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Desktops (Apple) Open Source Operating Systems Windows Linux

Fedora 25 Now Available -- Makes It Easier To Switch From Windows 10 Or Mac (betanews.com) 154

Posted by msmash from the affinity-for-linux dept.
Reader BrianFagioli writes: After the release of both alpha and beta versions, Fedora 25 is officially here and ready for production machines. If you aren't familiar with the popular Linux-based operating system, please know that it is the distribution of choice for the founder of the Linux kernel, Linus Torvalds. One of the most endearing qualities of Fedora is its focus on only offering truly free open source software. Also, you can always count on a very modern version of the Linux kernel being available. Despite having very up-to-date packages, it is always very stable too. My favorite aspect, however, is the commitment to the GNOME desktop environment; other DEs are available, though. The team says, "Fedora 25 Workstation now makes it easier to for Windows and OS X users to get started, with Fedora Media Writer serving as the default download for those operating systems. This tool helps users find and download the current Fedora release and write it to removable media, like a USB stick, allowing potential Fedora users to 'test drive' the operating system from that media environment. Fedora can then be installed to their systems with the same process".
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Fedora 25 Now Available -- Makes It Easier To Switch From Windows 10 Or Mac More

Fedora 25 Now Available -- Makes It Easier To Switch From Windows 10 Or Mac

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  • It's a hell of a lot easier to switch now! (Score:5, Funny)

    by tlambert ( 566799 ) on Tuesday November 22, 2016 @01:47PM (#53340665)

    It's a hell of a lot easier to switch now!

    Good job, guys!

    I was having a hell of a time switching to your software before you released it. Now that it's released, the experience is 1000X better!

    (still sucks, though..)

    • This will finally be the year of Linux on the Desktop.

      (About time, too! It's been in the pipeline for ages...)

      • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

        by saloomy ( 2817221 )
        I feel like the time for the Linux Desktop has come and gone, and it is such a shame too. Linux desktops could have absolutely changed the game in terms of computer use. Why? Because of the infrastructure, and Apple IMHO is in the lead on this. I have Macs at work and home, so does my wife. We have Apple TVs, iPhones, iPads, and the whole ecosystem really does work. With the latest iteration of iOS/Mac OS, our desktops sync, our documents sync, and our settings sync. All of our setups follow us from compute

        • I feel like the time for the Linux Desktop has come and gone, and it is such a shame too.

          I agree that it has come and gone, but I think that's great. I do not want for the illiterate masses to use Linux. I want for them to stay with Windows, so that criminals will target mostly Windows. I do not want for my desktop environment to be dumbed down so that everybody can use it - if Linux were ever to become relevant in the desktop, it would be in the way of the asinine desktop environments that Red Hat and Canonical are pushing. In that situation, it would soon be the status quo that applications w

          • Ruminating the good ol' FUD (Score:1)

            by Anonymous Coward

            > I agree that it has come and gone, but I think that's great. I do not want for the illiterate masses to use Linux. I want for them to stay with Windows, so that criminals will target mostly Windows.

            That's the FUD only the "illiterate masses" swallow: Windows is more insecure because... it's more targeted.

            So perhaps Windows is for you?

            • It is. Let's say Ubuntu takes over Windows and becomes the dominant OS. To do that, it should have a way to easily install applications. So you go to scam/malware/adware page X while looking for porn (I know nobody does that) and it says your system is outdated and at risk. To update it just download this .deb file and install it. Now user Joe using Ubuntu will blindly click on the deb file, put its password when asked and the malware will be installed in your Ubuntu system just as easily as it is in your W

      • With somewhere between 40 and 80 million desktop Linux users already, the year of Linux on the desktop arrived some time ago. You may be confusing that with the year of Linux world domination of the desktop. Not sure when that is, but judging by the strength of the products recently released by Microsoft and Apple, it may not be far away.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by flacco ( 324089 )

      > (still sucks, though..)

      I think it's pretty awesome.

      Which computer company is letting you do some things on your computer?

  • An unsecure OS has been detected. Fix now? (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 22, 2016 @01:50PM (#53340689)
    This is the prompt that should be displayed if Fedora is run from removable media on a Windows machine. If the use clicks Yes, the Windows install is nuked and replaced with Fedora. If the user clicks No, the machine waits 10 minutes and then without warning BLAMMO nukes the Windows install and replaces it with Fedora.

