May 4 2011 linux distros

Battle of the Distros

Tonight we're going to be having a friendly battle of the distros at the Syracuse Linux User's Group. Essentially its just a chance for people to come together and talk about their favorite Linux distributions and what they like the most about them.

I will be representing Fedora tonight (see my talking points after the jump below) and I invite everyone who is in the area to attend!

Fedora Linux

* Overview

• A Linux distribution based on RPM / Yum
• Sponsored by Red Hat and supported by the community
• Large active community with many different special interest groups or SIGs, eg smaller sub-communities specializing a specific topic, for example java/python/ruby, cloud, kde, robotics, ham radio, etc.
• "Bleeding edge" distro but its not the wild-west. Up to the specific SIGs to determine when the packages they maintain are stable and/or otherwise qualified to be updated

* How does your distribution relate to other distributions?

• Originally forked from RH Linux along w/ RHEL
• EPEL repos exist to help bridge the gap between Fedora and RHEL
• Based on RPM / Yum, common among Linux distros (suse, mandriva, arklinux), can use similar tooling across those
• Staging area for developing free software and for deploying and testing packages which might make their way into other distros as well

* What unique feature(s) of your distribution do you like best?

• Supported by both the community and sponsored by a big company, get a good mix of community contributions but with the funding a big company can provide
• SIGs can specialize in smaller sets of packages, keeping focus on target use cases for more fine tuned support

* How hard or easy was it to install your distribution?

• Fairly easy, gui tools are provided to install and configure the distribution
• Alternate command line interfaces are also available for install w/out graphics
• In addition to the install media, Live CDs are provided to allow users to try Fedora before installing. If they don't like it they don't have to install
• Kickstart and other network installation scenarios are available and easy to use

* What are the system management utilities or tools?

• system-config-[authentication|boot|firewall|network|...]
• sysvinit interface for services, service specific configs and config tools
• various graphical tools to configure the desktop

* Is there some form of package management tool?

• RPM / Yum / PackageKit
• LiveCD creator, LiveUSB creator, Appliance Creator
• Revisor / Wevisor

* What is the update / upgrade approach?

• yum update or use graphical tools
• To update fedora releases, simply point your OS at the repos for the next release and yum update

* To whom would you recommend this distribution? Why?

• All Linux users, new and old, many features and tools for novice Linux users and veteran ones as well