Linux Fedora 13 Beta

There are many versions of Linux, but the two biggies seem to be Debian (on which Ubuntu and many other distributions are based) and Red Hat. Red Hat uses a commercial support model, so it is an example of a very different approach than Ubuntu. Many of the commercial applications of Linux are Red Hat. I suppose because of the support, but I'm pretty sure most VP's in charge of things would alway pick the paid over the free version just because, well, they're morons that way.

Anyhow, a fedora is a kind of hat (like Indiana Jones and Nick Danger, Third Eye wear) and the hat in Red Hat is a fedora. Therefor, Fedora is a version of Red Hat Linux. It's the version that you don't get with the paid support ... rather, it is, more or less, the NEXT version of Red Hat. The test bed. The bleeding edge.

So, Fedora 13 Beta is tomorrow Linux, at least some times. And, according to the Mysterious JH of Linux in Exile, it rocks, more or less.

Read JH's Fedora 13beta mini-review, at Linux in Exile.

Meanwhile, I'm going to go check out Shotwell, as per JH's suggestion.

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Fedora is like a test bed where the Red hat folks introduce all the latest bugs before selecting which bugs will make it into Red Hat Enterprise Linux.

By Virgil Samms (not verified) on 16 Apr 2010 #permalink

"If you use an NVIDIA card, there's experimental 3D support via the Nouveau driver."

Is this a joke? Or is there some other context where that isn't pathetic?

@Nuspirit: Not sure what you mean is "pathetic". Perhaps you are making some kind of comment about developing for the NVIDIA, which doesn't provide any programming specs of any kind unless you sign an NDA (in which case, you can't write F/OSS with it.) Indeed, it is pathetic that NVIDIA refuses to open their specs so people can write software for them.

In any case, it's not like Nouveau is your only option if you have an NVIDIA card and want to run Linux. You can just get them from NVIDIA, for example. Works fine, so I hear from people who have that card.

But if you prefer to run a completely F/OSS system, Nouveau is something to look at.

3D graphics hardware having been around for nearly two decades and even in the mainstream for decade now, and there's experimental support for it (well, for NVIDIA which is basically the Intel of 3d technology)?

Actually, there is and has for some time been full support via a FOSS driver. I think this must be referring to a yet more advanced experimental thing, which is what one would expect with Fedora. Red Hat 13 at this moment has a fully functional opensource driver for NDIDIA 3D.

What IS pathetic is that most of the important computing shit that happens (because, after all, it is all on the web or via email) happens on Unix/Linux boxes, yet hardware manufacturers don't routinely produce *nix drivers. THAT is pathetic beyond belief.

What is also pathetic is that most desktop computers run an operating system that for most of those decades you refer to never used the 3D technology at all. It took a bunch of smelly kids in their garages (the presumed maintainers and developers of Linux) to start using those 3D hardware bits to shame the big stupid-ass Microsoft into using the hardware. (Which I assume they do now, though actually I'm not sure.)

It took a bunch of smelly kids in their garages (the presumed maintainers and developers of Linux) to start using those 3D hardware bits to shame the big stupid-ass Microsoft into using the hardware.

The "smelly kids" you are referring to actually did everything by software (in MS-DOS, in fact) and continued to put early 3d hardware to shame up to to the middle of the 90s.

Advent of 3d graphics had nothing whatsoever to do with the development of Linux.

The actual breakthrough of 3d hardware technology (by NVIDIA) was thanks to GLQuake (GL stands for OpenGL).

Feature wise, OpenGL and DirectX (Microsoft's proprietary 3d hardware interface) advanced hand in hand until about 2000-2001 (DX8 and OpenGL 1.3), after which DirectX pulled ahead and OpenGL has lagged behind every since.

Just to correct a few factual errors in the quoted portion.

Advent of 3d graphics had nothing whatsoever to do with the development of Linux.

This is correct. I certainly had not said otherwise.

And I'm sitting here with two computers in front of me. Both have 3D graphics cards. One runs Windows XP. The 3D graphics card in that box does not turn on unless I run certain software now and thenk, or override the system and play a game (i.e., using Directx). The other is a Linux box. It makes full use of the 3D graphcis cards (both of them) that are in that box, all the time.

You've got your genealogy mixed up about the NeXT version of Red Hat. Since Steve reverse-bought Apple, the NeXT version of Red Hat is named Mac OS X.

;-)))

By Jean-Denis (not verified) on 16 Apr 2010 #permalink

The actual breakthrough of 3d hardware technology (by NVIDIA) was thanks to GLQuake (GL stands for OpenGL).

Well excu-u-u-use me, but where did OpenGL come from? It is (hopefully obviously) a FOSS version of GL, which was used on Silicon Graphics workstations in the late 80s/early 90s. And what OS did SGI machines run? Irix, which was a version of Unix (System V with certain modifications).

By Virgil Samms (not verified) on 16 Apr 2010 #permalink

Some time before, I really needed to buy a building for my business but I did not earn enough money and couldn't buy something. Thank heaven my father suggested to take the loans at trustworthy bank. Thence, I did so and used to be happy with my term loan.