    You know, kind of like the upgrade process from Windows 7 to Windows 10, to keep in line with what Windows users are used to.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by SeaFox ( 739806 )

      An unsecure OS has been detected. Fix now?

      Protip: If you don't want people to think you're some Indian scam tech support outfit, you might try using correct grammar.

      • Protip: If you don't want people to think you're some Indian scam tech support outfit, you might try using correct grammar.

        Oh, you mean an outfit that provides tech support to Indian scammers?

  • How does Fedora compare to Ubuntu? (Score:3)

    by Qbertino ( 265505 ) <moiraNO@SPAMmodparlor.com> on Tuesday November 22, 2016 @01:53PM (#53340715)

    Can anyone who know both Fedora and Ubuntu say how they compare to each other?
    Unity aside, is there a solid reason to use Fedora over Ubuntu?
    What do you like about Fedora - if you are a Fedora user?

    • Ubuntu is easier to get into in my opinion. It allows for easy install of codecs, etc. that are otherwise slightly harder to get on Fedora. If you want that same type of ease of use but on Fedora, go for Korora. Pretty stable and a decent mix of new stuff with reliability. Offers an LTS version if you want good reliability/durability. Fedora is one of the best distros for using the latest technologies, one of which is the latest Gnome DE edition to drop. It's good for previewing things that will eventually

      • Re: (Score:3)

        by kwalker ( 1383 )

        I still install RPMfusion right after installing Fedora, but starting with F25, MP3 decoding is enabled out of the box. I'm assuming their legal counsel has reviewed the MP3 patents and decided they've expired or are no longer enforceable.

        • Fraunhoffer's mp3 codec patent did indeed expire this year. I think I even read about it here.

        • Re:How does Fedora compare to Ubuntu? (Score:5, Informative)

          by r1348 ( 2567295 ) on Tuesday November 22, 2016 @02:32PM (#53341029)

          All the patents regarding mp3 decoding expired, but there's still one covering encoding, and that's why only playback is enabled for now.

    • Re:How does Fedora compare to Ubuntu? (Score:4, Informative)

      by willoughby ( 1367773 ) on Tuesday November 22, 2016 @02:12PM (#53340889)

      Just uninstalled Ubuntu 16.04 here after about three weeks & installed Win 10. The file manager in Ubuntu would constantly cease to function. If you clicked on the icon the background would pulse with changing color as if it were launching then, after about 20 seconds, the pulsing would stop. That's it - no response, error message, crash report - nothing. And it's not just a file manager, it also handles auto mounting of flash drives, external hard drives, etc..

      There were also crashes of something in the background with the crash report icon appearing in the dock. But the freezing file manager was finally intolerable. I might have had more patience or tried to diagnose if this hadn't been a long term support release. I had to reboot Ubuntu 16.04 more than my time with Win 8, 8.1, & 10 combined.

      If this is the best LTS release Ubuntu can come up with I'd advise using anything else.

      • I haven't used any desktop Linux in a while but when I played around with them I found Ubuntu's were easier to initially set up, but Fedora was more stable. There were still bizarre integration problems with applications though, like different apps using different file manager plugins so that one application works across the whole file system no problem, but another can't browse into mount points, which means you need to move files out of that mount to use them, then put them back, etc. A small mountain o

        • There were still bizarre integration problems with applications though, like different apps using different file manager plugins so that one application works across the whole file system no problem, but another can't browse into mount points, which means you need to move files out of that mount to use them, then put them back, etc.

          Whaaaa? I've never heard of such a thing, and certainly never experienced it, ever. Maybe you've got a real story to tell, maybe you just made it up, or maybe your mind played tricks on you, trying to remember something annoying that happened in the distant past, I don't know. But file managers on Linux don't do that. And apps don't use "file manager plugins", they use whatever the widget toolkit (usually GTK or QT) provides. Often with customization, and therefore the possibility of bugs exists, but not br

          • > And apps don't use "file manager plugins", they use whatever the widget toolkit (usually GTK or QT) provides

            Whatever, I'm a sysadmin not a programmer, and that's what I was looking to call it.

