So…today I’ll be looking at Fedora Core 4. We’ll begin by assuming I’m a new user and new to Fedora in General.

The Quick Look

First things first. Fedora offers hands down the easiest install of any distro out there. Anaconda is like a betty crocker oven…even a kid could bake with it. For some people, this doesn’t cut it because they may or may not need to feel ‘old skewl’ or ‘l33t’ by keeping things text based or even similar to an Ubuntu/Debian installer feel. For new users though, the Fedora Anaconda install is stellar. Fedora really shines in this area.

Package selection during the install is all graphical, clear and concise. Adding visuals to any presentation or process will make it more efficient and easier to understand. After the install, you are greeted to a KDE or Gnome session depending on what you choose. I chose KDE since I’m more fond of it than Gnome.

During the experiment, Mrs.Devnet experienced problems with an extremely slow booting Fedora on our test computer. I chalk this up to it being a test release. There were no problems with it during this time. In fact, Fedora has increased its boot speed considerably with FC4. It’s one of the fastest booting distros I’ve dealt with. What makes it even better is that it is fully graphical. Though most people want a text boot, I like the fact that you’re given an option.

The Quick Look Continued…

So, let’s pretend I’m a new user and just finished installing Fedora Core 4. What’s the first thing I need to do? Browse the internet of course. So, opening up the web browser is the first thing I’ll do. Of course I’ll stop by Yet Another Linux Blog which is one of everyone’s first stops right? Perhaps I’d navigate over to hotmail and check the old email. After that’s through, maybe I’ll navigate over to amazon and check out a few books/CD’s. Wait a second. There’s something wrong on the web page. Something isn’t displaying right. It wants me to click here. Easy. Installation of flash is a snap. So Firefox and Macromedia save the day in this case. But there are other plugins that aren’t so easy to install.

Java Java Java. Why has Sun not learned? They try to show open source software just how open source they are and they can’t even get a Java installer right for Linux? I honestly think that all Linux devs should get together and re-evaluate using Sun Java plugins for web browsing at all. We need an alternative. Afterall, it’s a crock right now. By not having a precompiled Java install in your distribution, you are alienating practically any new user that isn’t tech savvy. No getting around it. This is why distros such as SimplyMEPIS and PCLinuxOS are popular…because they cater to the new user and the end user. Fedora Core 4 can tout license all they want in this case until they turn blue in the face…but the bottom line is that Java is difficult to install for a new user and 9 times out of 10 they’ll give up before they get it.

Perhaps Fedora might provide an installer for it…perhaps a nice script to create an rpm for it…something that can help. At least something better than the crap-tastic stuff that Sun provides on their website for Linux…with instructions valid for 4 releases ago. As stated previously, most users would bail…especially after seeing that screenshot above which shows that I have java installed (after following a how-to guide on how to do things and yet java still doesn’t work). I had to re-download and install from scratch and then track down why the symbolic link before I could get it to work. After a few hours of repeated headbutting of the wall, I finally got things working. How many new users are going to put that much work into their distro? That’s right…about NONE. Of course, it took me that long because its been forever since I compiled java myself having used precompiled distros for over a year.

[soapbox]Why do I tout the new user? Because the new user is the key for Linux. If Linux is to even begin to put a dent in the desktop market it needs to accomplish two things…first, to become a viable business alternative to M$ (which has begun) and secondly, to win over new users. By accomplishing the first, it will get support from businesses in the form of driver support and larger usage. By accomplishing the second, Linux can grow and become even more great than it already is. The new user is key.[/soapbox]

So, back to the assessment. Next, I decided to listen to some streaming music from a website. I listen to online radio stations because I feel that pop music should be popped into the toilet and flushed…no offense to those of you who like it. It’s just not for me. Online radio gives me a choice to listen to whatever I want. I’m sure there are others who share this idea and also listen to online radio stations. So, I decided to see what Fedora Core 4 could do for me.

Wouldn’t you know it…they lost me again. No streaming music…and what is worse, there is no information provided on how to resolve the problem. So finally after cycling through about 5 different music players and attempting to play music streams with each, I find that I need codecs…and then I’m back to square one as a new user. Being Linux savvy means I know right where to go for these codecs…but would a new user? Not a chance unless they had their hand held. So, yet again something that could be taken care of with more attention to detail (perhaps a quick script with disclaimer…Kanotix anyone?). And people actually recommend this distro for new users? Come on!

Ok…so perhaps I’m giving Fedora some extra criticism because of third party applications installed on it. But honestly, I thought most of these programs would work better on it like they do on other distros that I use. Will a new user be as understanding as I am? Most likely not. Hence, the reasons I pull no punches. I’m sure most die hard FC4 users think I’m nuts…but if you’re a new user or a recent convert with minimal experience, you’re probably silently cheering.

