Close
  • Latest News
  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Big Data and Analytics
  • Cloud
  • Networking
  • Cybersecurity
  • Applications
  • IT Management
  • Storage
  • Sponsored
  • Mobile
  • Small Business
  • Development
  • Database
  • Servers
  • Android
  • Apple
  • Innovation
  • Blogs
  • PC Hardware
  • Reviews
  • Search Engines
  • Virtualization
Read Down
Sign in
Close
Welcome!Log into your account
Forgot your password?
Read Down
Password recovery
Recover your password
Close
Search
Logo
Logo
  • Latest News
  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Big Data and Analytics
  • Cloud
  • Networking
  • Cybersecurity
  • Applications
  • IT Management
  • Storage
  • Sponsored
  • Mobile
  • Small Business
  • Development
  • Database
  • Servers
  • Android
  • Apple
  • Innovation
  • Blogs
  • PC Hardware
  • Reviews
  • Search Engines
  • Virtualization
More
    Home Latest News
    • Servers

    Fedora 7 Advances on Rivals

    By
    Jason Brooks
    -
    June 6, 2007
    Share
    Facebook
    Twitter
    Linkedin

      After devoting the bulk of its efforts over the past couple years to realizing the advanced server technology goals of Red Hats Enterprise Linux product, the community-powered Fedora Project has turned its attention toward catching up with the distribution and packaging advances of its Linux rivals.

      eWEEK Labs tested the fruit of these efforts—Fedora 7—and we were impressed to see how amenable to customization this popular Linux-based operating system has grown.

      Fedora 7s tools for building custom versions, or spins, will make it easier for groups to create Fedora variants, in the way that Ubuntu backers have spun off the KDE-centric Kubuntu and XFCE-based Xubuntu from the projects GNOME-oriented offering.

      Fedoras new tools also open the door to building so-called software appliances.

      Whats more, Fedora 7 has continued to make progress on the advanced technology fronts that dominated previous Fedora releases. In particular, Version 7 sports a noticeably more mature version of Red Hats graphical virtualization manager.

      /zimages/4/177200.jpg

      With that said, Fedora remains just as bleeding-edge as ever, so groups and individuals considering Fedora 7 for its leading-edge components should expect to devote extra time for testing.

      As many of the Fedora developers who occupy the projects mailing lists will point out (with varying levels of patience in their tone), if youre not prepared to encounter some bumps on the road to stability with Fedora, youre better off running a different distribution.

      For instance, Fedora 7s release notes point out that the project has—for now—dropped support for the popular Zope application server and the Plone CMS (Content Management System) because these packages dont support the new Python 2.5 with which Fedora 7 ships.

      Also, we found that on the Thinkpad T41 with which we tested, hibernate no longer functions—hibernate did work for us with earlier Fedora versions. The project has switched power management frameworks, and this is the likely cause of the breakage we experienced.

      If youre looking for an all-free, Red Hat-flavored Linux operating system with good stability, we suggest CentOS 5.

      Fedora 7 is available for free download at http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/, either by downloading its CD images from an FTP mirror or by fetching the images via Bittorrent.

      Fedora 7 supports the x86, x86_64 and PowerPC platforms. In addition to the Thinkpad with which we tested, eWEEK Labs tested the 32-bit x86 version of Fedora 7 on a handful of VMware virtual machines, hosted from ESX Server 3 and from VMware Workstation 6. To install Fedora 7 on ESX Server, we had to switch from ESXs default LSI virtual SCSI adapter to the alternate BusLogic adapter.

      /zimages/4/28571.gifClick here to read Labs review of VMware Workstation 6.

      Spin Your Own

      Fedora 7 is the first Fedora release for which all the tools used to assemble the distribution are open source and available to the entire Fedora community. Previously, Fedoras so-called core packages had been built solely by Red Hat, using internal Red Hat tools. A second, “extras” group of packages was built with community-accessible tools.

      Weve long wished for greater cooperation among the various community-run Fedora packaging projects, and we hope that these structural changes make this cooperation possible.

      In the short term, users may take advantage of Fedoras opened build tools in the form of Revisor, a graphical interface through which we were able to create custom Fedora spins.

      We started the process by feeding Revisor a kickstart file, which is an implement for conducting unattended installations that should be familiar to Red Hat veterans.

      We could create Fedora releases out of the Fedora 6 or 7 software repositories or from Red Hats development software channel, also known as rawhide. Wed like to see support for creating CentOS spins as well, which should be fairly easy to add to Revisor.

      We selected packages to include in our custom release using Fedoras graphical software installation tool, Pirut, which is embedded within Revisor. Our experience with the software selection portion of Revisor was a bit spotty—for instance, the search tab of Piruts interface didnt work for us, so we had to select our packages by drilling down through the tools categorized package list.