            And it sure as hell did happen. In Evolution:

            https://wiki.gnome.org/Apps/Evolution

            I remember it clear as day because we were corresponding with a client endlessly going back and forth on a project and all of the project docs were on a mount on the office CentOS machine and I was absolutely pissed that I could get

            • Evolution is a Gnome thing, the same guys who brought you Bonobo and a bunch of other steaming piles. Try Dolphin, you'll like it. Personally, I try to stay as far away from GTK things as I can. But when forced to use them because of no other choice, they usually do function as designed, in their stilted, award way. I can't imagine how you ended up with an Evolution build that trips over mount points, Evolution certainly never did that the few times I used it. But who knows. There's no reason to use Evoluti

      • Re:How does Fedora compare to Ubuntu? (Score:5, Informative)

        by umafuckit ( 2980809 ) on Tuesday November 22, 2016 @03:16PM (#53341373)

        Just uninstalled Ubuntu 16.04 here after about three weeks & installed Win 10. The file manager in Ubuntu would constantly cease to function.

        I'm not a big fan of 16.04 either. On two machines I work with the ethernet port randomly stops functioning every so often and until I unplug/replug the cable, similar deal with pulseaudio, systemd refused to boot the machine because one of the network shares in fstab had a syntax error, and there was a clusterfuck the one time I tried to install an ATI graphics card. However the file manager... You could just install a different desktop environment (I'm guessing you were using Unity?) and that problem would go away. I might try uninstalling systemd, TBH. I reckon half of my problems come from there.

        • Agree about Systemd. I'm not a systemd hater by nature, but I did see a bunch of strange issues over the last year or so that I never saw before systemd landed, and that just don't show up as KDE or Gnome open issues. Those feel like Systemd/dbus things. For example, I might suddenly lose all keyboard input, but the mouse is still working fine. Cure is to restart X, which is to say, low level input handling isn't the problem. Thankfully, those seemed to go away with later 16.04 updates, and 16.10. The latte

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by fnj ( 64210 )

        Your goddam hardware is obviously bad or just plain shitty. Big whoop.

        • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

          by clonehappy ( 655530 )

          Your goddam hardware is obviously bad or just plain shitty. Big whoop.

          Annnd this is why no one wants to run Linux.

          • Comment removed based on user account deletion

            • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

              by clonehappy ( 655530 )

              Of course. I'm not saying shitty hardware isn't to blame for issues arising from shitty hardware.

              However, I've had issues, stupid ones like the OP's, pop up occasionally on various Linux distros, and the answer you get time and time again is "must be shitty hardware". Even when the hardware is fine and can run BSD, Windows, sometimes even OS X just fine.

              It's that sense of superiority that Linux is perfect and if there are any issues it just must be shitty hardware that turns people off. It's just as smug as

          • Your goddam hardware is obviously bad or just plain shitty. Big whoop.

            Annnd this is why no one wants to run Linux.

            Oh my, a word from a sensitive little snowflake. No, it's not why noone wants to run Linux (which isn't true anyway) it's why people get triggered and have little hissy fits, then get over it and eventually end up doing whatever makes sense to them. For what it's worth, I think the "goddam hardware" guy is an idiot too. But get real. If you want serious abuse, try some phone support from Microsoft.

            • Re: (Score:2)

              by lucm ( 889690 )

              If you want serious abuse, try some phone support from Microsoft.

              This was maybe true in the 90s but things have changed, a lot. Microsoft support, especially on cloud products, is excellent. I have a client who uses Office365 and every time a problem occurred in the last year or two, within minutes after the ticket was open Microsoft called to provide assistance, and they stayed on the line until the problem was resolved.

              There are companies out there with even better customer service, especially retailers (like Zappos), but for a tech company Microsoft is top tier in tha

        • My hardware is a Dell Optiplex 9010 - 3rd gen core I7, 16 gig of ram, CoolerMaster 500 watt PSU, GTX750Ti, Mushkin Reactor 1tb SSD. And this motherboard might as well be an engineering prototype from Intel. Every chip is Intel and even the "Dell drivers" downloaded from Dell support are just generic Intel driver packages.

