An Early Look at Fedora Core 2

The first beta version of Fedora Core 2 was released last week, after a 10-day delay from the original schedule. Also known as version 1.90 or FC2-test1, this is the earliest preview of what will in due time form the basis of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4, and what will soon be making its way to desktops and servers of Fedora users. In many ways, this is the most significant product by Red Hat in years, with the brand new Linux kernel, substantially enhanced security, and new versions of the popular GNOME and KDE desktop environments. As such, it warrants a closer look, even in its present unfinished state.

First the bad news. Those accustomed to high standards of past releases by Red Hat, even the beta ones, will be surprised at the apparent lack of attention to detail in this release. A glaring error while building the ISO images prevents the installation CD from booting on architectures other than i686. The usually comprehensive release notes were replaced by a quick overview listing a few known issues and a link to Red Hat's bugzilla. The two main desktop environments, GNOME and KDE are both beta versions - GNOME is a development release 2.5, while KDE is version 3.1.95 (also known as 3.2rc1).

The version of GNOME included in this release is very buggy. Both Evolution and Nautilus are reportedly prone to crashes and Evolution is unable to import existing mail. Some users have complained about the new default way of browsing folders in Nautilus, the so-called "spatial mode", in which every click on a folder opens a new Nautilus window (without a menu or toolbar). The left panel with a tree structure is missing in spatial mode. Apparently, this is an intended behavior of Nautilus in GNOME 2.6, so those users who prefer the old way of doing things can restore the "browsing mode", either by launching the program with the "nautilus --browser" command, or by right-clicking within a Nautilus window and selecting "browser mode". Others have voiced their concerns about the newly overhauled "Open File..." dialog in GNOME, which in the words of one of the testers on the Fedora mailing list, is "poorly laid out, improperly sized and unnecessarily complex". Even the most faithful GNOME users are bound to be displeased with all the glitches and inconsistencies in this development version of GNOME.

Surprising as it may sound for a distribution that has traditionally demonstrated a clear preference for GNOME, the KDE desktop seems in much better shape. It still uses the Bluecurve theme by default, but users can select a different one during KDE's initial configuration dialog. Apart from misplaced menu entries of certain system applications, accidentally placed under a "Lost and Found" (!) menu entry, there have been few reports of KDE applications crashing or behaving unexpectedly.

Another surprise, and a rather pleasant one for users with older hardware, is the appearance of XFce (version 4.0.3) in the distribution. This is the first time that XFce was included in any Red Hat product and it comes at the expense of WindowMaker, which was dropped from Red Hat Linux after version 8.0. The inclusion of a light-weight desktop would seem to indicate that Red Hat has decided to lower the stringent hardware requirements and give users an option to run a less resource-hungry desktop on older hardware. Unfortunately, there is no mention of this in the release notes. XFce is not given as a choice during system installation; however, once installed directly from RPMs, it appears as an option on the login screen, alongside GNOME and KDE.

Disappointingly, the much awaited SELinux functionality was pulled from this release due to "a couple of last minute problems". It is now expected to be ready for inclusion in Fedora Core 2 Test 2, scheduled for release on March 8. SELinux (or Security Enhanced Linux) is one of the two major new features planned for Fedora Core 2; it is designed to enhance security of the operating system by allowing users to define explicit rules for file and device access and by confining user programs to the minimum amount of privilege they need to perform their tasks.

Unless you are an experienced user or intend to help with bug reporting, this first beta release of Fedora Core 2 is best left alone. Some of the many, many bugs in it are not necessarily Red Hat's fault, although one has to question the company's insistence to ship a highly experimental version of GNOME, which seems to have a long way to go before it becomes 2.6 final. Other frequently reported problems include issues with sound, printing, up2date and yum, which together with missing SELinux functionality and haphazard release notes make for a rather poor distribution. The Fedora developers have a lot of work on their hands before the product enters its second phase of testing.

Luckily for them, the final release of Fedora Core 2 is only scheduled for April 19, so there is plenty of time. But as things stand now, Mandrake's own beta releases appear to be in a much better shape.

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