An empty legacy [LWN.net]

An empty legacy

Posted Oct 20, 2006 2:55 UTC (Fri) by skvidal (subscriber, #3094) [Link]

If you listened only to comments in lwn then you'd think everyone uses gentoo or ubuntu. Though, it's funny. For the last 2 weeks there have been large articles about fedora on the front page and they've garnered a lot of conversation about fedora. And the fedora community is ever-growing. And the download numbers and rates seem to be perpetually growing, as well.

For a distribution that a lot of commenters on lwn seem to think that "everyone is switching away from" it sures seems like a lot of people are using it and more people are participating all the time.

hmm..

An empty legacy

Posted Oct 20, 2006 4:53 UTC (Fri) by dberkholz (subscriber, #23346) [Link]

Big difference between the readers of LWN and the Linux user community as a whole...

An empty legacy

Posted Oct 20, 2006 9:44 UTC (Fri) by sbergman27 (subscriber, #10767) [Link]

I dropped Fedora because of the cavalier attitude that distro began to take with its users. The eternal upgrade treadmill simply became too much of a problem. I moved most of my clients to CentOS. But for some, CentOS is not appropriate. Ubuntu is more or less perfect for them. I had to learn the "Debian Way" of doing things. And I had to get over my dislike of the Debian family of Linux OSes. But it's been worth it.

That should give you a hint as to just how badly Fedora, for all the statements from various Fedora officials that they are out to prove that they are not just RH's beta, has handled things. (If it looks like a duck, and quacks like a duck...)

If Fedora ever stopped treating FC+1-2 like a dead body they'd as soon be rid of, I would seriously consider moving some clients back to it.

An empty legacy

Posted Oct 20, 2006 15:31 UTC (Fri) by TxtEdMacs (subscriber, #5983) [Link]

Sorry downloads and actual, extended use are not closely coupled parameters.

Consider my case: I loaded Fedora Core 3 onto a laptop that previously contained a very broken version of Mandrak 9.1 Pro. I was astounded on the ease of installation and the effective updates. However, as the end of support approached I moved to a different machine that went through Debian Stable with mostly Testing and just a bit of Unstable for version 3.0. I was at my happiest and ignored Fedora my laptop. At the end of 2005 a distribution upgrade to Sarge 3.1 broke my system. I limped along until I did a distribution upgrade of a neglected Ubuntu 5.04 to 5.10 that was sitting on a second disc. Not too long afterward most of my bootups were into the Ubuntu. I kept Ubuntu current with security upgrades and did most of my work off this second disc.

This past Spring due to making a trip I did a quick upgrade of the laptop to Fedora Core 4 that was a disaster. I probably just used its minimal capabilities or I slapped on Ubuntu. I think it was the former, but I made some minimal use of the machine on the trip - just email and some internet browsing.

In the last few months I have downloaded and had a server running Fedora Core 4 then Fedora Core 5. However, let's review what I have actually running and in use at this time:

Desktop(s) Debian (unused) first disc waiting for new distribution, second disc: Ubuntu 5.10 most heavily used.

Laptop: Ubuntu Desktop 6.06, loaded in July very light use so far.

Server: Ubuntu Server 6.06, loaded late September has been running constantly, but mostly unattended.

Hence, while having downloaded recent versions of Fedora Core 4 and 5 I have found Ubuntu more appropriate to my needs. While I liked parts of Fedora other characteristics attracted me to stay with another distribution where longer term support for security fixes were of paramount importance.

Future plans? Debian gets replaced by 6.10, and the 5.10 goes to 6.06. Laptop will be used to test more risky software releases, e.g. Flash 9 and perhaps the minefield version of Firefox (a.k.a. upcoming version 3.0).

Therefore, I suggest you not read too much into downloads.