Go easy on Fedora, it's beta-quality software [LWN.net]

Go easy on Fedora, it's beta-quality software

Posted Nov 8, 2006 20:49 UTC (Wed) by pr1268 (guest, #24648)
Parent article: Fedora Core 6 review (Software In Review)

The Fedora Core Linux distribution is regarded as not production-worthy by:

Red Hat and the Fedora Core team
Most users who run it on their desktops/laptops
Most readers of LWN.net who post on these pages (my perception)

That being said, I think Mr. Matzan should consider exactly what Fedora Core's role is in the grand realm of things. FC isn't afraid of being a cutting-edge, state-of-the-art Linux distribution with the latest packages and software. It is the very idea of enticing a significant share of Linux users (and perhaps a fair percentage of Windows/Mac/BSD/Other Unix users as well) to their distribution so as to gain valuable feedback on the usability, stability, and reliability of all the FLOSS projects that come together at the Fedora Core distribution.

I think Mr. Matzan's review is unfair to say that Fedora hasn't got it right after six releases. Fedora probably won't get it right in FIFTY releases! But that's not the issue. It's a journey, not a destination.

I've jokingly said that anyone who runs the Fedora Core Linux distribution should wear the words "Beta Tester" in big scarlet letters written across their shirt.

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Go easy on Fedora, it's beta-quality software

Posted Nov 8, 2006 21:10 UTC (Wed) by mspevack (subscriber, #36977) [Link]

The Fedora Core Linux distribution is regarded as not production-worthy by:

* Red Hat and the Fedora Core team
* Most users who run it on their desktops/laptops

I disagree with that statement.

http://interviews.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/08/17/177220 -- see question #8

https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-list/2006-October/msg03138.html -- a thread entitled "are you using Fedora in a production environment"

Go easy on Fedora, it's beta-quality software

Posted Nov 9, 2006 0:09 UTC (Thu) by ronaldcole (guest, #1462) [Link]

Fedora Core 6 installed easily enough on my Inspiron 8500 laptop and even "did the right thing" with the widescreen display under X. Heck, even without an "install everything" option I installed all the RPMs on the DVD and all the dependencies were fine (although I did feel that the 200M of updates for a release that was two days old was a bit excessive).