Fedora 16 And GNOME Shell: Tested And Reviewed

Features
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Ubuntu and Mint don't want it; Linus called it an “unholy mess.” While most other distros are passing up or postponing GNOME Shell, Fedora is full steam ahead. Does Red Hat know something the rest of us don't? Or is GNOME 3 really as bad as everyone says?

Fedora 16 At A Glance

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Fedora History

Fedora is one of the oldest and most popular Linux distros in existence. The Fedora project originally had a significantly more recognizable name: Red Hat Linux.

When Red Hat Linux became paid enterprise software, the community-driven Fedora Core was created. Fedora Core, which later dropped Core from its name, is intended as an upstream testbed for RHEL. This means that software and features that eventually make their way downstream to RHEL first appear in Fedora.

As the community extension of RHEL, the Fedora project enjoys the largest corporate sponsor of any free distribution, and is consistently ranked among the top four Linux distros in the world (according to DistroWatch).

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Why Fedora Is So Important

A Proud Parent

Besides serving as the community testbed for RHEL (an important job all on its own), Fedora also fills the role of a parent distribution. Most of today's Linux distros are not completely original projects, but derivatives of a few key distributions. A majority of top-tier Linux distros were, at one point, based on either Fedora/Red Hat, Debian, or Slackware. 

100% FOSS

As a parent distribution, Fedora must remain 100% Free and Open Source (FOSS) so that other projects can build upon and redistribute the code. While the strict adherence to FOSS principles can hinder Fedora in the end-user space, it makes Fedora a fundamental pillar of the Linux community.

RPM

As a Red Hat-sponsored project, Fedora naturally utilizes RPM packages (as opposed to the DEB packages used by Ubuntu and other Debian-based distributions). Red Hat maintains the RPM spec, which is used by many of the top Linux distributions including: openSUSE, Mandriva, PCLinuxOS, CentOS, Oracle Linux, Scientific Linux, and Mageia. In essence, Fedora is to RPM-based distros what Debian is to DEB-based distros: the original.

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What's New In Fedora 15?

The Kernel 

Fedora 16 ships with version 3.2.6 of the Linux kernel.

LibreOffice

One distribution after another is dropping Oracle's (previously Sun's, and now Apache's) OpenOffice.org suite in favor of the Document Foundation's LibreOffice. Fedora is no exception. Starting in Fedora 15, LibreOffice is the default office suite of Fedora.

You will not find LibreOffice pre-installed if you're using the handy live CD installation media, although it is if you opt for the larger and less trial-friendly DVD image. 

The Document Foundation's fork of OpenOffice.org boasts improved performance, as well as better interoperability with Microsoft Office formats. Most important, it benefits from unwavering commitment to the project and the FOSS community at large.

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Application TypeNameVersion
Web BrowserMozilla Firefox7.0.1
Email ClientEvolution3.2.1
Chat ClientEmpathy3.2.1.1
BitTorrent ClientTransmission2.42 (13013)
Photo ManagerShotwell0.10.1
Music ManagerRhythmBox2.90.1
Video PlayerTotem3.2.1
File ManagerNautilus3.2.1
Partition EditorDisk Utility3.0.2
Optical Disc EditorBrasero3.2.0

A Quick Word On Fedora Package Management

For those of you coming from Ubuntu, the way in which Fedora handles package management is going to be somewhat of a throwback. Like versions of Ubuntu that predate the Ubuntu Software Center, Fedora uses an Add/Remove Software wizard for package management. However, Fedora's Add/Remove Software is more like the Synaptic Package Manager than Ubuntu's old Add/Remove Applications or the Ubuntu Software Center. Add/Remove Software is a graphical front-end for YUM, the package management mechanism used by Fedora, just like Synaptic is a graphical front-end for APT.

Add/Remove Applications

In Add/Remove Software, all packages are listed either by relevance to a search term or alphabetically by category. Like Synaptic, this includes applications, applets, libraries, and plug-ins (essentially, all software). While most Linux veterans don't mind, and many even prefer this type of comprehensive package management, it is not exactly optimal for new users. Without any differentiation between actual end-user applications and support packages, browsing for software really isn't an option. In order to use this package manager most effectively, you'll want to know the names of the packages in question.

Despite YUM lumping all software packages together, one type of software isn't welcome in Fedora: the proprietary kind. Due to Fedora's rigid 100% FOSS stance, many popular applications, drivers, and libraries are not available in the default Fedora software repositories (repos).

Where Ubuntu has simple methods for installing non-free software out-of-the-box, Fedora does not. The Ubuntu Software Center has popular applications like Skype, plug-ins like Flash, audio/video codecs, and even a handful of retail applications. The Additional Drivers tool in Ubuntu scans your hardware and brings up the option to install drivers for components like graphics, Wi-Fi, and other types of hardware that may require proprietary drivers. In Fedora, you have to hunt all of this down and do it manually.

Don't worry, we'll show you how. But first, let's go over the installation procedure for Fedora 16.

