# Why Fedora?



## zeiz (Oct 16, 2009)

I am curious why exactly Fedora with it's "rpm" used in FreeBSD as Linux base? Why not Debian for instance? Is Fedora a kind of Linux standard somehow or it's just a long time FreeBSD tradition?


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## SirDice (Oct 16, 2009)

Probably because there is a lot of third party (commercial) software available for fedora/redhat.

AFAIK it's not really a tradition. There's also linux_base-gentoo and IIRC in the past there were even more versions.


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## ale (Oct 16, 2009)

Fedora has been adopted by Red Hat as "community version" after the ceased to ship their distribution for free.
Before linux_base-[f\|fc]*, the default linux base was linux_base-rh*, with rh=Red Hat.


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## SirDice (Oct 16, 2009)

ale said:
			
		

> Fedora has been adopted by Red Hat as "community version" after the ceased to ship their distribution for free.
> Before linux_base-[f\|fc]*, the default linux base was linux_base-rh*, with rh=Red Hat.



Yeah, but I can also remember a debian and a suse linux_base.


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## Oko (Oct 17, 2009)

zeiz said:
			
		

> I am curious why exactly Fedora with it's "rpm" used in FreeBSD as Linux base?


Because RedHat controls over 70% of the Linux market and because 
most proprietary applications are certified to run RedHat only. 



			
				zeiz said:
			
		

> Why not Debian for instance?


Because it is a hobby project.



			
				zeiz said:
			
		

> Is Fedora a kind of Linux standard somehow or it's just a long time FreeBSD tradition?


NetBSD uses OpenSuSE for its compatibility (Obviously Novel SuSE controls the 
other 30% of the Linux market not controlled by RedHat). OpenBSD uses Fedora as well although OpenBSD Linux compatibility layer is almost dead and will be probably removed.


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## zeiz (Oct 21, 2009)

Aha...so Fedora is "pro" while Debian is a hobby project. Interesting, it feels vice versa on my boxes. 
So Novell is sponsoring openSUSE and RH is sponsoring Fedora, is this why those 2 are not hobby projects? 
Who is sponsoring FreeBSD, btw?


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## Oko (Oct 21, 2009)

zeiz said:
			
		

> Aha...so Fedora is "pro" while Debian is a hobby project. Interesting, it feels vice versa on my boxes.


It might feel that way because Fedora is a test bed for RedHat while Debian is stable but the truth of the matter is that RedHat is by far, far the largest contributor to Linux kernel with SuSE running second.



			
				zeiz said:
			
		

> So Novell is sponsoring openSUSE and RH is sponsoring Fedora, is this why those 2 are not hobby projects?


No they are not hobby projects because 90% of new kernel features
are introduced by RedHat and Novel and tested in Fedora and OpenSuSE. They are also only besides to some degree Ubuntu commercially supported Linux systems. As I earlier said when an commercial application is certified to run on Linux it usually means that runs on RedHat. 



			
				zeiz said:
			
		

> Who is sponsoring FreeBSD, btw?


As far as I know FreeBSD doesn't have a large commercial support even though Juniper Networks use almost vanilla FreeBSD to run 
theirs $100 000 routers. As with all other BSDs, FreeBSD is first and foremost large academic/research project. You can read a lot online in the origins and the main differences between BSDs (which are research projects) and commercial operating systems like Linux.


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## DutchDaemon (Oct 21, 2009)

zeiz said:
			
		

> Who is sponsoring FreeBSD, btw?



http://www.freebsdfoundation.org/donate/sponsors.shtml

And you?


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## Beastie (Oct 21, 2009)

zeiz said:
			
		

> Who is sponsoring FreeBSD, btw?


Oh, but FreeBSD is beyond all this. And it's much cooler than the "rest"! Some projects were sponsored by the DARPA. 

And DutchDaemon is right, of course!


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## zeiz (Oct 22, 2009)

If Fedora is test bed for RH then what is CentOS?


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## DutchDaemon (Oct 22, 2009)

zeiz said:
			
		

> If Fedora is test bed for RH then what is CentOS?



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centos

Basically: RH for free?


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## dennylin93 (Oct 22, 2009)

zeiz said:
			
		

> If Fedora is test bed for RH then what is CentOS?



The CentOS developers grab the source code of RHEL and use it to produce an operating system. It's basically the same as RHEL, but the name is replaced with CentOS.


