A Number Of Fedora 21 Features Were Just Approved

[phoronix]

Phoronix: A Number Of Fedora 21 Features Were Just Approved

The Fedora Engineering and Steering Committee has approved a batch of new features for Fedora 21 with its much anticipated debut in Q4'2014...

http://www.phoronix.com/vr.php?view=MTYyODQ

[sarmad]

Fedora is a great distro and is getting better. I am surprised it's not as popular as Ubuntu.

[Pseus]

Fedora is a great distro and is getting better. I am surprised it's not as popular as Ubuntu.

Indeed. With a leading development community and great stability, Fedora is a great distro. I install it in all my secondary Linux systems (VMs, stable workstations, etc). My main system is currently Arch, as I like to stay reasonably close to the latest releases of everything without compromising stability too much. For stabler endeavors, Fedora is my distro of choice

[Hamish Wilson]

Indeed. With a leading development community and great stability, Fedora is a great distro. I install it in all my secondary Linux systems (VMs, stable workstations, etc). My main system is currently Arch, as I like to stay reasonably close to the latest releases of everything without compromising stability too much. For stabler endeavors, Fedora is my distro of choice

Seconded, on all counts.

[fastrizwaan]

Fedora is a great distro and is getting better. I am surprised it's not as popular as Ubuntu.

There are few issues, I've encountered as a fedora user:

1. Terrible Multimedia support from fedora: mp3, dvd, mkv playback is a big trouble; users have to struggle to install flash plugin; rpmfusion, adobe flash, etc.

Whereas an Ubuntu user can simply [ ] enable restricted-extras in their software, and have fun. Fedora users they have to google, and manually run so many things.

2. No official forums

3. copr is only for free software devlopers and FAS account holders, you can't build anything multimedia related there,or any emulator or something which users would like like simplescreenrecord (ffmpeg dependency);

Ubuntu's Launchpad and ppa system is just great for users and developers, you and I can build and publish free and non-free software for ubuntu.

Good luck trying to publish a non-free software at rpmfusion or copr.

4. No updates for some softwares like wxGTK (stuck at 2.8) rest of the world is using 2.9 (e.g., aegisub, dolphin-emu); so some software can't be updated.

Fedora says that it is illegal to use patented software in USA; hence can't host or build them at USA. But Ubuntu build and distributes all non-free and patented software, is Ubuntu not is USA or they have some magic formula which Redhat don't know of?

Can anybody please enlighten me, why ubuntu can allow restricted-extras and non-free software in their servers and ppa but fedora/redhat can't? Are rules different for Redhat and Ubuntu in USA?

[liam]

Fedora is a great distro and is getting better. I am surprised it's not as popular as Ubuntu.

I think, following f.N, you'll see more people moving to fedora.
I'm especially looking forward to some of the long term desktop usability issues being fixed, but, of more importance is that I think this will result in a much more flexible, and stable, product.
Some of the initiatives that have been proposed just make so much sense.

[AdamW]

"but we will see if that improves with the latest Fedora restructuring that's been ongoing for this Red Hat sponsored distribution."

I wouldn't hope for too much for f21. Maybe in the *long* term, but in the *short* term - at least for the first release under the new system - what it means is we have a lot more work to do.

[AdamW]

There are few issues, I've encountered as a fedora user:

1. Terrible Multimedia support from fedora: mp3, dvd, mkv playback is a big trouble; users have to struggle to install flash plugin; rpmfusion, adobe flash, etc.

Whereas an Ubuntu user can simply [ ] enable restricted-extras in their software, and have fun. Fedora users they have to google, and manually run so many things.

Um. Where 'so many things' is 'click two links that enable the Fusion repositories' (assuming, of course, it's legal for you to do so)? I'm really not seeing the difficulty.

2. No official forums

http://fedoraforum.org

they're not officially part of the Fedora project, but it's not like there's some kind of Forum War. There is one set of fedora forums where everyone who wants to post to a fedora forum posts. So...what's the problem?

Fedora says that it is illegal to use patented software in USA; hence can't host or build them at USA. But Ubuntu build and distributes all non-free and patented software, is Ubuntu not is USA

Canonical is legally based on the Isle of Man (and practically based in London). I don't know the details of their resources, but it's certainly reasonable to infer that no significant Ubuntu development/engineering/whatever happens in the US.

Can anybody please enlighten me, why ubuntu can allow restricted-extras and non-free software in their servers and ppa but fedora/redhat can't? Are rules different for Redhat and Ubuntu in USA?

For a start, I really, really, REALLY wish people would just for the love of Pete read and understand the difference between patented and non-free before posting. Fedora *cannot* include patented software. Fedora *chooses not* to include non-free software. These are different questions.

