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Due to all the attention that is put on Ubuntu releases, it is often easy to miss what is going on in another distribution, such as Fedora. Fedora, too, though has some interesting features coming in Fedora 11, which should be out in May.
20 Second Boot Times It seems that everyone is suddenly realizing that their boot times are too slow. Windows, OS X, Ubuntu, Fedora, and, undoubtedly, countless other Linux distros are also at work reducing start times. Fedora is targeting 20 seconds, but that will, obviously, be very hardware-dependent.
EXT4 As Default File System Despite the EXT4 filesystem, which brings improvements in speed and reliability, only being released a little while ago, Fedora plans to make it the default filesystem for new Fedora installs.
Improved, Graphical Fingerprint Reader Support Fedora 11 will be featuring an easy-to-use GUI for configuring fingerprint scanners, unlike previous fingerprint software, which usually required that you run it from the terminal, which is not exactly the most user-friendly way for new users.
Windows Cross-Development With the help of Wine, Fedora is hoping to help eliminate the need to run a Windows machine just to write software for it. Pretty soon, you should be able to write and test a single set of code from a single computer and release versions for all operating systems.
Fedora 10’s release is coming up at the end of this month, all the features are decided, so why not take a look at what to expect?
- A Cleaner Startup Fedora 10 is expected to have a much improved startup. In addition to a faster time to boot, there are supposed to be less flickers and glances of text. The goal is to have a fast startup without any flickers out of the GUI.
- Better Hardware Support As with every new release, Fedora 10 is supposed to have better out-of-the-box hardware support. This release, the focus is on remote controls, webcams, and printers. If you have a troublesome device of any of these types, you will probably want to check out Fedora 10.
- First Aid Kit Mess up your system? No problem with Fedora 10. First Aid Kit combines numerous methods for recovering messed up systems into one automated, safe process. This should be good for tinkerers and anyone who has a habit of messing up their systems.
- More Desktop Environments Fedora 10 is also going to feature some new less common desktop environments. LXDE, a lightweight, modular everyday desktop environment as well as Sugar, the OLPCs interface, will both be included for you to try out, or even use day-to-day.
- Online Service Integration Perhaps the most interesting new feature of Fedora 10 is the integration with web applications, though the GNOME Online Desktop. Functionality is still fairly limited, but you should be able to log in to some accounts, such as your GMail account and enjoy some integration between your desktop and the cloud. GNOME Online Desktop may not be the most impressive feature today, but it certainly stands to be in the future.
Sometimes Things Just Don't Work: Announcing Ubuntu's New Theme: "Pile of Crap"
First, a little history: Ubuntu 8.04 (the current release) was supposed to have an all new theme, since it is an LTS release. Unfortunately, that got delayed until 8.10, due out in October. Now, in the month of October and past the artwork deadline, what we have is definitely not an all new theme.
Phoronix has recently posted some screenshots from the daily live cd. Here is a comparison of what the next version of Ubuntu looks like next to the desktop background for Fedora 10, the upcoming version of Fedora.
The comparison is almost laugh-out-loud funny.
It is extremely hard to judge artwork, since one man’s pile of crap may be another man’s masterpiece. The problem is that, when everyone already says your orange theme looks like a pile of crap, don’t actually use a pile of crap as your next background!
I think that the lesson here may be in how each distribution handled their art process. Ubuntu never really had any organization, as far as I can tell. Fedora, on the other hand, had a very structured process with deadlines and a vote at the end. I don’t really care what you think of those methods in theory, just look at the results.
Now I understand that Ubuntu could suddenly come out with something better out of thin air and that Fedora might decide to color the Solar theme brown and replace the sun with a pile of dog crap, but I think there is a clear winner and loser here, at least as far as art goes. Hopefully the next release of Ubuntu will go better and/or something will happen between now and Ubuntu 8.10’s release.
What To Look For In Fedora 10
Previously, I covered some features that might be included in Fedora 10. Today, here are some interesting features that have already been approved.
Fedora 10 will feature two new desktop environments: Sugar and LXDE. Sugar is the desktop environment used on the OLPC XO laptop, making it a very interesting choice for Fedora. Perhaps more US schools will adopt it? It will definitely be interesting to see where it goes.
LXDE is a lightweight (and modular) desktop designed for everyday use. Although I have not used it myself, it seems to be a fairly promising desktop for older and lower-end computers, making it a good choice for inclusion in Fedora or any Linux distro.
Another interesting “feature” of Fedora 10 is going to be better support for HDTVs and remotes. Improving support for these pieces of hardware is a very good move, in my opinion. Linux has a lot of potential on HTPCs due to all the incredible software out there for HTPCs, so making all the hardware work out of the box would be great.