          But maybe you're right and this setup is just shitty hardware. But it's shitty hardware where Ubuntu 16.04 stumbles & Win 10 runs a treat. Maybe someday I'll buy some "good hardware" so

          • Oh and, yes, it runs Crysis.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by lucm ( 889690 )

            My hardware is a Dell Optiplex 9010 - 3rd gen core I7, 16 gig of ram, CoolerMaster 500 watt PSU, GTX750Ti, Mushkin Reactor 1tb SSD. And this motherboard might as well be an engineering prototype from Intel. Every chip is Intel and even the "Dell drivers" downloaded from Dell support are just generic Intel driver packages.

            But maybe you're right and this setup is just shitty hardware. But it's shitty hardware where Ubuntu 16.04 stumbles & Win 10 runs a treat. Maybe someday I'll buy some "good hardware" so I can run Ubuntu.

            In my experience, here's how distros rank for hardware support:

            OpenSuSE > Fedora > Ubuntu.

            The fact that kernels on Fedora are usually bleeding edge helps a lot.

            This being said, very often there's some weird conflict going on that causes problems. For instance, I have a low-end HP laptop that has a wifi adapter that keeps going off in Ubuntu; I had to blacklist a bluetooth controller to get wifi working properly; meanwhile the thing runs flawlessly on Fedora 24 and Windows 10.

      • Just uninstalled Ubuntu 16.04 here after about three weeks & installed Win 10. The file manager in Ubuntu would constantly cease to function.

        16.04 was annoying unstable when first released. It's ok now, but 16.10 is the new shininess. But that was unstable too, when first released. I put it on a throwaway laptop and kept updating until it got stable, I think maybe 10 weeks or so, then put it on the rest of my machines without incident. Very nice. I run Kubuntu on it, and highly recommend it. KDE has really matured lately, it's actually very pleasant to use these days. No comparison whatsoever to the Windows experience, it's beyond me how anybody

    • Re:How does Fedora compare to Ubuntu? (Score:5, Informative)

      by kwalker ( 1383 ) on Tuesday November 22, 2016 @02:20PM (#53340943) Journal

      Fedora is usually one or two releases ahead of Ubuntu. Fedora is usually quick to fix issues with their shipped software and doesn't necessarily wait for the next distro release to release a new version of a specific package or to add new packages. Fedora ships with (usually, depending on release schedules) the latest versions of GNOME and GNOME software.

      Ubuntu supports some things that Fedora can't/won't because of patents/copyright. Ubuntu is Debian-based, so if you're more familiar with that family of distros, you'll be more comfortable in Ubuntu.

    • Re:How does Fedora compare to Ubuntu? (Score:5, Informative)

      by ausekilis ( 1513635 ) on Tuesday November 22, 2016 @02:26PM (#53340991)
      Some of the bigger differences:
      • Fedora is "bleeding edge" while Ubuntu favors stability - Fedora typically has newer versions of libraries sooner than Ubuntu does. While Ubuntu packages arent as old as Debian (which it's based on), Ubuntu is typically a bit more conservative and stable.
      • YUM (DNF) vs APT - Fedora uses YUM (now DNF) with RPM packages while Ubuntu uses APT and DEB packages. Functionally there isn't a lot of difference between the two, but the naming conventions for packages differ.
      • RPM vs DEB - Ubuntu is a little wider spread and has a bit stronger support. If you should need some obscure package/game/library, somebody likely has a .deb file of it, while you may be stuck with a manual compile/install on Fedora.
      • Repos - Ubuntu has a much larger number of third-party repos while Red Hat is slightly more consolidated (RPMFusion project).

      Both will give you KDE (again, Fedora's version may be newer), MATE, LXDE, Gnome, etc... You can set either up however you'd like, and the default repos largely contain the same stuff.

      Personally, I run Fedora since my work uses RHEL and that keeps me in the same mindset. I tend to bounce between Linux Mint and Fedora, and have found the only real difference for me comes down to some obscure libraries on (very rare) occasions. Folks complain that Fedora is unstable, and that's generally true for the first few weeks after release. I've had the same problem with Ubuntu, though... so YMMV

      • Fedora is "bleeding edge" while Ubuntu favors stability - Fedora typically has newer versions of libraries sooner than Ubuntu does.

