[Nelug] Redhat Fedora Core 4 - First Impressions

[Mick Walker]

That was a really good article.

Apart from the fact I would never consider using Linux in a production
environment, let alone red hat, I really enjoyed hearing your views. And
as a lot of my students (1st year BSc Hons Computer Science Students)
tend to favour redhat (I don't know why), I will gladly pass the
original email onto them with your permission.

-
Mick Walker

On Sun, 2005-06-19 at 14:06 +0100, Rob Hall wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> Just thought I'd share my experiences with Fedora Core 4 - apologies for
> the crossposting.
> 
> The CD set was easily downloaded from one of the mirror sites (don't
> even bother with the Redhat site - its like having dial-up all over
> again!) and they all checked out with sha1sum so no bothers there. 
> 
> I am not using my usual set up so I'm not totally comparing like for
> like in this review. I am using a 1.6Gb P4 with 1Gb RAM and a 120Gb
> Seagate PATA drive with a Radeon 9600 graphics card and an Intel Pro 100
> NIC and Soundblaster Live 5.1 sound card in it.
> 
> Installation started well with the usual choices (language, keyboard
> layout etc.) and I chose to upgrade my FC3 system. I am not that
> precious about it really because I have home directories on a different
> partition and a second HDD formatted as vfat which I share with a
> Windows installation.
> 
> Bizarrely the estimated time fluctuated wildly and promised me initially
> an estimated 60 minutes and then within 5 minutes had shot up to a
> Windows-esque 120 minutes and it wasn't until nearing the end of the
> upgrade that it dropped dramatically. The whole process took under 60
> minutes - not bad I thought but a little longer than normal. It is still
> fantastic though when you think that it can take 3 hours or more to get
> Windows to the same state with apps and everything else installed.
> 
> One strange thing was during the installation of Open Office, I noticed
> that all the languages under the sun were being installed and quite
> hefty packages they were too. I hope that Linux and Linux apps aren't
> going to suffer from the bloatware syndrome that M$ have got running
> through their packages.
> 
> In use, it feels very similar to FC3 although the latest version of
> GNOME has a few refinements such as a Desktop menu. It is not laid out
> in a particularly logical manner although anyone who has used GNOME for
> any time will soon get used to its little quirks!
> 
> I was a bit surprised that they have chosen OpenOffice 2.0 Beta as the
> office suite - I would have been happier with a fully stable release
> although so far it hasn't proved to be any trouble and if anything feels
> a bit quicker in operation than previous releases. I like Open Office
> and I feel that it is now a real alternative to the big guns in the
> office suite stakes. Maybe I can push its use at college!
> 
> Strangely, now when I play CDs, the CD player makes a hell of a racket
> which it didn't previously so I need to look into this.
> 
> Another peculiar thing is that it lost my local printer but it only took
> a couple of minutes to fix. However, if you had a lot of printers
> connected then this could be more problematic.
> 
> All in all, not a bad experience. It doesn't appear on the face of it to
> be as big an upgrade as from FC2 - FC3 but the word is that the stuff
> under the bonnet is a lot more improved so time will tell. I am looking
> forward to getting my replacement motherboard so I can try this out
> properly.
> 
> Rob
> 
> 
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--
Mick Walker
Website: http://www.codegurus.org
ICQ: 71032828
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Random Quote:
Lowery's Law: If it jams -- force it. If it breaks, it needed replacing
anyway.