Took Fedora 20 x64 for a Spin

Here wizards, magicians, sorcerers and everybody can rest a bit and talk about anything they like.

Just remember to respect the rules.

Took Fedora 20 x64 for a Spin

Postby yankee495 » Jan 15th, '14, 18:40

Hi all,

I've been so busy I needed a break so I took one if you call installing an OS a break. Actually, this is my break. I'm not knocking Fedora at all so don't flame me or tell me how to fix things because without the Mageia Control Center I'm just not interested. That is not to say it can't be discussed however.

First, my friends on Facebook, I tell them all to learn Linux and two of them, was three, have taken me up on the offer. I think Mike just didn't upgrade Mandriva and let it go. I'll get on him about that. Tom on the other hand has been like a kid with a new toy since 2006 I think, maybe 07. He's still on Mageia 2 because it works. I did tell him we need to upgrade it because of KDE speed improvements if nothing else, but he don't much care since we built him a quad core with SSD's.

Anyhow, here is what I posted on my FB about my experience with Fedora. You can tell I don't have much faith from the start.

__________________________________________________________________________
Burning a copy of Fedora-20-x86_64-DVD.iso now. I probably shouldn't have wasted a disk but I want to check it out. I could've used a virtual disk but I want to make sure it is by the book. I am going to install it in a virtual machine. I'll let ya know if all the hype is true which I highly doubt. The thing about Mageia is the advanced wizards that took years to perfect and are the best out there. I just don't see that on any other distro, at least not yet.
I'm installing the KDE version of course and I just don't have much hope for a distro that is heavily influenced by Gnome etc (not KDE).
__________________________________________________________________________
By the way, there is no way I'd change so it is really a waste of time but maybe I'll learn something.
After a text screen to choose what to do you get a graphical Language selection and then disk partitioning which is nice, but different. It does have automatic which I never do but for testing as a new Linux user I went with it.

Next comes desktop selection and included apps. I chose KDE of course with KDE Apps, Multimedia, Office and Administration tools...what I'm here to see.

You then set a root user password and create a normal user account which you can set as Administrator. It stays on that screen with a progress bar and says starting package installation process. I'm sure this is faster on a real computer but it takes time to do a full install on anything, usually 15 minutes or less on a fast computer.

I also read about a crash when setting up in a virtual machine due to drakcut and I think I'll have to run that command and reboot it. If you turn on updates at the start you won't have this problem. I didn't because I didn't want to update everything...I want the out of the box experience and not wait. You should always read the installation instructions before installing because of problems like this. On a real computer this is not a problem.

It is at 741 of 1477 packages while I typed this so not too bad, about 50% done. There is a banner at the bottom telling you a lot of stuff, mostly about apps, use this for that etc! It looks like ads for the apps like you'd see on a website. It is now done installing packages, about 10 minutes but the progress bar shows about 60%, post install setup tasks.

Installed and ready to use, hit reboot.

It makes you type your user name, you can't click on it but that can be changed easily in KDE. Change the login theme.

It is beautiful...let's check out them tools.
I right clicked the Fedora icon on the start menu and selected Classic Menu, then I right clicked Dolphin, Terminal and Ksysguard to add them to the panel. So far no tools found.

It is set to single click on the desktop and has Kinfocenter and KDE's System Settings but still no hardware tools in particular.

Even if all of your hardware is working you need tools to check it out and add/edit them if it is not. I don't see a networking or hardware or any other wizards like is in Mageia Control Center. Already I'm not happy.

I found Apper, the software management application in the Administration Menu but still can't find any hardware or other tools, not even to install.

When I selected Base System to see what was installed, Apper crashed. It did it again. Remember, this is the software installer...updates will likely fix it but what if updates don't work?

It was crashing because I was double clicking it. I'm off to change that setting. Hit system settings in the menu, then input devices and then mouse and select double click and hit apply.

Here we go, Gnome Control Center...all the configuration tools you may need but you have to install Gnome which I don't want. No tools for KDE.

And I think that is about it. Mageia remains the best KDE distro on the planet and I highly recommend KDE for Windows converts.

I guess if you're a Gnome fan you might like it. Being a KDE fan myself it was a total waste of time other than I found out what I already knew...there are no KDE tools to speak of other than what is bundled with KDE. So yeah, a waste of time and a disk.

Being fair, its default desktop is Gnome but they tout having a KDE version. I'd say compared to Mageia that Fedora KDE is half a KDE version.

