Fedora : Linux’s Redhat based Distro : Fedora operating system

There are various distros of Linux and available for number of different purpose. We will discuss about Fedora distro of linux.

What is Fedora?

Fedora is an operating system based on linux kernel and developed by the community-supported Fedora Project and owned by Red Hat. Fedora contains software distributed under a free and open source license and aims to be on the leading edge of such technologies.

It is a Red Hat Linux-based operating system that provides users with access to the latest free and open source software, in a stable, secure, and easy-to-manage form. Fedora is the largest of many free software creations of the Fedora Project, a partnership of free software community members from around the globe. Because of its predominance, the word “Fedora” is often used interchangeably to mean both the Fedora Project and the Fedora operating system. Fedora is the foundation for Red Hat Enterprise Linux.

Fedora is an innovation-focused distribution, with a short life cycle that lends itself to leading-edge software.

Linus Torvalds, founder of the Linux kernel, uses Fedora on all of his computers.

Why Fedora?

Fedora has a reputation for focusing on innovation, integrating new technologies early on and working closely with upstream Linux communities. Making changes upstream instead of specifically in Fedora ensures that the changes are available to all Linux distributions.

The default desktop in Fedora is the GNOME desktop environment and the default interface is the GNOME Shell. Other desktop environments, including KDE, Xfce, LXDE, MATE and Cinnamon, are available and can be installed.

Fedora uses the RPM package management system.

Security is also important in Fedora with one specific security feature being Security-Enhanced Linux, which implements a variety of security policies, including mandatory access controls, and which Fedora adopted early on

Fedora comes installed with a wide range of software such as LibreOffice and Firefox. Additional software is available from the software repositories and can be installed using the yum or dnf package managers with graphical interfaces, such as GNOME Software, also being available.

Installation Source

Fedora is distributed in several different ways:

Full Distribution on DVD – a DVD image with all major Fedora packages at the time of release;

Live Image – a DVD image that can be used to create a Live DVD or Live USB drive and optionally install to a hard disk;
Minimal Boot Media – used for installing directly over the network.
A Live USB drive can be created using Fedora Live USB creator or the dd command

How Fedora came?

The Fedora Project was created in late 2003, when Red Hat Linux was discontinued. Red Hat Enterprise Linux was to be Red Hat’s only officially supported Linux distribution, while Fedora was to be a community distribution. Red Hat Enterprise Linux branches its releases from versions of Fedora.

The name of Fedora derives from Fedora Linux, a volunteer project that provided extra software for the Red Hat Linux distribution, and from the characteristic fedora hat used in Red Hat’s “Shadowman” logo. Warren Togami began Fedora Linux in 2002 as an undergraduate project, intended to provide a single repository for well-tested third-party software packages so that non-Red Hat software would be easier to find, develop, and use. The key of Fedora Linux and Red Hat Linux was that Fedora’s repository development would be collaborative with the global volunteer community.Fedora Linux was eventually absorbed into the Fedora Project, carrying with it this collaborative approach.

Before Fedora 7, Fedora was called Fedora Core after the name of one of the two main software repositories – Core and Extras. Fedora Core contained all the base packages that were required by the operating system, as well as other packages that were distributed along with the installation CD/DVDs, and was maintained only by Red Hat developers. Fedora Extras, the secondary repository that had been included since Fedora Core 3, was community-maintained and not distributed along with the installation CD/DVDs. Upon the release of Fedora 7, the distinction between Fedora Core and Fedora Extras was eliminated.

Fedora is a trademark of Red Hat, Inc. Red Hat’s application for trademark status for the name “Fedora” was disputed by Cornell University and the University of Virginia Library, creators of the unrelated Fedora Commons digital repository management software. The issue was resolved and the parties settled on a co-existence agreement that stated that the Cornell-UVA project could use the name when clearly associated with open source software for digital object repository systems and that Red Hat could use the name when it was clearly associated with open source computer operating systems.

Why Fedora?

Below is a general list of the benefits of Fedora operating system distribution.

1. Fast Boot : Boot less than 20 sec 
2. Great Virtualization : Its always been a market leader in virtualization technologies.
3. Graphics: The array of graphical tools in Fedora operating system distribution is huge.
4. Automatic Update:
5. Enhanced Security:Since it is a Linux distribution, Fedora lays great emphasis on security. Fedora’s firewall is available right from the start, and customizing it is not difficult.
6. Innovation: Well known for Innovation.

Reference: Wikipedia