      We could output our releases in the form of DVD or CD-based installation images, or as Live CD or USB memory stick formats, from which we could boot a system into our new Fedora respin.

      Other Improvements

      In addition to the structural changes that the Fedora project has made to its software repository framework, the team has noticeably sped up the distributions Red Hat Package Manager/Yum package management backend. Also, as we mentioned earlier, Fedoras graphical tool for creating and managing virtual machines is much improved as well. For one thing, the tool now lists idle VMs alongside running VMs, which is something that only the systems command-line tool was capable of in previous releases.

      Fedoras virtualization tool can also now manage VMs based on the new KVM (Kernel-based Virtual Machine) virtualization system that ships with the Linux kernel in addition to the Xen virtualization system to which the tool had previously been limited. On the Fedora 8 road map is support for securely managing remote VMs, which is a capability to which were looking forward.

      Fedora 7 now ships with Red Hats very good troubleshooter for the systems SELinux (Security-enhanced Linux) enhanced security framework switched on by default. The SELinux troubleshooter is key for figuring out hard to locate SELinux errors, which makes SELinux much easier to run on deployed systems.

      Also, Fedora 7 ships with a standalone SElinux configuration utility, which opens the door to accessing the systems promising multilevel security and network port control capabilities.

      /zimages/4/28571.gifCheck out eWEEK.coms for the latest open-source news, reviews and analysis.

      Jason Brooks
      As Editor in Chief of eWEEK Labs, Jason Brooks manages the Labs team and is responsible for eWEEK's print edition. Brooks joined eWEEK in 1999, and has covered wireless networking, office productivity suites, mobile devices, Windows, virtualization, and desktops and notebooks. Jason's coverage is currently focused on Linux and Unix operating systems, open-source software and licensing, cloud computing and Software as a Service. Follow Jason on Twitter at jasonbrooks, or reach him by email at jbrooks@eweek.com.
      Get the Free Newsletter!
      Subscribe to Daily Tech Insider for top news, trends & analysis
      This email address is invalid.
      Get the Free Newsletter!
      Subscribe to Daily Tech Insider for top news, trends & analysis
      This email address is invalid.

      MOST POPULAR ARTICLES

      Latest News

      Zeus Kerravala on Networking: Multicloud, 5G, and...

      James Maguire - December 16, 2022 0
      I spoke with Zeus Kerravala, industry analyst at ZK Research, about the rapid changes in enterprise networking, as tech advances and digital transformation prompt...
      Read more
      Applications

      Datadog President Amit Agarwal on Trends in...

      James Maguire - November 11, 2022 0
      I spoke with Amit Agarwal, President of Datadog, about infrastructure observability, from current trends to key challenges to the future of this rapidly growing...
      Read more
      Cloud

      IGEL CEO Jed Ayres on Edge and...

      James Maguire - June 14, 2022 0
      I spoke with Jed Ayres, CEO of IGEL, about the endpoint sector, and an open source OS for the cloud; we also spoke about...
      Read more
      Applications

      Kyndryl’s Nicolas Sekkaki on Handling AI and...

      James Maguire - November 9, 2022 0
      I spoke with Nicolas Sekkaki, Group Practice Leader for Applications, Data and AI at Kyndryl, about how companies can boost both their AI and...
      Read more
      IT Management

      Intuit’s Nhung Ho on AI for the...

      James Maguire - May 13, 2022 0
      I spoke with Nhung Ho, Vice President of AI at Intuit, about adoption of AI in the small and medium-sized business market, and how...
      Read more
      Logo

      eWeek has the latest technology news and analysis, buying guides, and product reviews for IT professionals and technology buyers. The site’s focus is on innovative solutions and covering in-depth technical content. eWeek stays on the cutting edge of technology news and IT trends through interviews and expert analysis. Gain insight from top innovators and thought leaders in the fields of IT, business, enterprise software, startups, and more.

      Facebook
      Linkedin
      RSS
      Twitter
      Youtube

      Advertisers

      Advertise with TechnologyAdvice on eWeek and our other IT-focused platforms.

      Advertise with Us

      Menu

      • About eWeek
      • Subscribe to our Newsletter
      • Latest News

      Our Brands

      • Privacy Policy
      • Terms
      • About
      • Contact
      • Advertise
      • Sitemap
      • California – Do Not Sell My Information

      Property of TechnologyAdvice.
      © 2022 TechnologyAdvice. All Rights Reserved

      Advertiser Disclosure: Some of the products that appear on this site are from companies from which TechnologyAdvice receives compensation. This compensation may impact how and where products appear on this site including, for example, the order in which they appear. TechnologyAdvice does not include all companies or all types of products available in the marketplace.

      ×