Fedora Core 6 review

What I would call an entertainingly scathing review:

Fedora Core 6 review - Software in Review

Conclusions and developer recommendations

I'm through hoping that the next version of Fedora Core will fix all of the problems with the previous release. Fedora's identity has gradually eroded over six releases, finally ending up as a second class clone of Ubuntu. On the other hand, Red Hat Linux was never really all that easy to install, configure, and use, so I guess this is just the natural evolution of a product that was destined to be eclipsed by more complete distributions like Mandriva and more easily configured distributions like SUSE.

I appreciate the fact that distributions like Fedora Core are still focused on free-as-in-rights software, but today's Web content requires more proprietary browser plugins than yesterday's did, and today's hardware is increasingly designed to be dependent on proprietary binary blobs in the form of firmware and driver packages. Programmers are not falling over themselves to write free replacements for these things (or they are unable to because of a lack of documentation from hardware manufacturers), and the projects that do exist are non-operational and/or several generations behind current technology. Users do not want to hear reasons and excuses for why the operating environment doesn't work with their favorite Web sites or computer hardware -- all they know is that it doesn't work, and making it work is not a simple or obvious process. It is possible to keep the distribution free-as-in-rights while making it easy to add proprietary extras, but the Fedora Project is not willing or able to do it after six releases.

The Fedora Project has failed six consecutive times to produce a viable desktop operating system. I say pack up, move on, and let Fedora Core die, but remember it fondly as the last of the holdouts from an era when desktop GNU/Linux meant missing out on most Web media while struggling to get network drivers installed and configured. It's nice that my video cards worked with the 3D desktop effects with little effort, but wobbly windows and the cube desktop switcher don't make up for a lack of basic network functionality and ease of configuration.

So, if I may editorialize for a couple of paragraphs:

Red Hat is a server OS, and Fedora Core is basically its beta version even if they don't call it that officially. SUSE is owned by Novell, which just sold its soul to Microsoft for a handful of empty promises.

Desktop Linux is alive and well, however, and the best distro for the average PC user is going to be Ubuntu. For a server or for any non-Intel architecture, go for Debian. There's a reason why Debian and Ubuntu are doing so well: it's because they are under the control of their own users, not some corporation's shareholders.

Web applications: wave of the future, or ripple?

Web 2.0 Conference celebrates Web app vision | InfoWorld | News | 2006-11-13 | By David L. Margulius

But one theme stood out: Web-based apps and services have become serious business, and everyone’s scrambling to provide platforms to deliver them.

“This is a fundamental architectural shift,” said Google CEO Eric Schmidt of the massive server farms necessitated by maturing Web development and delivery stacks. “The network is always going to be around; … the [local] disk will be optional.” He asserted that packaged applications can’t possibly compete against Web-based apps long-term because “the datacenter is running 7-by-24, it has to be better. It can’t break.”

I disagree completely with this idea. The network is not ubiquitous -- it would cost me an extra $200/month to allow everyone in my family unlimited net access through their cell phones. No way. Even with a T1 connection here at work, it takes three days to mirror a new architecture from the Debian repository.

And one of my coworkers carries Wikipedia around in an SD card on his Treo. All of it. A 2GB SD card is $40 at Fry's today.

Google's data center may be running 24*7, but LJ's certainly isn't, and neither is my net connection.

Opinions?