        It's not really fair to say that without mentioning Debian Sid, on which every version of Ubuntu is based. By running Sid you will typically get even fresher packages than Fedora. If Sid is a bit too adventurous for you (packages do break from time to time but many people use it for their primary workstation because it's fun) then try Debian Testing... solid as a rock. Never mind Stable, which actually goes overboard on the stability.

        It's kind of odd how Debian doesn't get mentioned much in these kinds of t

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Yonsy ( 4065021 )
      In my case. My work commonly is put online/offline linux servers in cloud providers. And i don't like the idea for update my laptop Linux every year for something magic/new so I use Ubuntu 16.04 LTS that have 5 year support (not 9 months like the other versions or Fedora too) and for anything new for example latests Ansible versions, I added the PPA for this projects.

      Fedora is a workcamp for Redhat, they experiment in Fedora new changes and updates with Gnome and now Wayland. This is the same work that Can

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by _merlin ( 160982 )

      Fedora is a lot like CentOS/RHEL, so if you're developing for one of those, it's a good desktop environment to use. It also gives you a preview of what might go into future releases of CentOS/RHEL and gives you a chance to adapt to it or complain about it. (CentOS/RHEL are relatively well-supported by software and hardware vendors and hence popular in environments where stuff has to "just work".)

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by MSG ( 12810 )

      Almost everything is better refined under Fedora. Most recent example: I support a lab that teaches embedded development. The ARM devices present themselves to a host as a USB network device with DHCP. If we attach those devices via USB to an Ubuntu host, it switches the default route to the embedded device, which means the host loses access to the NFS server and the whole desktop session hangs. On Fedora and CentOS, the hosts correctly get an address and a subnet route, but the default route is unmodif

    • Thanks Qbertino for asking a sensible question, and brickhouse98 (you're mighty mighty, just letting it all hang out) for giving an informative answer.

      God there are some stupid pointless flamewars on this site, and when I saw this article I hoped this thread might be an exception, but the first bunch of posts are all "Year of Linux on the desktop" crap and grammer Nazi nonsense.

      Then you two come along and start a real thread.

    • Just switched from Ubuntu to Fedora 25 after using Ubuntu for a few years (used Mandriva before). Its a really nice solid OS. I found it worked better out of the box than Ubuntu particularly on RAID arrays, and it fixed a sound bug that had been an issue with me and Ubuntu for years. You will have to get used to more of a command prompt based system of contol for package installation and repo contol, with slightly different commands. Not hard to get used to though. One issue I have had though is I switched

  • Wayland is also now the default (Score:5, Informative)

    by neuro88 ( 674248 ) on Tuesday November 22, 2016 @01:55PM (#53340735)
    Fedora 25 marks the first release of a mainstream distro to switch to Wayland as the default display server (it will set X11 if it's detected that you're using incompatible drivers such as the nvidia drivers for example). I'm surprised there's no front page story about this on /.

    Hell, there's not even token a mention of it in this summary.

    • Seriously? Isn't Wayland kind of a big deal?

      I mean, I can't remember anymore. It's been in development for so long that in my mind it's reached Duke Nukem status. Now I'm going to have to go google it cause I can no longer remember what was supposed to be so good about it.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by neuro88 ( 674248 )
        Not Duke Nukem status. There's been working live CD demos for years now.

        • True, but this is the first time (that I am aware of) that it has been considered good enough to be a first class citizen in a major distro. That's a significant milestone.

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by Anonymous Coward

        Not sure what you mean. Wayland has been continually improved, but it was actually already released 4 years ago. It arrived reasonably soon after the talk about it began whereas DNF took more than a decade.

        What we've been waiting for was for applications and operating systems to rely on Wayland instead of X, which has been taking so long because X is very entrenched. Nvidia, with its X-only drivers, certainly isn't helping.

    • I use nvidia, so it would still be X for me.

