One satisfied customer with f14!

mike cloaked mike.cloaked at gmail.com
Mon Nov 15 20:29:31 UTC 2010


At the weekend I was invited to attend a local linux user group
"installfest" since all the other people there was Ubuntu-centric.  I
took along a Fedora f14 Gnome desktop install DVD, as well as a
bootable usbkey containing the DVD iso as an install medium in case of
need (written with livecd-iso-to-disk.

The banter at the event was all about the latest Ubuntu, and a young
Italian lady had dropped in, who was not best pleased with the default
operating system on an EEEPC 901, and had brought it to the
installfest with a view to getting a "proper" version of linux on it
with the help of the experts at hand.

The Ubuntu helpers worked out how to boot a usbkey and eagerly set
about starting an install of the latest Ubuntu, whilst I discussed
Fedora with them in terms of differences from what they were used to.
"So what drivers will you need to load to get the wireless going on
the EEEPC if you installed F14?"  I told them it was very likely it
would just work out of the box.  They were not convinced!  "What about
the webcam?" - it'll probably 'just work', I replied.  Anyway it was
by now becoming clear that the Ubuntu install was not going well, and
questions were being asked across the room about how to get around the
error that was popping into the screen before the install had got off
the starting blocks!

I offered my help to try an f14 install as an alternative.  I popped
my key into the usb slot and initiated an install.  Anaconda did its
thing, and I configured the install - and set it going - of course
with a slow machine it would take a while, and an hour and a bit later
it went into first boot.

Ubuntu people watching over my shoulder waiting for the inevitable
failure to connect to the local encrypted wireless signal
(authenticated via a radius server) were surprised when the wireless
network connection was running about 30 seconds later.  A little
desktop tweaking, and then adding in a couple of extra repo
definitions allowed the young lady access to her mp3 player via the
usb port,and play her mp3 files, and Skype fired up without issue.
Chrome was running a few minutes later, and then the Italian keyboard
was put through its paces. Not a single problem, and she went away
with a beaming smile delighted at the working system, and commenting
on how wonderful the desktop background graphics were. The others were
clearly impressed.

One guy commented that the colour scheme was rather more pleasing to
his eye than his own Ubuntu scheme!

I donated the install DVD to the event, and left for another
engagement. I later learned that they had used it to do several f14
installs on other machines!

Fedora does seem to work!

-- 
mike c


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