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Chapter 1 ✦ Introduction to Linux Troubleshooting
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✦ Fedora is a path to Red Hat Enterprise—Some people like to use a freely distributed Linux
as a means of showing a reluctant boss or IT department that Linux will work in their
business. With Fedora Core 1, you can demonstrate many of the same features that are
in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3. Future releases of Fedora could be used to evaluate new
technologies in which a company may be interested. (See the description of Fedora
Core 2 later in this chapter.)
✦ Fedora offers more software—For someone interested in trying software that is outside
of the corporate software model (such as games, audio, and video), Fedora Core offers
dozens more packages than does Red Hat Enterprise Linux. It also contains tools, such
as yum, for downloading complete sets of applications from software repositories in
Red Hat RPM format.
✦ Fedora has the latest technology—Here’s where some of the risks (and opportunities) lie
with Fedora. Because Fedora is slated to come out two to three times per year, it can
incorporate the latest software available for Linux. This should make Fedora Core a
great operating system for keeping your knowledge and troubleshooting skills up to
date. However, this should also have the effect of making some releases of Fedora less
stable. You might find yourself picking and choosing a Fedora Core release to use as
your server.
✦ Fedora offers critical updates and patches—This has been the biggest concern for those
who have been using Red Hat Linux as a server for their businesses or organizations.
The amount of time that critical updates will be officially supported by Red Hat for
Fedora Core is shorter than it was for Red Hat Linux. The Fedora Legacy Project
(
www.fedoralegacy.org), as well as other organizations, is stepping up to deal with
this issue. (See Chapter 3 for discussions of how to solve the update and upgrade issues
with Fedora.)
The bottom line is that Fedora offers great technology in a freely distributed Linux system.
Yes, there are fewer guarantees from Red Hat, Inc., if you want to bet your business on Fedora.
However, if the prospect of going it alone with Fedora is exciting but somewhat daunting to
you, we are here to tell you that you don’t have to go it alone. If you decide to go with Fedora
(or at least look into it further), Linux Troubleshooting Bible is here to give you (or help you
find) the resources you need to support it.
Finding Opportunities with Fedora
If you take the time to learn how to troubleshoot Fedora, what kinds of Linux systems can you
support with your new skills? The short answer is: any kind of system you could set up with
Red Hat Linux. The software in Fedora supports desktop, workstation, and server systems,
and is being used for a variety of specialty uses.
Fedora Linux Desktop
As with most Linux and UNIX systems, Fedora Core uses the X Window System as the
foundation for its graphical user interface (GUI). It also offers the GNOME and KDE desktop
environments. If you don’t want to use a full-blown desktop environment, you can use other
window managers that come with Fedora instead, such as the Tab Window manager and Motif
Window manager.
Figure 1-1 illustrates the GNOME desktop, including two panels, the Nautilus graphical shell
and the Konqueror web browser/file manager.