Robbie Ferguson: See we are looking at Fedora tonight because in the past couple of weeks where we did have a poll just asking what people would like to see more of on the show. And the leading answer to that was we want to see different types of Linux. Different flavors so we’re talking similar to Ubuntu but it’s a different brand, different sweet of software.

So, we decided to take a quick look at Fedora 10 first. Just because it’s probably need a transition for me. But I did install it in to a virtual machine here so I don’t have full, I don’t have like my 3D effects and things like that in my video drivers installed because it just a virtual machine. But it gives me an idea of how it looks, how it performs and certain the installation was a breeze.

Carrie Webb: Oh yeah?

Robbie Ferguson: It was really nice to install Fedora 10. Everything was kind of similar to Ubuntu and a lot of Linux distribution these days, especially over the past couple of years, everything is varied. You know, it asks the questions now, it does the installation then there’s couple of questions at the end sometimes but it’s basically finished and you’re done then reboots, then you’re in.

Carrie Webb: Super user friendly?

Robbie Ferguson: Very user friendly.

Carrie Webb: That’s nice.

Robbie Ferguson: Very easy to install and doesn’t halt, I love that it doesn’t halt the installation process to ask you questions during the process. So, you can walk away from the computer while it’s installing.

Carrie Webb: Oh, that is good.

Robbie Ferguson: Come back to it later and it is done.

Carrie Webb: It just answers the question then when you return to it.

Robbie Ferguson: That is right.

Carrie Webb: That is nice.

Robbie Ferguson: But it doesn’t happen halfway through the installation. Windows XP was notorious. A horrible installer and that you’d answer a couple of questions, it will start installing and then it would stop the installer to ask more questions. And then it would start installing again more stuff and then it would ask you for networking settings and then it w0uld start installing more stuff.

So you literally have to be sitting in front of the computer in order to do the installation. So if you wanted to walk away or whatever of if you have multiple computers to be installing on,

Carrie Webb: You’re there all day.

Robbie Ferguson: It’s a real pain. Yeah.

Carrie Webb: What about Vista?

Robbie Ferguson: Vista actually got it right for once.

Carrie Webb: Oh, good.

Robbie Ferguson: I’ll say that that’s the one thing they get right with their installer.

Carrie Webb: Okay.

Robbie Ferguson: They finally clued in to have to create a user friendly installer.

Carrie Webb: Oh, good.

Robbie Ferguson: We’ll touch on that on the later show as well.

Carrie Webb: Awesome.

Robbie Ferguson: So, just a quick boo at Fedora 10, I am pretty pleased about the look. I mean you guys know that I love blue and it’s not a reason to choose an operating system. But this operating system does perform quite similar to Ubuntu. It is based on; it has the gnome desktop environment so it’s pretty easy to transition from Ubuntu in to Fedora. However, this is not a Debian-based operating system. This is Fedora which is from Red Hat and so things operate a little bit differently when it comes to the package manager and things like that.

So, it takes a little bit of learning how to add and remove your programs. There is no synaptic package manager for example. There is no out get for example. So if you’ve been watching the show and learning about those kinds of applications, you need to learn the differences like YUM. And YUMEX is a replacement for out get and synaptic package manager.

So, I haven’t had a lot of experience with this. And this is the first time that I personally got in to an operating system that steps outside of Debian since it’s been a long time so a comfortable transition for me. I’ll be honest.

Carrie Webb: Oh.

Robbie Ferguson: And one of the questions that a viewer was asking is which is easier. Is it Ubuntu or is it Fedora 10? And I must say that in all honesty, I can’t answer that question because I think that it’s per user thing.

Carrie Webb: Okay.

Robbie Ferguson: For me personally, I think that for me to upgrade to Intrepid or for me to eventually go to Jaunty is going to be a lot easier for me, easier with quotes around it then stepping in to let’s Fedora 10.

Carrie Webb: Because you’re so familiar.

Robbie Ferguson: Because I’m familiar. I’ve been using Debian-based operating systems with out get and synaptic for basically all of my Linux using days.

So, for me to step outside to that and getting to an RPM based distribution, it’s a little bit different but Linux is great because across the board, it doesn’t matter which flavor of Linux you’re using essentially at the court is the same thing. So, it’s just different sweet of software, a different way that some of the software works and so you just have to learn how each one works differently from one another.

Carrie Webb: Okay.

Robbie Ferguson: So with Fedora 10, of course I’m not the guy to get in to an in depth study of it because I’m pretty new to it. But, that said, I think if you’re a new Linux user, if you’ve never used Linux before, this is a good alternative to Ubuntu and probably a good one to step in to as well and they do have Acadia eBrick version as well if you want something just a little more familiar to Windows interface.

So, there’s a couple of applications that are just absolute “must have” in Fedora 10. One of them is I’ve already mentioned called YUMEX. another thing that works a little differently is Pseudo.