  • ...why would I pick Fedora? It's one thing if we're talking servers and I needed RHEL or Oracle Unbreakable, but for personal usage? When SteamOS is based on Ubuntu, why not pick a Ubuntu or even a Debian based distro? .deb is a lot easier to handle than .rpm

    • Fedora is one of few distros with the most up to date Gnome environment. That and testing out changes and developing for RHEL and CentOS makes sense on Fedora.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by kwalker ( 1383 )

      If you work with RHEL/CentOS servers, running a Fedora desktop will show you what the current/next version of those server distros will look like and give you more insight into their inner workings. Their underpinnings are the same, their os-level services are the same (Though versions may be different). And DEBs and RPMs are basically the same effort-wise anymore for end-users, Fedora COPRs are equivalent to Debian PPAs. And in my opinion, RPMs are easier to build.

    • If Steam and gaming are a major part of what you do with your computer, you're right. If you're using it for work, that doesn't matter. And, if for some reason you need access to the latest versions of various libraries, or want to help test the latest and greatest versions of various projects, you're better off with Fedora. It all depends on what you're looking for.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by donaldm ( 919619 )

      ...why would I pick Fedora? It's one thing if we're talking servers and I needed RHEL or Oracle Unbreakable, but for personal usage? When SteamOS is based on Ubuntu, why not pick a Ubuntu or even a Debian based distro? .deb is a lot easier to handle than .rpm

      I prefer Fedora KDE spin but other people prefer different spins (ie. GUI or CLI) such as Gnome and Xfce but there are others [fedoraproject.org] to choose as well. The best way to pick one is to download a Live spin and run it from DVD or USB key before making a decision if you wish to install. You can actually do something similar with the Debian (eg. Ubuntu and Mint) based distributions.

      It is important to realize that Fedora is only supported for about a year with a major release approximately every six months and you d

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Anonymous Coward

      If you like systemd, it's the reference platform. If you hate systemd, it is the worst distro out there. It's their fault.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Kjella ( 173770 )

      ...why would I pick Fedora? It's one thing if we're talking servers and I needed RHEL or Oracle Unbreakable, but for personal usage? When SteamOS is based on Ubuntu, why not pick a Ubuntu or even a Debian based distro? .deb is a lot easier to handle than .rpm

      Well, most of the "under the hood" changes are pushed by Red Hat so you'll probably see them in Fedora first if that rocks your boat. Ubuntu is trying their own thing "over the hood" with Mir, Unity etc. which may or may not be to your liking. I kinda like KDE but it seems to always be on the sidelines for everyone but SuSE. Right now I'd probably go to Mint Linux's Cinnamon edition but realistically I hope to keep Win7 working a little longer. SteamOS and their Steam Machines kinda went nowhere, so it's s

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by reiscw ( 2427662 )

      This is a good question and I find myself going back-and-forth on this issue myself. I typically prefer Debian Stable and Fedora. Mainly because I like Gnome 3 (if you don't like Gnome 3, you probably feel differently and that's okay). Ubuntu seems a lot buggier than it once was (I started using it around 7.10). Also, Ubuntu wants to have its own version of everything (Mir, Unity, Snappy, etc.) and they never seem to put enough resources behind any of them to turn out a good product. Fedora on the othe

  • I need to test that out. I've never gotten Fedora to run on my 2006 Black MacBook. Mint Linux is the only one I ever got installed since the installer recognizes existing Mac partitions.

  • systemd no thanks (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    If they are still using systemd I'm not interested.

  • How do we know that? In the past Linus has always been very careful not to say what distro he uses out of caution that any mention by him would be considered an endorsement, as has apparently been done here. I've read him talking about desktop environments but never distros.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by r1348 ( 2567295 )

      He actually mentioned many times he uses Fedora as desktop/workstation distro, and in his children's laptops too.

  • Select your stream here [fedoraproject.org].
  • Oh wow, I just got this great new video card that blows my old one away. I can't wait to plug it in, have the OS find it and load all the correct drivers for it! I am so excited! Wait... what do you mean "What do you think this is, Windows? This is Linux!" Yeah, desktop of the future. Sure. How long have people been saying that? How much has the hardware driver issue been advanced in that time?
    • The problem is with companies refusing access to the specs of their hardware so others can write drivers for them.

      Linus Torvalds advanced things a little [wired.com].

