Hello Guys! I’ve been using Fedora Linux since it’s inception as a fervent Red Hat user from way back 2003. If you rocked Red Hat Linux 9 (Not the current RHEL 9 version) from the early 2000s, then you must have celebrated installing media players like Xine, Mplayer, Gstreamer plugins and more from the command lines and those were fun days as far as i can remember.
Fedora Core Series came along on November 6, 2003, with the release of Fedora Core 1 (codenamed “Yarrow”). An amazing distribution but not without bugs and fixes were rapid as lots of the guys from Red Hat and Fedora Community were super active.
Going forward, Fedora 7 became one version i kept for years as i found it very stable and it met my daily task both as a Work Station and Desktop. Fedora 9 was equally powerful.
All through the years, i kept wondering why the Fedora Team (I joined the Fedora Family around 2008/9) didn’t focus much on hype unlike other distros but core open source projects, kernel patches, upgrades, bug fixes and offering the latest foss technology available on the distro.
One thing that i think made first timers switch from Fedora was it’s lack of support for non-free software by default and GUI tools unlike other distros which had software repositories connected via such means and could have users click and install these Apps or services after a Fresh install.
For years, users had to go under the hood (the command line) for instance to get Gstreamer plugins running for fresh installs or download tar balls then equally go to the command line and build binaries and install these apps and services. Leaving many analyst saying the distribution is best for running Servers and basic Work Stations.
Fedora was by no means a Linux distribution for newbies unlike today where you have GUI tools like
GNOME Software, dnfdragora and the likes. I think Fedora was never appreciated as it stands to be one of the oldest Linux distribution which offers latest foss apps and services, most secure in my opinion and now easy to upgrade method for System Admins. For instamce, a lot of open source software which have gone on to become powerful tools in daily lives of system admins and the Enterprise world debuted on Fedora.
When i listen to tech shows like the defunct Linux Action Show (Yes, we in Nigeria was listening) from back in the days and Jupiter Broadcasting reviews on Linux distros, i notice a bad review most of the times about Fedora which seems to amaze me but one has to respect opinions.
Today! Users are a click away from virtually anything they want done with less need for dropping to the command line. I still prefer getting tasks done from the command line because that is truly where Linux strength lies. Fedora is fast, Smooth, secure and more importantly works out of the box better than most Linux distributions out there today. Native drivers work just fine as well.
Fedora meets all the requirements for a Gaming Platform, Multimedia Studio, Servers, Work Stations and setup run on Fedora without hassles. Fedora Offers other Spins as well for this purpose.