Fedora 8, code named 'Werewolf' has improved itself in various segments
compared to its predecessor Fedora 7. The new GNOME 2.20 can also be found in
this distro now which was only available with openSUSE 10.3 and Mandriva 2008.
Bigboard that was released a few months before Fedora 8 is now integrated with
this distro. It is an online sidebar incorporated with the Fedora desktop that
can be integrated with other online applications such as Google Talk, AIM, etc.
Installation
The installation process is similar to the previous version, Fedora 7, and
difference if any is in the artwork alone. We installed it on a machine having
Intel Core 2 Duo 2.6 GHz, 1 GB RAM, 120 GB HDD and for external display we
plugged Radeon X1950 Series graphics card. This distro detected all the hardware
and configured itself automatically. We also installed it on HP Presario V3000
series laptop with Intel onboard graphics card and 512MB RAM. It worked fine and
the desktop effects looked wonderful.
|
The 'Werewolf' effect
A unique feature in Fedora 8 is the integration of the online desktop
compared to conventional Fedora desktops. You can login to the online desktop
from the Session Settings option in the login screen. Another unique feature is
the color of the default wallpaper that changes with the passage of the day to
match the ambience outside. Apart from the latest GNOME version you can also
install KDE 3.5.8, and if you are looking for a KDE 4 development environment,
it can be found online on Fedora repository.This version also includes Xfce
4.4.1 desktop environment.
Having the new Pulse Audio as a default sound server enables you to control
the volume of different applications individually, ie you can set the system
sound and media player sound separately. The CodecBuddy is now included in this
distro which enables Linux to play some proprietary audio formats such as MP3 by
separately downloading the codecs through CodecBuddy. Unlike openSUSE 10.3 which
provides out-of-the box MP3 support, one has to download this codec from
Fedora's online repository. Similar to openSUSE and Mandriva this distro also
has OpenOffice 2.3. The writer has been improved and supports features such as
exporting documents in MediaWiki format. The Calc has now support for inline
matrix or array constants in formulas. Moreover, one can preview one's work
before exporting to HTML format in Draw, Calc, Writer and Impress. The
conventional homepage of fedora has also been changed. Similar to openSUSE 10.3
it also has secure remote management capabilities for XEN, QEMU and KVM.
A new GUI based firewall and application level security tool have been introduced in Fedora 8 |
BottomLine: This has been amongst the most
widely used Linux distros and the latest features make it an enviable option.