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## adamk (Oct 22, 2009)

dennylin93 said:
			
		

> The CentOS developers grab the source code of RHEL and use it to produce an operating system. It's basically the same as RHEL, but the name is replaced with CentOS.



And it's stripped of any non-free code in the base distribution.

Adam


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## vivek (Oct 22, 2009)

Fedora is beta quality testing for RHEL6. So yes it is a test bed. It has all cutting edge software.

Almost all commercial software works on RHEL. They've certification program https://www.redhat.com/wapps/isvcatalog/applicationSearch.html .They also got largest certified admin out there ~ RHCE / RHCE  etc. Most redhat (RHEL) stuff is well tested. They only put stable software.


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## zeiz (Oct 23, 2009)

Really interesting. So FreeBSD uses Fedora-base/core for its Linux layer that is half to death on OpenBSD that means OpenBSD developers doesn't see a sense to support Linux apps and only put trust in native apps. Non free stuff like flash and nvidia/ati-drivers seems doesn't worth for OpenBSD users. FreeBSD developers maintain Linux layer however it cannot be first priority task. Anyway the layer is just a relief to sweeten FreeBSD desktop. Hence why linux_base should be based on testing by nature kernel/base instead of stable one?


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## dennylin93 (Oct 23, 2009)

The Fedora releases are stable. It's just that RHEL is more stable than Fedora in comparison. It's kind of like Ubuntu and Debian. Ubuntu was forked because Debian moved at a very slow pace.


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## zeiz (Oct 23, 2009)

I heard Ubuntu is moving back to Debian (no idea what it means)
But with Fedora I always have problems up to I could install F10 only as guest on vmware. It just refused to install on both my boxes (no currupted isos and/or badly burned cds). F11 appeared without network and sound but instead with wrong resolution. F12 is comming but...I already joked that first successful model for me must be F16.


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## Oko (Oct 24, 2009)

zeiz said:
			
		

> means OpenBSD developers doesn't see a sense to support Linux apps and only put trust in native apps.


Read the goals of the OpenBSD project and things should become more clear to you. OpenBSD is first and foremost ultra secure 
and stable network appliance Operating System and then only then the Operating System of general purposes. Running foreign binaries is a great security risk and also can bring any system to its knees. Have you every asked your-self why Microsoft is voiding warranty from the installations containing third party drivers.



			
				zeiz said:
			
		

> Non free stuff like flash


Despite its reputation many OpenBSD users (myself included) would like to see the native version of flash. The problem is not in OpenBSD developers. The problem is that Flash is a proprietary application currently codded by Adobe. Unless Adobe see financial incentive to release OpenBSD version of flash there is nothing anybody from the OpenBSD camp can do about it.
The same goes for Opera web-browser.



			
				zeiz said:
			
		

> nvidia/ati-drivers seems doesn't worth for OpenBSD users.


OpenGL and open source ATi drivers work better in Xenocara (OpenBSD version of X window system) than on vanilla X window system or any semi hacked version used on any of Linux distros.

Speaking of NVidia the problem is that NVidia doesn't want to open source any drivers. Binary blob drivers have no value to us as they represent HUGE security risk as well as great source of 
instability of an operating system. On the top of it NVidia binary blob drivers would require changes in OpenBSD kernel. That is just unacceptable. Once you use computer which is runs stable and has uptime of couple years you will know what I am talking about.


As a final note OpenBSD supports accelerated frame buffer on quite a few SUN video cards but that information probably means very little to somebody like you who have never used any real 
non-Wintel hardware. There is even some effort to support some 
proprietary SGI video hardware but again you probably have not even touched SGI computer in your life so you do not know what I am talking about.  





			
				zeiz said:
			
		

> Anyway the layer is just a relief to sweeten FreeBSD desktop.


Linux compatibility layer doesn't exist because of non-existing FreeBSD desktop (even though many people might use FreeBSD on the desktop as well).
It exists so that people can run Oracle database, Maple computer algebra and similar high level proprietary applications.



			
				zeiz said:
			
		

> Hence why linux_base should be based on testing by nature kernel/base instead of stable one?


Actually Fedora core base used in FreeBSD is very stable and quite outdated. The offical Fedora core used on FreeBSD 7.2 if I recall correctly is Fedora Core 4 or in the best case Fedora Core 8. Fedora Core 4 is equivalent to the RedHat 4 which is almost 4 years old and very, very well-tested and stable.


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