So far as patented software goes, there are various factors involved, but the bulk of the difference in policy (such as it is) is down to Canonical not being based in the US, having a legal team willing to sail rather closer to the wind than Red Hat's, and just not being as attractive a target for patent lawsuits. Remember, patent law is a *practical* matter. There are no Patent Police who go around on the hunt for ne'er-do-well patent violators. Patent law is civil law, and it's 'policed' by the patent holders. Patent law also does not have a 'duty to enforce' like trademark law (sort of) does: the patent holder is mostly free to choose who they sue, and who they don't. If you hold a patent and you think someone's violating it, you do a cost/benefit calculation to decide what you should do: send them a threatening letter, sue them, or just ignore it. It's only worth suing them if you think you're likely to *actually receive* more money than it costs you to sue them (plus more money to compensate for any PR damage you suffer as a result of the move). It's no good suing someone and being awarded TEN BEEELLION DOLLARS if the person you sued can't pay up; you're not going to get your TEN BEEEELLION DOLLARS from anyone else. So distros like Mint more or less ship whatever they like, because everyone knows they have no money, so what's the point of suing them?

Canonical has a bit more money than Mint or Debian or something, but nowhere near as much as Red Hat has. It's consequently a much less attractive target. RH gets sued for violating patents. All the time. It's not some kind of theoretical threat. Just Google "red hat patent lawsuit" if you want to see what I mean. We get sued all the time because we have lots of money. It's not rocket science.

(note: I am not a lawyer and none of the above is legal advice, Red Hat policy, or a statement on Red Hat's behalf. it is entirely unauthorized and unofficial, I speak for myself.)

[fastrizwaan]

Thanks Adam!

Um. Where 'so many things' is 'click two links that enable the Fusion repositories' (assuming, of course, it's legal for you to do so)? I'm really not seeing the difficulty.

Adding rpmfusion repo is just the start of the ordeal; flash plugin needs adobe repo; chorme needs different repo; virtual box needs one more; this http://www.if-not-true-then-false.com/ helped me a lot, without such websites, it's not possible for a regular user to have good multimedia experience with fedora. But with Ubuntu and OpenSuSE it is easy with 1click installers; http://software.opensuse.org/package/flash-player. I hope Fedora Workstation will be exceptionally good.

1 click installs are easy to implement; already gnome-software does that (in gnome-shell); only a meta file with "repo and packages to install" can do the trick with web-browsers as well for fedora workstation.

Canonical is legally based on the Isle of Man (and practically based in London). I don't know the details of their resources, but it's certainly reasonable to infer that no significant Ubuntu development/engineering/whatever happens in the US.

Canonical being in the UK, not a super rich corporation and allowing patented and non-free software be hosted and developed on their servers (launchpad.net), seems to be the reason for UBUNTU's popularity on the desktop.

[Calinou]

There are few issues, I've encountered as a fedora user:

1. Terrible Multimedia support from fedora: mp3, dvd, mkv playback is a big trouble; users have to struggle to install flash plugin; rpmfusion, adobe flash, etc.

Whereas an Ubuntu user can simply [ ] enable restricted-extras in their software, and have fun.

Fedora is about free software, unlike Ubuntu which usually doesn't care. You get what you want.

Fedora users they have to google, and manually run so many things.

Better not Google.

2. No official forums

There is Fedora Solved and IRC. There are actually many community resources to help you.

3. copr is only for free software devlopers and FAS account holders, you can't build anything multimedia related there,or any emulator or something which users would like like simplescreenrecord (ffmpeg dependency);

It's a good thing. I presume it can be multimedia-related if it doesn't use patent-encumbered formats.

Ubuntu's Launchpad and ppa system is just great for users and developers, you and I can build and publish free and non-free software for ubuntu.

It also encourages people to break their systems...

Good luck trying to publish a non-free software at rpmfusion or copr.

Yeah, indeed, we won't miss it though.

4. No updates for some softwares like wxGTK (stuck at 2.8) rest of the world is using 2.9 (e.g., aegisub, dolphin-emu); so some software can't be updated.

Generally Fedora is just as up-to-date as Ubuntu non-LTS, if not more (Linux kernel and LibreOffice are more recent currently).

Fedora says that it is illegal to use patented software in USA; hence can't host or build them at USA. But Ubuntu build and distributes all non-free and patented software, is Ubuntu not is USA or they have some magic formula which Redhat don't know of?

Ubuntu usually doesn't care about laws and is UK-based (if not Isle of Man... you know why).

Can anybody please enlighten me, why ubuntu can allow restricted-extras and non-free software in their servers and ppa but fedora/redhat can't? Are rules different for Redhat and Ubuntu in USA?

Yes they are, Fedora does not distribute or promote non-free software, except binary firmware.


Note that I don't use Fedora, I only did in a virtual machine.