What’s next? Well, we’ve surfed the internet. We’ve checked the webmail. We could use Kmail or Evolution or Thunderbird to get mail but I’m not overly concerned with these applications as they are all pretty good and not really needing a testing. Nay, we’ll do what just about every other user might decide to do. Plug in a thumb drive with some mp3′s to play. In this case, I’m using my Cruzer Micro 512MB Thumbdrive…you might have some sort of mp3 player. Since these devices are relatively similar, this should give good indication on how FC4 handles pluggin devices. Not bad! It detected my Cruzer Micro straight away and placed a desktop shortcut! Let’s see if this is a fluke or if Fedora Can actually detect this thumbdrive each time…and Fedora scores in this area. The only problem is that it creates an icon for each time you plugin the device but this is just a small nucense. In no time, I’m browsing files and looking for a tune to play. Very nice indeed. This is one of the first distros that actually detects and installs my thumbdrive.

What happened next is something that happened during our previous look as well. Fedora Core does not come with mp3 support. As stated in our previous review, this is always chalked up to license. This is a major kink in Linux being able to appeal to new users. In this case, Fedora, as expected, takes a nose dive. Many users have run across this mp3 issue and Red Hat/Fedora pulls up the patent issue. To me, this is a huge cop out. How so many other distros can have mp3 support out of the box is a mystery. Many of you are probably thinking, “well, Fedora and Red Hat are larger targets because they’re a bigger business.” Agreed. Perhaps they should approach RCA who holds the patent and find out what they can do to reach an agreement? Perhaps they should include an mp3-to-ogg vorbis converter with a nice little how-to included with a link to it on the desktop? There are many avenues that they could take…but instead, they’ve left it well enough alone through 4 releases. It is my personal opinion that this area is also holding Linux back as well. Linux cannot appeal to the masses if it can’t play DVD’s and mp3′s.

Of Lacking and Improvements

So we found quite a few areas where new users would trip up and most likely give up on right away. Being that Mrs.Devnet, a new Linux user, took a look at Fedora Core 4 Test 1 a while back…I decided to take a look back to see what her major gripe about Fedora Core 4 was. She stated that overall it was a lack of knowing what to do with Fedora. There were minimal programs installed on her Gnome desktop and she didn’t know how to download the ones she wanted nor had any means to find the program she might. There was no documentation readily available on how to get to the things she needed.

In cases like this, distros such as Xandros with Xandros Network and Linspire with CNR might be a better alternative for new users since they offer graphical explanations of what each program is. But the silly thing about all this is that they charge for this software. What I’m amazed at is that someone hasn’t done this for Red Hat or Debian already and made a distro have something like CNR and Xandros Network only an open source derrivative where one isn’t charged for freely downloadable software. Fedora strikes me as the prime candidate to come up with something like this to revolutionize the desktop. They’ve got excellent support via Red Hat and fantastic community members. They’ve als go tons of documentation if you know where to look. This is one area I think ALL distros can improve in…

I thought about the lack of direction Mrs.Devnet had right away out of the box on this distro. One way to improve this would be to place a document on FC4′s desktop that points users in the right direction for getting started. Perhaps another improvment might be to include a link on the desktop to a tutorial for getting started. If it were my Linux distro…I’d include a link to a Wink Flash tutorial geared toward new users. This would physically show new users how to get started using their brand new Linux desktop. Visually seeing a desktop in action would benefit a new user greatly.

Conclusion

It’s obvious from my quick look above that I’m quite unimpressed with Fedora…mainly because of its inability to provide easy solutions to java and mp3 issues. There are ways to circumvent patent infringement with disclaimers or with third party scripts. Hopefully, Fedora will cater to the user instead of requiring them to become well versed in compiling code within the first 10 minutes of using…because I know the average user isn’t going to want to drop to CLI anytime.

I’m very happy that Fedora Core 4 offers a great distro for those of us that have some Linux knowledge and that boot speeds are quite impressive. However, for new users, I will continue to recommend against it. Overall, after getting a fully configured FC4 box…I was riding high on the hog. I’ve had it on my test computer now for about 2 weeks and it has been stable and fast. Hopefully, some of the recommendations for this great distro won’t fall on deaf ears. That way, new users can enjoy what I’m enjoying right now with minimal effort. That’s the key…simplifying our lives with computers and Linux…not complicating them. Thanks for reading!

Experiment Revisited: Fedora Core 4 originally appeared on Yet Another Linux Blog on July 23, 2005.

