Experiences/tips using Fedora

[mr-white]

im currently downloading Fedora Core 3 (Heidelburg). ive had brief experience with red hat and mandrake but ive not lost my n00b plates just yet ;)

just after helpful tips and experiences from people who have used it, currently reading an installation guide (http://fedora.redhat.com/docs/fedora-install-guide-en/fc4/).

MW

[mr-white]

do many people use it ?

MW

[perkam]

I used FC1 and then Mandriva 2005 most recently. No. 1 piece of advice is to use grub as the boot loader...it's simpler and less of a hassle when having windows and linux in dual boot.

Also, I'd download ALL the cds not just the ones with the os on it. Mandriva had 5 cds and had all the drivers and programs I ever needed...and had a working "Add/Remove" type program for rpms on the other CDs.

For stability, I wouldn't leave linux on for too long if I'm not using it...may take a toll on it over time (like close the comp at night etc). Make sure you mount the Windows drives with care...but yea doing that is a good idea. You'll find them in the "etc" folder I believe.

Also, did you know linux communicates better with your printer than windows ;) SO yea, if its a detailed portrait or a scan, linux will help in better printing results.

THat's about it. You can go to www.linuxquestions.org for more faqs on many of the newest distros including FC3.

Hope that helps.

Perkam

[mr-white]

im prob gonna have it installed on its own comp. i downloaded the 2.3gb dvd rather than the 4 cds. did have mandrake but its change to mandriva and its no longer free. is fedora a good choice for a n00b ?

MW

[zinff]

FC3 is perfectly fine to learn with and is not too hard to use. Most things can be done graphically and have good manual support to help out less experienced users (myself included!)

[mr-white]

is linux commnd line like unix as i learnt some @ uni ?

MW

[red_dragon]

FC3 is a really good one to learn on. If you want everything really easy make sure you install EVERYTHING. Just select custom when you install and click everything at the bottom. Saves you a lot of trouble hunting down packages. Also KDE is probably the one to use for n00bies because it's bloated and has everything built in. I prefer GNOME myself, but KDE does have its advantages.

[zinff]

is linux commnd line like unix as i learnt some @ uni ?

MW

Yes commands and command line behavior for most unix/linux based systems are the same or very similar.

[masterofpuppets]

FFS, I am sick of people calling the GNU/Linux system Linux. Linux is a KERNEL, which is a clone of Unix, and tries to be compliant with Unix in almost every way. GNU is the system itself, which runs upon the Linux kernel. Together, they are called GNU/Linux. Anyway, to answer your question, yes, FC3 is ok. But if you want to actually learn something, I suggest you go with Gentoo. It's difficult for learners, but you will actually learn something along the way. It's also very very flexible. You can choose just about everything you want. From the kernel, to the X server, the compiler, even the system logger! The documentation is absolutely superb too.

[mrapples]

if you dont have much time to put into it, fedora is fine to start with

if you have some time, and can read a lot of docs, try gentoo
it can be a bit rough to start with, but it helps with understanding and gives you a lot more power over your install

[IluvIntel]

I just installed Fedora Core 4 last night, but only selected the basic desktop compilation. Did it all on and old PIII - 450mhz, 320mb SDRAM system which I was lucky to find abandoned in the street !

Coming from a heavy windows background and only played a little bit with linux in the past, this version is really smooth and nice, suprised I could install it on such a old PC mobo (1999) tech.
Took about 3 hours + for all the updates to be installed from the original release of it earlier this year (I'm on ADSL connection 1500/250 speed) down here in OZ. ;)

[[XC] moddolicous]

I would give Gentoo a try. Its REALLY hard to install, so if u do get it installed, then u will learn alot. I'm still having problem installing it, but I learned alot already.

[IluvIntel]

I open up the default movie player in FC4 - its called "Totem" and pop in a regular off-the-shelf DVD movie and it protests that it can't play it because it does'nt have DVD decoder. So I place myself onto the "Freshrpm" website and hunt around for a decoder for it.
Suddenly I'm into 'dependency' runaround time, seriously, they should fix this up... how much time does it take to find out evey package you need to install just to play regular MPEG-2 DVD's with decent sound quality.
Its situations like this that can turn people away from FC, don't know about the other distros, but I found MEPIS v3.3 could not detect my ADSL pci card upon install, unlike FC4 could.

[masterofpuppets]

Ahh, I remember this one. You either need to pay for a hardware decoder, or install something called libdvdcss. A cracker known as DVD Jon cracked the DVD encoding a couple of years ago, and released his findings to the public. He was also trialed for releasing this information since he had reverse engineered some copyrighted works, so as a result, it is now illegal to use libdvdcss in USA. Although it is legal in Europe. As a precaution they don't release distributions with libdvdcss in case somebody from USA installs and uses it without knowing it's legal status, which will get Red Hat into trouble for releasing FC with it. So the point is, what you want is libdvdcss2, or a hardware decoder. I am not responsible for the legal consequences of your libdvdcss usage.

[Ugly n Grey]

Every ATI card since the Rage series has a hardware decoder built in, there have been a few different players that use it under different flavours of Linux... some of the Nvidia cards have this option as well, though I admit to knowing zippo about the status of that (Nvidia) under Linux distros....