Adam Overa
85 Comments Comment from the forums
  • gz3ro
    I think the akmod graphics drivers (also found in the rpmfusion repository) would be better than simply the proprietary drivers because they also work after kernel updates.
    Reply
  • Verrin
    I'm really disappointed with the direction Linux has taken in its user interfaces. I was a big fan of Ubuntu until they switched to Unity, and since then I've been jumping from distro-to-distro trying to find a desktop environment that feels comfortable, isn't terribly difficult to wrap my head around, and that is still powerful. I was using GNOME3 for a while with Linux Mint, but even with the heavy extensions, there are certain functions that I can't quite replicate from the GNOME2 heyday. I wasn't able to get into KDE or XFCE either. They feel aged and aren't quite as sleek as other modern desktop environments, even if you try to fix that by adding customs skins.

    In the end, I'm downgrading to a much older distro of Ubuntu, and supplementing it with Windows 7. I'll be keeping an eye in the coming years to see how these rusty GUI releases turn out-- hopefully for the better. But for now, linux has lost a lot of its useability and it's flare. I'll miss the days when upgrading to a newer distro actually felt like an upgrade, but maybe after all these mistakes, developers will learn and make Linux exciting again. I'll be waiting to see.
    Reply
  • Good grief. What I wouldn't have done years ago for a job that would ask me to write a review on something that would obsolete itself in six months.

    Nobody, IMHO, who actually uses a computer for anything of value wastes their time with Fedora. You can't upgrade it, so your own personal enhancements and bug fixes are lost. Features you like are abandoned for broken replacements. Fedora is a nightmare and has been since it began. I began the adventure years ago with Red Hat 5 and finally gave up and moved to more useful distros after Fedora 8. Fedora is now for the masochistic.

    On the other hand, if you like superficiality, as in wallpaper and clock positions, and enjoy the animated struggle that comes with installing something new all the time and reporting bugs then Fedora is a good thing.
    Reply
  • yumri
    one thing which i would have liked to see on the comparesion would be open time of a Libre Word Processing file, close time of that file, open time of a database file, close time of it, open time of Firefox, close time of Firefox, open time of a typical website like this one, close time of it, install time of the OS, how fast does it run a batch file or equivalent in the OS, and etc. like that things which we actually do a lot besides gaming.
    Reply
  • yumri
    It also seemed like they had a basis towards the GUI way of doing things and thought all users had forsaken CLI scripting for their installs and updates. as if you are getting Fedora you most likely know it was command line based in the start and really is still easier to do everything from command line then from any other route well Ubuntu is made with the GUI interface in mind so things are easier to do with that then with command line mainly because they hid the terminal screen in the newer versions of it.
    With that Fedora is also made for workstations and Ubuntu made for end user support 2 differnet applications so why only show benchmarks of end user things and not anything on network support, domain support, VM thin client viability, accessing files from the network, etc. like that things which Fedora is good at not just things which Ubuntu is I think this article was basised and another should be made with more benchmarks to not be as basised towards one or the other.
    Reply
  • amdfangirl
    One of these days, developers of GUIs will realise going "forward" doesn't equate to an increase of ease of use and functionality.

    Unity, Metro, GNOME 3, Etc.

    Alas, I must suffer each day for the Wacom preferences panel in GNOME settings. Ties me to GNOME 3 (or a derivative). How silly.
    Reply
  • palladin9479
    Now I'm waiting for them to do a Solaris 10 or 11 review. Their both available on x86 so they don't even need to purchase new hardware. Come on it's a "real mans" OS.
    Reply
  • You've completely missed extensions.gnome.org and gnome-tweak-tool, and as a result your review is not an accurate reflection of gnome-shell. Gnome-tweak-tool gives things like "Have file manager handle the desktop" and "Trash icon visible on desktop", plus shell, window, and gtk theme selection, font configuration, and gnome-shell extension management. Extensions.gnome.org provides, well, gnome-shell extensions. Things like "Static Workspaces", which gives you a fixed number of workspaces. Or "Alternative Status Menu", which puts power, reboot, suspend, and hibernate on your status menu. Or "Applications Menu", which provides a Gnome2-like list of windows on the current workspace.

    Now, I admit that neither of these configuration options are immediately visible to a new user. Despite that, your review is bad, and you should feel bad.
    Reply
  • zhihao50
    graph for POV-Ray is wrong, you said both of linux finished 4min before windows yet the graph show the other way around.
    Reply
  • adamovera
    Cowardly AnonYou've completely missed extensions.gnome.org and gnome-tweak-tool, and as a result your review is not an accurate reflection of gnome-shell. Gnome-tweak-tool gives things like "Have file manager handle the desktop" and "Trash icon visible on desktop", plus shell, window, and gtk theme selection, font configuration, and gnome-shell extension management. Extensions.gnome.org provides, well, gnome-shell extensions. Things like "Static Workspaces", which gives you a fixed number of workspaces. Or "Alternative Status Menu", which puts power, reboot, suspend, and hibernate on your status menu. Or "Applications Menu", which provides a Gnome2-like list of windows on the current workspace.Now, I admit that neither of these configuration options are immediately visible to a new user. Despite that, your review is bad, and you should feel bad.See pages 12 through 16.
    Reply