    • Yeah, desktop of the future. Sure. How long have people been saying that? How much has the hardware driver issue been advanced in that time?

      Light years. Linux now gets day 0 support for new 3D cards from AMD and NVidia, for one thing. For another, Linux now supports a far bigger range of hardware than any version of Windows. True. Because Linux doesn't drop old hardware like Microsoft does. Once some piece of hardware is supported in Linux, it stays supported forever. And for most hardware you won't need any vendor driver, the hardware support is built into the kernel (typically as a module).

      For hardware you really care about, like your network

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by guygo ( 894298 )
        Oh good, so you're going to come over and get this Audigy sound card installed correctly for me? Because the OS sure can't. All your platitudes to the side, the Linux I have fails miserably at new hardware additions. Miserably. And has been since Linux was developed. But maybe it's me and I'm not worthy. After all, I've only been doing this for 45+ years. I have so much to learn.

  • How goddam hard has it ever been to change to linux? You just put the goddam CD in the CD-ROM reader or plug in the goddam USB stick and reboot. Sheesh. The way it has ALWAYS been.

  • The real question... (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    Never mind being easy to switch from windows or mac os, can you actually do an upgrade from previous version of fedora? The instructions used to suggest it was best to nuke previous versions before installing.

  • Does Fedora have an ncurses app for exploring packages, such as aptitude? Last time I looked at it, as far as I could tell you had pure command-line tools (rpg and yum) and full GUI tools but nothing like aptitude.

    https://wiki.debian.org/Aptitude [debian.org]

    I particularly like the way vi keys work as expected inside aptitude. For me it is a fantastic way to browse through packages, see what I have installed, etc. I would have tried out Fedora by now if I knew I could use aptitude on it.

  • So now Linux handles Active Directory and DFS shares? I can run Cisco Jabber and connect with my cow-orkers? There is a decent Visio like application I can run? Checkpoint VPN support?

  • This has all the hype and all the validity of Organic Vegetables. Bottom line is 99% of people dont care, so long as they can still surf porn, chat on Facebook and watch cat videos on youtube the rest is irrelevant to them.

  • When I think of an OS that makes it easy to switch from one I have used before the UI is just one of many things I consider. The article mentions some scripting languages that are supported out of the box, a few applications that are included, and how it's got a great kernel and package manager but those are really important only to software developers and the like.

    What I'd think people that are switching operating systems would be concerned about are things like being able to read their existing media and files, has drivers/utilities for their peripherals (like a printer/scanner/fax MFD), can connect to their network (wired, wireless, whatever DSL/cable/satellite/dial-up modem they might have), and probably most importantly can run the programs they are used to and/or invested a lot of money into. There was a brief mention of supporting graphical hardware, and being able to play MP3 files but not much else.

    For long time users of computers they will have a stockpile of older files and potentially software they'd like to access even on a new system. This computing inertia has been a big reason why Microsoft has been so successful, people can move from one version to the next and not worry too much about losing the ability to do things as they did before. This is especially true for technologies like VirtualPC and Boot Camp that allow people to run their old OS on their new computer alongside the new OS. (I realize the two technologies I mention don't do exactly the same thing but it does allow one to run an older Windows OS relatively painlessly and run some other OS with little difficulty for people that wish to do so.)

    Fedora is much like any other Linux based OS I assume, so I assume it can run VirtualBox. WINE is probably available too. I assume it can at least read NTFS and HFS volumes, even if writing is not available the ability to read is huge. I assume it runs a few nice web browsers, office productivity suites, and e-mail programs too. I'd like to hear about those. I'm sure access to games is important to a lot of people so adding that would be a good idea but it won't be much of a selling point to people like me or for corporations.

    I know some of this stuff because I'm a regular user of Linux, Mac, and Windows but honestly I don't know a whole lot about what a recent version of Linux might do to help me ditch one of my non-Linux OSes. I use my Mac for e-mail and web browsing, Linux for writing code, and Windows to run Office. I don't really try to do away with any one OS because I literally have a dozen computers in my basement, I have options.

    If someone wants to sell me an OS as an alternative to MacOS or Windows then they will have to try harder. I believe I am not alone in this.

  • Yes there are alternatives, but why don't publishers publish their software on linux?

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