Sunday, July 17, 2005

Ubuntu-izing Fedora Core 4

I'm on week two of Fedora Core 4, switching from an install of Ubuntu (Hoary) after I completely botched my Ubuntu install... nevermind the details ;). So, I gave Red Hat a go... and so far, I'm impressed. A *huge* reason for Red Hat's success with me is the Unofficial Fedora Guide.

The Guide
Let me start off by saying that I found Ubuntu to be very nice, by far the easiest install and user-friendly distribution I've tried so far. It makes *perfect* sense then, for other distros pursuing more shallow learning curves for your average home-user to borrow what's working from the Ubuntu knowledge base.

Hats off to Seb Payne, an Evolution Colt developer that did just that, borrowing from the intuitive style of the Ubuntu Starter Guide to create an easy to navigate, user-friendly FAQ for linux/Red Hat beginners.

Enter The Resistance
Sounds like a happy ending, right? I thought so, too. But this solution makes too much sense for Fedora developers who refuse to collaborate with Payne's guide, donate content or even establish a link for users to decide which FAQ suits them the best.

Can't We All Get Along?
If we discuss waging an Operating System war, undoubtedly Microsoft wins. With a powerhouse like Windows XP dominating easily 80% of the market, it would seem that Linux distributions would be working together and sharing ideas to have a better chance of carving out a slice of Gate's monster pie. Unfortunately, this is not the case, at least with Fedora developers seem intent on shooting themselves in the foot, letting ideas that show a good deal of promise go to waste.

Thanks Seb
So, Payne, this post is for you. Hopefully, a frustrated Fedora user or two will stumble onto this post and give your guide a shot before starting anew with Mandrake or switching back to XP. It's unfortunate you have to coallate a renegade FAQ on your own, but many of us are grateful for the work you're doing; I want to do my part, sending a few more visitors in your direction to show my support.

-T.

Visit the Fedora Guide

4 comments:

Jeremy said...

Seb's Fedora Guide kicks ass. Thanks, Seb.

Thia Michelle said...

Yep... Thanks for showing me the guide :)

Hopefully, between the two of us, he'll get more traffic.

Jeremy said...

I stumbled across this bit of information today. It's a post from the maintainer of the Fedora FAQ, which many point to when they criticize Seb's work as being duplication of a previous effort. Even the FAQ's maintainer says Seb's guide is different, and fully supports it.

Mailing List Post from FAQ Maintainer (Max)
The Fedora FAQ

ugob said...

Nice Guide... thanks seb!