eWEEK content and product recommendations are editorially independent. We may make money when you click on links to our partners. Learn More.
On June 3, Matthew Miller was named as the new Fedora Project Leader, succeeding the outgoing Robyn Bergeron. Over the last several months, Miller has settled into his role of running Red Hat’s community project and is overseeing one of the biggest changes in the project’s history.
In a video interview with eWEEK, Miller details what’s currently going on at the Fedora project and how it is changing. Miller noted that there has been a cognitive dissonance within Fedora for years in that Fedora’s original user base was typically server system administrators coming from Red Hat. In contrast, Fedora itself has somewhat of a desktop operating system perception.
The Fedora Next initiative, which Miller now leads, is an effort to redefine multiple Fedora products for desktop, server and cloud environments.
The idea of having different deployment targets for a Linux operating system is one that Red Hat Enterprise Linux enables as well, Miller noted that the Fedora approach is somewhat different. Miller explained that each of the Fedora products will start from a different landing page on Fedora, and it will feel different from just being a single installer that deploys different variants.
The last major release from the project was Fedora 20 in December 2013. The Fedora 21 release is scheduled for Nov. 18. Miller expects the usual slate of programming language and application version updates as part of the upcoming release.
“There will be a refresh of software across the board,” Miller said. “I think the distinction into three products will be the big emphasis.”
Prior to Fedora 20, each release was given its own unique and often colorful name. For example, the Fedora 17 release was known as the Beefy Miracle. Miller said he has no plans to reintroduce specific names for upcoming Fedora releases.
The Fedora project is sponsored by Red Hat, and though technologies that are first developed in Fedora often land in Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), Fedora is its own project with its own direction.
“Red Hat is going to be working on their plans for the future of RHEL, and Fedora is an important part of that,” Miller said. “So I want to make sure we have a nice, transparent two-way dialogue.”
Overall, Miller is confident that Fedora is a successful well-functioning project, and moving forward, the plan is to continue to build on that strong foundation.
Watch the full video interview with Fedora Project Leader, Matthew Miller below:
Sean Michael Kerner is a senior editor at eWEEK and InternetNews.com. Follow him on Twitter @TechJournalist.