I installed F12 yesterday, and so far it's been pretty impressive on this 6 year old P4 laptop.
The F10 would have the X server crash when xscreensaver would run for a while. This version doesn't do that any more.
Yea!
Posted on 11/27/2009 3:55:05 PM PST by Halfmanhalfamazing
Conclusion
After spending several days with Fedora, I find that I'm happy with this release. The live CD by itself was a bit underwhelming, but the distribution as a whole has been excellent. This is probably the most stable and most polished release the Fedora team has put together to date. Security is strong over most of the system, though the hole introduced in the software management system is a concern. Package management is fast and KDE feels like it's getting the attention it deserves. The system is responsive and I have yet to run into any serious problems. Due to the distribution's cutting-edge nature and fast support cycles, I probably won't recommend Fedora to Linux newcomers. Fedora is for those who have some Linux experience and want to explore what the future holds. For distro hoppers, this is a solid release and well worth experiencing.
* * * * * A quick note about the graphical package manager issue. In the above review, I mentioned an on-going concern with the graphical package manager which would allow regular users to install software from the Fedora repositories without knowing the root password. My review represents the situation as I saw it up until Friday or Saturday, depending on your time zone. Realizing that things would continue to progress after that point, I asked Adam Williamson to keep me informed as things changed. He kindly did, and by the weekend the developer in question had made the choice to require regular users to input the root password in order to install packages. Shortly afterwards, an update was made available to implement this new behavior. In total, the time from the official release of Fedora, to the time the issue was brought forward, to the time the software was patched was less than a week.
Me, too! Runs great in a dual boot laptop with Windows 7.
I did a full install of Ubuntu (the windows on my laptop was worthless)...
how is Fedora in comparison for a Linux Newbie.??
Have you checked out Puppy Linux? I loaded it on an old P2 laptop. Incredibly easy load and setup. Great for us newbies.
I’v found this Ubuntu 9.something... great for a newbie.. the learning curve isn’t too bad.
I have a GATEWAY laptop that had XP on it... and what I thought was a PROBLEM.. turned out to be SOP (meaning I wasn’t the only one)
knowing what I PAID for the Ubuntu..I’d have no problem trading it for something else... LOL
I installed F12 yesterday, and so far it's been pretty impressive on this 6 year old P4 laptop.
The F10 would have the X server crash when xscreensaver would run for a while. This version doesn't do that any more.
Yea!
Anything big that would make me want to upgrade from F11 to F12?
LOL. Sounds like my desktop...
Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 2.40GHz
I really need an upgrade. I figure when I finally do, it'll be like going from my 400Mhz PII to the P4 listed above. I think this system is almost 8 years old. I'm figuring the quad-core box that I'll be replacing it with should hopefully last a full decade. I've got a disk that is giving me smartdrv errors, and I've decided when the disk(s) go, the box goes.
Burn puppy to a disc and boot from it. You’ll be surprised how little it is and how much it packs. You can leave unbuntu on your drive. With puppy, setting up my wireless was a snap.
I used Puppy Linux all the time on a few old computers. It worked great unless you left it idle. The image would start inching up after awhile.
Recommended for graphical: 400 MHz Pentium Pro or better
Hmmm... might be best for me to stay on F11 for the duration. :-)
I noticed that Mandriva 2010 has an administrative right that can be granted to a regular user to do package updates. This is what I have been doing, without having to use the root password.
Yeah, I'm planning on building my next one again. Like you, I'm figuring on a 10-year box, so I'm looking at dual quad-core. I'd also like a USB 3.0 port, but so far, the combination doesn't exist. I may end up settling for a card with USB 3.0 ports on it.
I don’t know about big, depends on your usage.
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Releases/12/FeatureList
I like the new optimization for newer x86 processors.
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Releases/11/FeatureList
I’m currently running F10, so I’m also looking at the new speedier boot process and KMS for graphics updates.
Some of those features you don’t realize they’re affecting you, but they do. In one way or another, most often times to the benefit.
I’ve been tempted to try Linux on a spare computer I have here. Would you suggest Fedora for that?
Not to be butting in or kibutzing...but I would suggest Linux Mint for a first try. It's very. very nice and easy to set up. I used it for my first Linux try and it was great on my laptop. Everything worked right off, even the wireless. I now use it on my big desktop. It rocks.
-———————I’ve been tempted to try Linux on a spare computer I have here. Would you suggest Fedora for that?-———————
In a short answer, yes.
I would first attempt several live CDs. Boot the OS, see if your sound works, video works, so on and so forth.
Even if it is a spare computer, why nuke it if you don’t have to? Especially if you have CDRW disks, which is what I use.
Some live CDs take longer to boot than others, but they are fully functional operating systems when up and running.
Fedora and Ubuntu both offer LiveCD solutions that are easy to use, and easy to install. You could also try knoppix, but that one isn’t easily installable.(It’s goal is hardware compatibility, they don’t care if you install it)
This website has a ton of information about just about any linux distro out there. http://distrowatch.com/
And if the very first live cd you try doesn’t work, I wouldn’t put much stock into that. Try a different version, of even the same distro or try another distro all together. I have always found live cds to be flaky and not a great representation of an installed linux os. In every case. They have to make concessions due to the size of the CD they’re working with. But it will still give you some idea of what you’re getting.
by all means, butt in. :-)
The funny thing is that Mint just released Ver 8 today.
http://distrowatch.com/?newsid=05795
Interestingly enough...the one thing I have with Linux distros is the 'push' to upgrade the kernel as soon as a new version comes out. So what?
I mean, isn't this the most irritating thing about Windows? Push, push, push.
If the bloody thing works, why upgrade it? I'm using Linux Mint 6 and it's the bomb. I ain't upgrading diddly.
Don't get me wrong, I like my XP computer and I plan on trying Windows 7 when I finally get around to upgrading my computer hardware, but I've always wanted to give Linux a major try and I'm almost ready to do it. I just can't put it on something that I use all the time. It needs to be on a spare PC so I can play with it.
Thanks for the advice.
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