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IT Blogwatch

A Daily Digest of IT Blogs from Richi Jennings

Fedora tips up new distro, to acclaim

TAGS:Cambridge, F10, Red Hat, RHAT
IT TOPICS:Desktop Applications, Emerging Technology, Enterprise Software & Services, Linux, Open Source, SOA & Web Services

In Wednesday's IT Blogwatch, Richi Jennings watches bloggers watch the newest Linux distro: Fedora 10. Not to mention cow tipping with a tail-dragger...

Chris Kanaracus tips the hat:

The Red Hat-sponsored Fedora Project on Tuesday released Fedora 10, the latest version of the free Linux-based operating system, with a wide range of improvements in areas such as virtualization management, networking, boot time and security.
...
Fedora 10 can also start up faster, thanks to a new graphical boot system dubbed Plymouth ... The new virtualization features include the ability to manage virtual hosts and storage remotely, which should appeal to network administrators with fragmented teams ... Security improvements include the addition of SecTool, an auditing and detection kit.
...
In addition, Fedora 10 has a revamped audio system that uses less power, support for "a vast array" of webcams, improved printing capabilities and "support for more hardware than any other operating system."

Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols adds:

What's the difference between a cutting-edge and a bleeding-edge product? A cutting-edge product is the newest of the new and it works. A bleeding-edge product is the newest of the new and it 'sort of' works. You'll end up making a bloody mess of yourself with most bleeding-edge programs. Fedora 10, however, is a true cutting-edge Linux distribution.
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It starts with the boot-up with the new Plymouth graphical boot system. This speeds up the boot process by taking advantage of a new kernel mode setting feature ... PackageKit now automatically recognizes when you run into a media codec that your media player doesn't know how to play. PackageKit then looks for the appropriate codec and, if you approve, installs it. You don't need to know where the codec is, you don't need to fiddle with the details, PackageKit does it all for you.
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[The] features ... all work smoothly and seamlessly together. Fedora 10 is what a cutting edge Linux distribution should be. You don't have to take my word for it. You can download this free community Linux distribution today from the Fedora download site.

Sounds like Scott Gilbertson has Ubuntu-fatigue:

Fedora 10 is plenty snappy, performance-wise, though of course the speed will vary greatly according to your PC's specs. We installed Fedora on an older machine with 1GB of RAM and found it to be on par with the new Ubuntu 8.10 in terms of speed.

But Fedora beats Ubuntu in some less easily described ways - something about Fedora 10 just feels very solid in a way that other distros don't. Despite being a preview release we didn't encounter any bugs, glitches or crashes ... it could be a nice alternative for those growing tired of Ubuntu.
...
And of course Fedora isn't just a community project, it's also an incubator and testing ground for Red Hat's Enterprise Linux.

Andy Hudson goes all enterprise-y:

Fedora also includes the first real glimpse of the Advanced Message Queing Protocol (AMQP), an open protocol standard for middleware. Some of you may be scratching your heads trying to work out what exactly middleware is, but it's quite simply the layer of software that sits between numerous disparate systems and allows them to communicate and exchange information.

Middleware can be found in many large companies, but we've mainly come across it in the banking environment where they routinely use mainframe and legacy systems making such inter-system communication a challenge. It's no real surprise to learn that AMQP started off life in a large US bank, and has now been adopted by a working group that includes Red Hat, Cisco and other major corporates including both Microsoft and Novell.

It's undeniable that it's not likely to be used in anger with a Fedora deployment, but rather Fedora is being used as a proving ground before it ultimately arrives in a future version of Red Hat Enterprise Linux.

Bruce Perens enumerates the new:

The following are major features for Fedora 10: Wireless connection sharing enables ad hoc network sharing ... Better setup and use of printers through improved management tools ... Virtualization storage provisioning for local and remote connections now simplified ... SecTool is a new security audit and intrusion detection system ... RPM 4.6 is a major update to the powerful, flexible software management libraries.
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Some other features in this release include: Glitch free audio and better performance is achieved through a rewrite of the PulseAudio sound server to use timer-based audio scheduling ... Improved webcam support ... Better support for infrared remote controls ... The paths /usr/local/sbin:/usr/sbin:/sbin have been added to the PATH for normal users, to simplify command-line administration tasks.
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Features for Fedora 10 are tracked on the feature list page.

And finally...

1930s biplane hits a cow during landing [not safe for animal lovers; hat tip: Blake Patterson]

Buffer overflow:

Other Computerworld bloggers:

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Richi Jennings is an independent analyst/adviser/consultant, specializing in blogging, email, and spam. A 23 year, cross-functional IT veteran, he is also an analyst at Ferris Research. You can follow him on Twitter, pretend to be Richi's friend on Facebook, or just use boring old email: blogwatch@richi.co.uk.