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Part I ✦ Getting Going
Once you have studied the troubleshooting techniques in chapters of this book, you may find
that you want to spread those skills to other Linux distributions. For that reason, we provide
two appendixes (Appendixes B and C) to help you understand the challenges you will face
transitioning to two other popular Linux distributions: SUSE and Debian.
For the moment, however, I recommend that you have a Fedora Core system in front of you (or
a Red Hat Enterprise Linux system) if you care to step through the information laid out in this
book.
Introducing Fedora Linux
In September 2003, while in the middle of developing the successor to Red Hat Linux 9
(presumably Red Hat Linux 10), Red Hat, Inc., made a startling announcement. It was merging
its Red Hat Linux development with Fedora Linux (
www.fedora.us) into a new initiative: The
Fedora Project.
Suddenly, it seemed, there was no flagship Red Hat Linux product anymore. Users would have
to choose between the subscription-based Red Hat Enterprise Linux and the community-
supported Fedora Project. The Red Hat Linux product in development was renamed and
eventually released as Fedora Core 1.
Common reactions to the abandonment of Red Hat Linux for Fedora ranged from surprise, to
confusion, to anger. As the dust settles, however, the logic of this move and the potential
upside for the open-source community has already begun to emerge.
Learning Linux Troubleshooting with Fedora
The Fedora Project is being touted as a Red Hat–sponsored and community-supported
open-source project. Its mission is to produce a Linux distribution called Fedora Core
(sometimes also referred to as Fedora Linux), which in its first release was built from the Red
Hat Linux code base. The distribution would be re-released every 4 to 6 months.
With the name change and its association with Red Hat, Inc., changing so suddenly, there has
been a lot of speculation about what exactly Fedora is and how well it can be relied upon. Let’s
start by separating the facts from the speculation about Fedora:
✦ Fedora is essentially Red Hat Linux 10—A good case can be made for this statement. Up
until the last 2 months of the development process, what is now called Fedora Core 1
was being developed as the next release of Red Hat Linux. Most of the last-minute
changes had to do with changing logos and expanding access to software repositories
(which we will discuss later).
✦ Fedora Core 1 is a solid Linux system—Hundreds of bug fixes and improvements were
made during the development process. There were not a tremendous number of new
features added to the Red Hat Linux 9 base. By most accounts, Fedora Core 1 is a
rock-solid Linux distribution.
✦ Red Hat, Inc., supports Fedora—It is clear that Red Hat, Inc., wants to create high-quality
software from the Fedora Project. Most of the technology in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3
matches almost exactly the same software packages in Fedora Core 1. Red Hat, Inc.,
plans to use Fedora as a proving ground for its enterprise products. It doesn’t have the
resources to maintain and enhance the entire Linux operating system and related
applications itself. Fedora is critical to Red Hat’s success.