CHECKSUM is not easily accessible on Fedora Download Page

Armelius Cameron armeliusc at gmail.com
Tue Jan 18 17:39:48 UTC 2011


Hello,
I know Fedora try to be more user friendly, and the website design that points 
to the various download options reflects that. But I think one signficant thing 
is missing: the CHECKSUM file is not easily accesible. How can a novice user 
know how to check that his/her download is correct and not corrupted ? 

Following the link to get fedora from the main page, I ended on this page:
http://fedoraproject.org/en/get-fedora-options#formats
Since I want to get the full DVD install, I follow the link to:
http://download.fedoraproject.org/pub/fedora/linux/releases/14/Fedora/x86_64/iso/Fedora-14-
x86_64-DVD.iso

That goes to a page that tells me that the download would start shortly (and 
it did), but no information about how to check the correctness of the 
downloaded file.

There's this box that says: "What should I do with this ISO file?" and a link 
to instruction. The second page on the instruction ask to "Verify the 
download", but again, no link to point to the CHECKSUM, or how to even verify 
the download. 

Sure, I can figure out just fine that I can browse the download directory 
manually, get the CHECKSUM, and verify it with 'sha256sum' utility. But how 
about Aunt Tillie ? How about people who uses Windows to download and may not 
have the utility handy ? should there be at least a link to the CHECKSUM file, 
or even just display the hash there on the download page, and a quick 
instruction on how to check the download ?

Thanks
--
AC


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