Devnet: Please tell us a bit about how you got your start in Linux/Computers/Open Source…

Texstar: My first successful Linux install was Red Hat. I later found Mandrake which was nothing more than Red Hat with KDE at the time. I moved to Linux after watching Microsoft abuse their monopoly on the desktop. I formally provided unofficial 3rd party rpm updates to Mandrake users between releases until that function was taken over by Mandrakeclub.

Devnet: What type of person do you see yourself as?

Texstar: I’m kind of quiet, laid back, humerous and easy going person. I don’t take life too seriously. I look for the good in people. I enjoy chatting with fellow Linux users on our IRC channel (efnet #PCLinuxOS). What a great bunch of people…except for that Lewis guy. Just kidding Lewis! We love you, we really do

Devnet: Why did you start PCLinuxOS?

Texstar: To provide an outlet for my crazy desire to package source code without having to deal with egos, arrogance and politics. I love to package. It is like a puzzle where all the pieces have to fit together or the code doesn’t work.
That is my favorite part of doing PCLOS. The other reason is I wanted something that worked out of the box, looked fabulous and didn’t require a technical degree from college to get it working.

Devnet: How did you come up with the name?

Texstar: It is Linux for your Personal Computer. I wanted something generic that people could easily relate to and the name matches our website.

Devnet: Who is your target audience with PCLinuxOS?

Texstar: Someone who might be considering Linux for the first time. PCLOS gives them the opportunity to boot from a livecd, test for hardware compatibility and play around with it. Later if they like it they can also install it to their hard drive.

Devnet: How large is the community surrounding PCLinuxOS?

Texstar: I’m not sure how many people are using PCLOS but our website has over 6500 registered users.

Devnet: How many developers work on PCLinuxOS?

Texstar: 12-15 people are directly involved in the development of pclos and many others who provide volunteer support in various capacities.

Devnet: What would you say to someone (like some of those posting on this blog) who states, “PCLOS is just Mandrake/driva repackaged with slight mods?”

Texstar: You know, if we took Mandriva 10.2 (2005) and slapped some graphics on it and called it PCLOS then they would have a valid argument but that is simply not the case. We took Mandrake 9.2 as our base and have built up around it. We have our own kernel developed by ocilent, our own KDE which is packaged totally different than Mandriva. Our menu system is different. Our gcc is different. We have our own custom graphics and iconsets. We use a different package management system utilizing apt-get with a synaptic frontend and a valid upgrade path. Many people are still running Preview 4 fully updated.

We do utilize code from Mandriva as well as Fedora, SuSE, Yoper and others for that matter. I’ve seen patches and repackaged rpms in Mandriva’s source that came directly from Fedora. Does that mean they are ripping off Fedoras code because they didn’t come up with the patch/code themselves? I don’t think so.
Opensource allows one to share and share alike.

Devnet: PCLinuxOS is still in a “Preview” version meaning it hasn’t released a ‘full version’. Where would you like to be with PCLOS and the first full version? (features of 1.0, etc.)

Texstar: I’d like to have everything work properly out of the box for the first time Linux user. No fiddling with configuration files, plugins and drivers.
Everything just works.

Devnet: Will PCLinuxOS always be free to download and use?

Texstar: As far as I know. Sometime next year I’d like to provide boxed sets with an instruction manual for a modest fee.

Devnet: Have you read the experiment on YALB and if so, do you agree with its conclusions?

Texstar: As long as Mrs. Devnet is happy then I am happy. Honestly, I think we still have a long way to go to get to where I would like PCLOS to be but in time we will get there. The fun part is being along for the ride and seeing how far we can push the limits of opensource.

Devnet: What do you tell users who think rpms only invite dependency problems in package management? (For us Debian users )

Texstar: With Debian, if you want to upgrade your system you run apt-get update, apt-get dist-upgrade or you run Synaptic which is a frontend to apt-get. In PCLOS, if you want to update your system, you run apt-get update, apt-get dist-upgrade or you run Synaptic which is a frontend to apt-get. The only difference is ours are rpms and theirs are debs. Debian’s advantage is they have a larger repository with over 12000 packages and ours is just now topping out at close to 4000.

Devnet: Does PCLOS have any plans on porting to other architectures (i.e., power pc)?

Texstar: We have no plans to port PCLOS to other architectures other than maybe a 64 bit version later this year.

Devnet: Some distros ship with mp3 support and some without. Why is PCLOS downloadable with mp3 support when some of the big names such as Ubuntu and Fedora without?

Texstar: I don’t know anything about that. Seems like some do and some don’t for whatever reasons.

Devnet: Where does one go to get involved with PCLOS?

Texstar: www.pclinuxonline.com is our website.

Devnet: If a train left New York going 60mph and another from San Francisco going 50mph, what would the gross national product of Cuba be?

Texstar: The gross national product of Cuba as of 2003 was 10.6 billion.