In this instance, what I’ve been doing is just going to ask you that just going to allow me to log in root in the temporary session. So in this case now, I can go “Yum install Yumex” which is going to allow me to install that YUMEX which is basically an equivalent of you synaptic package manager for Fedora 10.

So you know what that is from previous episodes. You know what I am; do you able to follow what I’m talking? Just tell me if I’m—

Carrie Webb: I don’t.

Robbie Ferguson: Because you’re like our equalizer here.

Carrie Webb: I’m sorry. I just haven’t, I don’t know what you’re talking about.

Robbie Ferguson: Okay. Synaptic package manager is this software that we use in Ubuntu to install applications.

Carrie Webb: Okay. Yeah.

Robbie Ferguson: So Fedora works a little differently because the software suite is different. The package manager is based on RPM packages rather than DEDWM package.

Carrie Webb: So, RPM stands for what?

Robbie Ferguson: On the top of my head? Let’s find out.

Carrie Webb: Okay.

Robbie Ferguson: I’m sure that there are 30 people typing in the chat room right now.

Carrie Webb: We’re waiting for it.

Robbie Ferguson: Dev is a lot easier because it’s just Debian.

Carrie Webb: Okay.

Robbie Ferguson: Revolutions Per Minute? No, that’s not it.

Carrie Webb: Oh, here it is.

Robbie Ferguson: Oh, they beat Google to it?

Carrie Webb: Red Hat Package Manager?

Robbie Ferguson: That’s right. RPM Package manager is originally called Red Hat Package Manager.

Carrie Webb: All right.

Robbie Ferguson: Abbreviated RPM.

Carrie Webb: Thank you to… who sent that to me? I can’t find him here. I lost, oh Goodguy. Thank you you’re such a good guy.

Robbie Ferguson: Goodguy. Good guy, you’re such a good guy for sharing that. Thank you so much.

Carrie Webb: Okay. So sorry to—

Robbie Ferguson: No. That’s okay. So I’m still learning my way around the operating system and so it is very new to me. but I’m like that. I’m thinking that this is pretty sleek just taking s look here.

So then from there, now, I’m such a terminal geek because I dot know my way around. You know things are indifferent place. Here we go.

You know, I do like, I tend to jump to terminal because I find it and then I can at least get to where I want to go because everything is available in terminal.

So under System Tools and Applications, you’ve got your YUM Extender. Yum is being equivalent to APT okay?

Carrie Webb: Okay.

Robbie Ferguson: That’s all kind of making sense?

Carrie Webb: Yes. Yup I’m following.

Robbie Ferguson: So, it’s going to ask me for my password and so this is going to allow me to install applications and things like that.

And then there is another application that I thought that was really cool. This is something that A Jameson recommended. This is one called Auto 10. And that is something that has to be installed from their website.

Carrie Webb: Okay.

Robbie Ferguson: So I’m going to actually post the link to that in the show notes of this episode number 67, but essentially what Auto 10 allows you to do is... see if I can Google it here. it’s similar to Perfect Ubuntu and it’s just designed to allow you to get your DVD support, your Multi-Media Support, a couple of non-free of software like the flash player plug-in Mozilla Firefox and things like that. So let me just pull that up here.

It’s pretty straight forward to install anyway so I’ll just bring her up. What I’ll do is just post it show notes rather than trying to find it during the live broadcast. I’ll post it in the show notes, the link to Auto 10. That’s the one that allows you to install non-free software and it’s quite decent.

Carrie Webb: Okay.

Robbie Ferguson: And it’s quite decent and it’s a GUI so that’s makes me jealous.

If anybody has any comments for us in the chat room, just join us category5.tv and happy to include you in the discussion as well because I am such a “newb” when it comes to Fedora 10.

I do kind of show you what it looks like and how it works at least where I’m at right now. I mean I’m nowhere special.

This is the application I was telling you about Auto 10. So, you can see the GUI so if I want flash plug-in I can just… sometimes I lose my mouse when I’m zoomed in like that. It’s crazy eh? All right. I’ll get it back.

But essentially, you can just click on any of those applications. See if you got FrostWire, Google desktop, Google earth, all different things that you can install in to your Fedora 10 desktop as well as Compiz Fusion which is very cool. That gives you the special effect and things like that.

Carrie Webb: Right.

Robbie Ferguson: Another resource shared with me by Slick3D, and you’re watching the show? Just incase anyone mentions.

Carrie Webb: Yeah. Send in for any question there, yeah.

Robbie Ferguson: There’s a great resource that Slick3D shared with me called FedoraSolved.org. And this website is just a vast resource of Fedora users who want to make the transition simpler. So there are a lot of great tutorials, a lot of information here. Check it out, FedoraSolved.org.

I’m going to keep at Fedora over the next little while. I think its pretty slick and it’s interesting for me to step outside of Devion because I’ve been using it. You know I’ve been almost in this box for so long.

Carrie Webb: Yeah, step out of the box.

Robbie Ferguson: Yeah. I want to try it out and see how it works.