The Future of Fedora.

Jesse Keating jkeating at j2solutions.net
Tue Dec 9 23:28:25 UTC 2003


On Tuesday 09 December 2003 14:51, Alexey Eremenko wrote:

>  1) Passwords: Linux MUST have an ability to work without passwords
> for those who desire it. I hate passwords, especially on my personal
> computer.
>     It's a very BIG disadvantages of the Fedora Core 1 -
>     It requires at least 6 letter password.
>     Not to mention I msut create a user.
>     I want to work ALWAYS as a root. (like a do in Windows XP as
> Administrator by default)
>
>     Why a free system such as Linux FORCES me to create passwords,
> and a user. Password may be a nice feature for servers, but for home
> PCs they are useless, and they will just annoy beginners, and home
> users.
>     Believe me, there are other ways to be the same reliability and
> security, without the annoying passwords.
>
>    Bottom line: Let the user decide, if he want a password, and an
> additional users, except the root. I will add to the wish list the
> easiest way to install in FC2 will be without passwords.

This has got to be one of the funniest requests (besides others in this 
email) I have ever seen.  Blank passwords are so horribly insecure it's 
not even funny.  Running as root has got to be one of the stupidest 
things you can do with a system, Windows or not.  I will continue to 
laugh at this request for a long time...

>  2)Networks: FC1 Linux has no easy networking. I couldn't even check
> my IP address, whithout the console command “ifconfig”. It's very
> bad. It must be as easy as in Windows XP. You just click on the
> networking icon, near the volume one, and see it's IP. Another
> problem I came across, is that there is no comfortable way to turn
> Internet Connection Sharing on (IP Masquerade in Linux). In order to
> do so, I had to read a ton of documentation about ipchains, iptables,
> ip whatever, and still it doesn't work. I believe that in a several
> days I will setup this on Linux, but this is unaccaptable for home
> usage. Internet Connection Sharing in WindowsXP for those who don't
> know what is it: it's a powerful DHCP Server + IP NAT Masquerade +
> simple bridging and routing all in one package. Once you turn this on
> your whole network can share 1 real IP address, to access the
> Internet.

This is a valid complaint, and I do believe work is going forward on 
this.  There are panel applets you can use to show network traffic and 
such, and I do believe they can show the IP address of the device as 
well, but perhaps it's not as stupid-easy as Windows is.

>  3)Boot: FC1 boot times are significantly longer than in Windows XP,
> however except few optimizations nothing could be done here. (or am I
> wrong). Running on Athlon XP 1800+ with 512MB of RAM, I can boot DOS
> in few seconds, WindowsXP in about 40 seconds, and FC1 Linux in more
> than 2 minutes. That's poorly acceptable for home users. (but for me
> that's almost OK)
>
>  Bottom Line: optimize boot times, if possible.

Bottom Line: Don't reboot.  

But seriously, work is being done to try and speed up what is possible 
during the Linux boot.  In the reality of it though, speeding up the 
boot time by a few seconds, or even a minute, won't make the machine 
run any faster once it has booted.

>  4)Installation & Video: For a home users – there must be no big
> problems in installing the FC on their PCs. However I had. FC1
> completely crashed when it detected my VIA KM266 graphics, and tried
> to load the “X”. This is a known bug:
> bugzilla.redhat.com/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?=id=90419
>
>  Imaging a first-time user (like myself 2 weeks ago), with the
> world's most stable OS ever released by the Open-Source community,
> checking by all independed experts, blah, blah, blah... and crashed.

I'd like to see where this claim is made.  Fedora Core is a hobbiest 
release, not a tried/true going to work release.

> As I said before Overall stability for home user, doesn't mean, that
> he/she must enter a ton of passwords, but it means, that nothing
> should crash (at least not on first Setup). As a first-time user I
> thought that Linux is more stable OS than Windows, but in REAL world
> it was the opposite. Besides, WindowsXP uses something called
> ”abstract 2D display driver” during it's install, and only after the
> install it installs video card's drivers. I think that's a better
> approach. What's more interesting, WindowsXP after driver install, he
> can (somehow) check it's integrity, and when I had a really
> problematic video card, after a restart it shows me a window which
> tells me: “that my video card probaly got unstable, so we will use
> the abstract 2D display driver”, or something like that and offers to
> send this report to MS. What's even more intersting is that their 
> “abstract 2D display driver” supports 1024x768x32. (how?). But no 2D
> acceleration, so even windows readrawing is slow in this mode.

Linux (once booted) can detect a malfunctioning graphics display and 
resort to a text mode login/runlevel.

>  Bottom Line: If you can't fix the bug, at least write on the setup
> screen: sorry, but we don't currently have stable drivers for Linux
> for your Video Card, would you like to continue in the text mode, or
> exit. (Note: Linux GUI: The X Window system won't work on that card)
> Now, newbies won't afraid to install Linux. (They won't get that
> tragedy I got into)

Without having layed hands on every piece of every hardware known to 
man, it'll be quite difficult to implement this.