Also being fair I didn't work with it long and using Google to search for Fedora KDE tools/configure/configuration brought up almost nothing, and absolutely nothing concerning configuration beyond the KDE System Settings.
__________________________________________________________________________
TODAY
Now, I may have missed some utilities and stuff but the Mageia Control Center is famous and if I'm wrong please let me know if there is a distro that comes anywhere near close. This is not meant to be a review of Fedora by any means and as you can see when Apper crashed it was my fault, double clicking it. Setting the mouse to double click fixed it and after that it ran fine. So did only clicking it once.

I tried Red Hat and a few others, not many, but when I seen Mandrake that was it! I've been an "M" user ever since. Remember, this was back in the days when I first started and when video problems were more common and all I wanted was a desktop to get me started. Mandrake allowed me to fix the video easier and continue to learn other things.

Mandrake had one problem. I had a PCI IDE controller and when I plugged it in, it became the first drives (controller) and moved my other ones down the list so it wouldn't boot. I never did figure that out and upgraded the computer so I never had to use the IDE card again. Today, I might plug it back in someday.

I still think Mageia with its Control Center and KDE Settings is the best KDE distro you can get. I think Windows users would like it most if they ever tried it. I also think this is why many Windows users try Linux and go back to Windows. They try a distro without these tools. I guess you can tell I'm really a KDE/Mageia fan, I mean true hard core and that is exactly my point.

If people like Fedora or Mint, fine, that is what the distros are all about, but if I introduce someone to Linux it will be Mageia and KDE. I always show them the other desktops though while explaining that you're not stuck with any one desktop and that KDE is my favorite. I also tell them that what they're looking at, no matter which desktop is so highly configurable that they can pretty much make it however they like.

A short while back I set up Xfce with Cairo Dock and boy, I like that too and may use Mageia 4 and Xfce on my laptop but KDE will be installed.

This is all just what I like so take it with a grain of salt for certain because I'm not knocking anyone, but rather explaining why I like what I like. Also, I've never seen a perfect distro so I'm sure I'd have a complaint about every single one I tried. I don't know, it was Mandriva 2006 or 07 that was pretty much perfect. I mean, it just ran and my friend Tom ran it until Mageia 2, a long time. I had upgraded to 2010 and then found Mageia 2 after taking a look at the new Mandriva with Rosa. I'm very much looking forward to Mageia 4 and will most likely do a clean install and let'er rip until KDE 5.

I really need to go read about KDE and what they're doing...I have not kept up lately.
There are 10 types of people, those who understand binary & those who don't.
Main Desktop
http://www.overclock.net/lists/display/view/id/3960066
yankee495
 
Posts: 433
Joined: May 25th, '12, 13:10
Location: Carthage, Mo. USA

Re: Took Fedora 20 x64 for a Spin

Postby isadora » Jan 15th, '14, 18:57

Thank you for sharing your experience.
And keep spreading the good news!!! ;)
..........bird from paradise..........

Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.
—Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
User avatar
isadora
 
Posts: 2742
Joined: Mar 25th, '11, 16:03
Location: Netherlands

Re: Took Fedora 20 x64 for a Spin

Postby doktor5000 » Jan 15th, '14, 21:07

Well, had a bit different experience. Used the live KDE DVD to install, which takes only a few minutes, the live installer is quite a bit different but there are only really few steps, and you can enter root password and user details during installation.

KDE was not much different from Mageia. systemsettings worked normally, not sure why you referred to gnome control center ...
Also not sure what you mean by KDE tools, as they have replaced some of the generic tools with the KDE counterparts.
Apart from that, yes Fedora doesn't have a control center, nor do they have graphical tools for all tasks in MCC.
But basic stuff is there to configure network and printer. What else do you need?

But you can add many such tools by installing the respective system-config-* packages.
Cauldron is not for the faint of heart!
Caution: Hot, bubbling magic inside. May explode or cook your kittens!
----
Disclaimer: Beware of allergic reactions in answer to unconstructive complaint-type posts
User avatar
doktor5000
 
Posts: 17629
Joined: Jun 4th, '11, 10:10
Location: Leipzig, Germany

Re: Took Fedora 20 x64 for a Spin

Postby jiml8 » Jan 15th, '14, 21:39

OpenSUSE's yast is much more comprehensive than MCC. The package manager portion of yast is overly complicated IMO, but zypper (the command line tool) is a very nice way to obtain new packages.

MCC is easier to use than yast but generally that is because yast is far more comprehensive.
jiml8
 
Posts: 1253
Joined: Jul 7th, '13, 18:09


Return to The Wizards Lair

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 1 guest

cron