unnecessary things out you'll have Puppy Linux and you'll get a nice fast boot time.

[Volta]

99.9% of the time on everything, wallpapers are horrible. Its rare to see anything with one worth using.

Most of the dark wallpapers are still better than flashy ones. Fedora 28, 29, 30 had very nice default wallpapers. I also like Vladstudio design.

[Michael_S]

But another thing is Fedora's "upstream first" policy. To improve Fedora, the idea is to improve upstream, which does benefit all distros. Things like Plymouth are Fedora features.

To be clear, a lot of other distros are pretty good about upstreaming their fixes and enhancements too. I think Fedora mostly has an edge here because it's partly funded by Red Hat.

e.g. the lead developer on Ubuntu MATE is the lead developer on the MATE desktop, so anything he fixes in Ubuntu MATE is upstreamed.

[Britoid]

To be clear, a lot of other distros are pretty good about upstreaming their fixes and enhancements too. I think Fedora mostly has an edge here because it's partly funded by Red Hat.

e.g. the lead developer on Ubuntu MATE is the lead developer on the MATE desktop, so anything he fixes in Ubuntu MATE is upstreamed.

Does Ubuntu MATE ship with MATE stock from upstream though?

[Michael_S]

Does Ubuntu MATE ship with MATE stock from upstream though?

I don't know.

[wizard69]

99.9% of the time on everything, wallpapers are horrible. Its rare to see anything with one worth using.

I'm not even sure why this is a concern. I immediately download some tropical themed photo from the net and have something to dream about while doing whatever on the machine.