—End of Interview

I want to personally thank Texstar for taking time out of development of Preview .9 of PCLinuxOS to talk with Yet Another Linux Blog. I also would like to thank him and all those involved with development of PCLinuxOS for providing a distro out there that ‘just works’ for my wife. We are now happily Windows Free on all computers save one that dual boots Windows for my work. Still to come, I’ll be taking a detailed look at each of the distros we examined in the experiment and offering input from my wife as to what they might be able to build toward to attract new users (new to Linux that is). I’ve also got a couple of tips and tricks articles coming up that I’ve been working on steadily. Stay tuned and thanks for reading.

Experiment: Interview with Texstar of PCLinuxOS originally appeared on Yet Another Linux Blog on June 8, 2005.

VS.

Look and Feel – This is one of the biggest determining factors for me. PC Linux OS looked and felt more comfortable and felt that way more so than any other distro we tried. The way it looked set me at ease right away and was easier to navigate because of this. MEPIS could really use some work on the user friendly icons and graphics. Making the distro ‘feel’ as easy as it is to use would make it a world better. Advantage – PCLinuxOS.

Performance – Both of these performed well. However, PCLinuxOS booted up in 5 seconds. Nothing in the entire experiment could top that. Fast, stable, and fun to use…despite being a beta version. Advantage – PCLinuxOS.

Hardware/Software – PCLinuxOS has a great selection of preinstalled applications that I can use for what I do with a computer. I didn’t have to go looking for anything at all. MEPIS includes a lot of stuff as well, but no nearly as much as PCLinuxOS. It also doesn’t have any filesharing applications. I’m told that installing stuff is a snap once you master a package program…however, that isn’t what we set out to do in the experiment so I have to go with default installs. Advantage – PCLinuxOS.

Upgradeability/Security – I am not qualified to compare anything on this criteria so I’ll make it a draw. Advantage – Both Distros.

Documentation – During the experiment I didn’t notice much difference between the two distributions. However, if you go to the home site for PCLinuxOS and the home site for SimplyMEPIS, you see a world of difference. It seems that PCLinuxOS has a much more active website. It was also great that PCLinuxOS gives you a chat icon to go right to a chat room to help you out (editors note: mrs.devnet is speaking about an IRC #pclinuxos icon on the default PCLinuxOS desktop that people can use for help). Advantage – PCLinuxOS.

Installation – While PCLinuxOS install is by no means difficult, SimplyMEPIS was easier and FASTER than anything else.. Nothing can touch SimplyMEPIS in this category. Advantage – SimplyMEPIS.

Now we talk about my Criteria…

Mail – Both use Kontact. There isn’t much difference. This is a moot point to try and consider a favorite. Kontact is a great mail program. Advantage – Both.

Internet – I had difficulty getting windows media player applications working in SimplyMEPIS the first time around. That still hasn’t changed this time around. PCLinuxOS is once again flawless at playing any type of media I can throw it at on the internet. Hands down, PCLinuxOS is a distro I can use to surf at any of the sites I go to. Advantage – PCLinuxOS.

Listening to Music – PCLinuxOs has a better selection of music players for this task. There is also a decidedly better sound out of PCLinuxOS than there is out of SimplyMEPIS. I can’t put my finger on it (editors note: a good chance that this is because of different sound daemons used by the distros). Advantage – PCLinuxOS.

Download Files/Music – I am unable to download files in SimplyMEPIS since it has no P2P programs installed. PCLinuxOS has limewire installed by default. This is exactly what I need to do my daily stuffs. (editors note: mrs.devnet is well aware that you can install using a package manager…but this review is for default installs only) Advantage – PCLinuxOS.

Burning CD’s – Both of the distros are great on this one. Both come equipped with K3B and both detected my burner. Both burned CD’s and none of them failed. Therefore, I’d rate these about the same. Advantage – Both.

So, PCLinuxOS takes the cake. It is just easier to use, easier on the eyes, and it caters to new users. It has everything you need right away without having to lift a finger. It feels more familiar to me coming from windows. If you know any new users out there that are looking to get into Linux, I would recommend them this distro. With this newly found Linux distro, I have asked Mr.Devnet to install it as our primary operating system. PCLinuxOS is the Experiment Winner. If you haven’t tried it yet, you should do so immediately. Thanks for reading. I have one last entry to do before I sign off of my husband’s blog for good. He wants me to give some constructive criticism to the distributions that didn’t win so that they can get better. So, I’ll look at doing that some time in the next few weeks.

Mrs.Devnet

Certifies PCLinuxOS

as the Best New User Distro.

Experiment: Final Head to Head originally appeared on Yet Another Linux Blog on May 23, 2005.