>  5)Multimedia: Again – it's a point where linux falls far behind XP –
> First, I can't install my Multimedia keyboard Genius KB-18M, because
> I couldn't find the drivers anywhere, and they aren't included with
> FC. Not to mention The FC1 default Music Player crashes  - Rhythmbox
> 0.5.4 – every time I try to play an ogg-vorbis on it. MP3 in FC was
> blocked due to license issues. Here nothing can be done, and I
> understand it. For example – I use my lovely 5-button USB Microsoft
> Wireless IntelliMouse Explorer (That's a monster-like mouse for
> almost 100 bucks). I couldn't find a good drivers for this mouse for
> Linux on the whole net. Under good drivers I mean the ability to see
> my battery's power, plus ability to give to buttons 4 and 5 different
> functions: like minimazing windows, copy text, forward and backward
> buttons on Interet Explorer (Mozilla – is my favourite in Linux).
> Etc... Why FC1 which was released in 2003 can't work natively with
> multimedia keyboards and 5 or 8-button mice?

Why did Microsoft not create drivers for this mouse for Linux?  Oh wait, 
did I really ask that question?

> Also I couldn't open
> videos in any format in Linux: MPEG2, DivX, WMV, whatever I tried...
> (maybe I don't know something...) Overally the Multimedia part of the
> FC1 Linux is the one who loses badly to it's commerial cousin. It's
> not possible to close such a gap quickly. But steps could be made.

Thats just it, commercial.  Most these formats are proprietary and 
require licensing to be able to use them.  You dint' see this on the 
windows side, because microsoft has hidden the license cost in the OS 
cost.  These types of licenses are incompatible with opensource 
licensing that Linux falls under.  To be able to play most these 
formats, you have to use illegal software.

>  Bottom Line: Integrated support of Multimedia keyboards and 5 button
> mice are handy.

Talk to your hardware vendor.  Drivers don't magically appear out of 
thin air.

>  6)Bugs and Errors: Linux FC1 is overally untested: please with
> Fedora Core 2 make Release Candidates first. (2 weeks before actual
> release), with code and features freeze. 

I'll take heart because you're new to the scene.  There were MULTIPLE 
test releases (betas) made available publically, as well as a public 
bug tracking system and development mailing lists.  Whens the last time 
you saw something like that from Microsoft?  The only way to catch a 
lot of bugs is to have the software ran on lots of hardware that Red 
Hat/Fedora doesn't have access too.  Had you installed one of the test 
releases, found your bugs, filed them with the bug tracking system, 
these issues might have been fixed by the final release.  Guess what, 
you still have a chance with Fedora Core 2, since the first public 
test/beta will be out some 3 MONTHS before the final release.  Is that 
enough time for you?

> This RC should be available
> to everyone. Besides FC1 falls behind WindowsXP in error reporting.
> WindowsXP can make automated error reports in order to improve the
> OS. 

Have you seen any bugs fixed due to your "report this error to 
Microsoft" button?  Having worked at microsoft, I will tell you that 
these reports mean very little to Microsoft, and rarely result in any 
bug fixing.

> When I get something unstable under Linux, I must manually fill a
> bug using bugzilla. In fact, there are stupid things in FC1 like bug
> in add/remove programs, which could be avoided if the FC2 RC1 would
> be publicily available before the final FC2 arrives. So, that at
> least the most common bugs will be fixed.

Ah but it was available.  Perhaps you didn't look hard enough.

>  Bottom Line: Fedora Core 2 must be able to make automated
> error-reports, and automated download of all latest upgrades. (but
> user will be able to disable such features, if he wishes). Also FC2
> RC1 must appear from the official redhat site 2 weeks before the
> final release. (not from the latest CVS or whatever)

Discussed above.

>  7)3D GUI: In the next Windows release codenamed “longhorn” a GUI of
> Windows will be revolutionized. It's very interesting: On top of 2D
> sits 3D, and on top of 3D textures sits 2D again. Interesting.
> Well... Linux is very far from that point, while MS has an Alpha
> version running. Enormous amount of work is required to make
> something like that. One of the Open-Source 3D engines can be used to
> achieve it. Crystal Space could be a nice candidate
> (crystal.sourceforge.net). For me, “Longhorn” is going to be a
> Revolution.
>
>  Bottom Line: Maybe it's too early yet, but in order to make an
> Open-source reaction for such a revolution – new desktop environment
> with a 3D engine must be started as soon as possible and when ready
> integrated into FC.

I'm not even going to comment on this.


>  I know, that I am going to get on my head about this article.
>  so email me at: al305472 at hotmail.co.il

I don't understand this comment.

-- 
Jesse Keating RHCE MCSE (geek.j2solutions.net)
Fedora Legacy Team      (www.fedora.us/wiki/FedoraLegacy)
Mondo DevTeam           (www.mondorescue.org)
GPG Public Key          (geek.j2solutions.net/jkeating.j2solutions.pub)
 
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