Finally, there is First Aid Kit. The plan for this feature is to create an easy way of using common recovery methods to rescue a messed up system. There is really almost nothing you can do to prevent people from accidentally messing up their systems, so the best approach is to create tools, like this, that can fix these problems.
Between this and the artwork, I think Fedora 10 will be a good release.
Since I did a look at Ubuntu’s early concept art and since I am usually very impressed by Fedora’s final art, I decided that it would make sense to take a look at what has appeared on the Fedora Art Team wiki. I have actually been waiting a few days to do this, since, as of just a few days ago, there were not enough submissions that I liked to talk about. My point is that there has been a new theme submission every one to two days, which is really impressive. Now on to the art:
“Solar”
The concept behind this theme is that the solar system is “the perfect system,” just like Fedora should be the perfect (operating) system.
The art has a cool explosive effect, making it feel active and lively. Also, at least in this piece of art, there is fairly clean space at the left, which is where icons usually go.
“Simetrical Freedom” (Spelled as it is spelled on the Wiki page)
This time, the concept is that “the perfection that simmetry can offer with the freedom power of the possibilities of forms and states that it can take and reborn inside the same thing.” Yeah, umm… Let’s just look at the art, which happens to be quite cool.
“Blue Fire”
While the art so far is not the most impressive, I can really see this concept turning into an amazing theme with some work. There is not much in the way of explanation for why blue fire symbolizes Fedora’s goals, but is that really that important?
“Wing Anatomy”
Like “Blue Fire,” I can definitely see wings or feathers playing a role in the final theme for Fedora 10. The idea behind wings is that they represent “stability, balance and freedom,” which are, obviously, also goals for Fedora, and many Linux distros.
“Neon”
While this idea comes in many variations, the idea of some sort of city scene particularly appeals to me. It would be very different from the past Fedora themes, but that is not necessarily a problem – it might even be a good thing. Perhaps something could be done with a city scene and the look of a long exposure picture of a highway at night, like this one.
“Dice”
Though the current art is very simple, it shows the promise of becoming something more complex or, perhaps, staying nice and simple. I am not sure, however, if “dice like a symbol of the variability” is a very good message for an operating system. 
Overall, I cannot wait to see what Fedora 10’s final theme looks like. If the concepts look this good already, I bet they will look simply incredible when they are finalized. I guess we will have to wait for that, though.
Top 4 New Feature Proposed for Fedora 10
Since I have been writing about Ubuntu a lot recently, I thought I would look at some proposed features for Fedora 10. No features have been officially approved yet, so these are just proposals.
- Web-Based Software Portal - Somewhat similar to CNR or Linux Mint, it looks like Fedora might have a website users could visit and search for software on. To install the software, they would presumably download a small file that tells a special program how to install the program.
Wiki Page - Live CD Without the CD – Instead of creating a program like Wubi to let you do a special partitioning-free installation from Windows, the plan here is to make a Windows program that essentially lets you run the live CD straight from the ISO image on your hard drive.
Wiki Page - Improved Support for Fingerprint Readers – This means not only supporting the hardware, but also making it easy to use a recognized fingerprint reader as a primary (instead of a password) or secondary (in addition to a password) form of authentication.
Wiki Page - Fedora Lite – Similar to how Ubuntu has Xubuntu, a variant designed for older computers, Fedora could create “Fedora Lite,” a version of Fedora for older/less powerful computers.
Wiki Page
Obviously, there is no guarantee that these features will be part of Fedora 10, but if they are, it looks like it could be an incredible release, particularly for new users.
Fedora 9 is here and it is one stinky release. (Sorry, stupid joke. Fedora 9 is codenamed Sulfur.) Seriously, Fedora 9 looks anything but stinky. Of course there are plenty of new features in the new release (see here for details), but the one I am really the most excited about is not really even a feature at all.
One of the things the Fedora distribution is best known for is the incredible themes that come with each release. Fedora 6 has the DNA theme, Fedora 7 had the balloon theme, and then Fedora 8 had a much simpler and flatter theme that, in my opinion, was not quite up to the standard of Fedora 6 or 7. It was fine, just as good as most other distributions, and also brought a cool new feature where the background changed based upon the time of day, but I always felt that it was just not quite as great as before. Now, with Fedora 9, I am happy to say that the theme included is once again very impressive. This, perhaps more than anything else, is why I am planning on playing with Fedora 9 as soon as I can.
As I have not yet had time to install Fedora 9, I don’t have much more to say, but I suspect I will be posting more about it later on.
Brilliant Brainstorms (#6) – Small Changes
Brilliant Brainstorms is a weekly-ish summary of some of the best brainstorms from the Ubuntu Brainstorm site. In the beginning it may not always come exactly once a week or on the same day, but, if it becomes popular, it should become more regular.
