GNOME/Projects/Lived in Project/Fedora

From openSUSE

Revision as of 21:48, 31 January 2008

Background

The purpose of this page is to keep track of the Lived-in Fedora experience. It would be interesting to see the progress of PackageKit in Fedora as well.

Screenshots

Screenshots from my experience can be found here. Images hosted by Flickr.

Installation

• Gtk-based install UI. I really like this. Nice, separate pages, to choose Language and Keyboard layout with simple "< Back" and "> Next" buttons.
• I like the simple default selections for main software. There aren't a hundred choices and the list is small:
  • Office and Productivity (selected by default)
  • Software Development (I additionally chose this one)
  • Web server
• Lets me know that I've chosen to use a lame password without telling the person standing over my shoulder information about what kind of password it is.
  • If you enter an all-lowercase password in openSUSE, it lets you know that it's all lowercase instead of just saying that it's not a good choice. Now whoever's looking has narrowed down that someone's password is lowercase. This isn't a huge thing, but kind of annoys me about openSUSE.
• Didn't have network set up by default. I had to go deactivate/reactivate to get DHCP to start working. Could have been a fluke though. Network Manager does not seem to be used...at least by default.
  • I've enabled it using the "system-config-services" GUI and it's working so far with a wired connection

Noteworthy

• When you first open Firefox, you're brought to: http://start.fedoraproject.org/
• Two panels by default; one on the top and one on the bottom of the screen.
• Nautilus
  • By default, installed with the option to open a new window for each folder you enter
  • Uses simple View as Icons interface by default
  • nautilus-open-terminal not installed by default
  • Sound preview
    • Hover your mouse over a sound file in Nautilus and a little sound icon will appear and the sound file will start playing until you move your mouse off of it
    • This is pretty interesting, though I discovered it by accident. I was doing something completely unrelated and my computer started playing a sound file that was on my desktop. I thought I must have accidentally clicked on it, but then realized that it just starts playing when you hover over it.
• system beep is enabled by default. if you're not careful, this will catch you off guard and blow you off your seat (especially if you have external speakers plugged-in)
• System Administration
  • Seems hard to find things in the default GNOME menuing system
  • This probably has to do with the fact that I'm not really that familiar with GNOME
• Printing
  • After typing in the DNS of the printer outside my office, it recognized the make and model, and also picked the appropriate driver. When I tried this the other day in openSUSE 10.3, it wasn't as easy.
• yum
  • Seems to be pretty easy to install things from the command-line
• I'm finding myself really missing main menu and the control center that's included in openSUSE. It feels hard for me to find where administrative things are and quickly launch the programs I use commonly.
  • Example: Launching pidgin I have to click on "Applications" -> "Internet" -> "Internet Messenger"
• Applications are referred to using non-technical terms
  • I think this is good for non-technical users
  • Examples:
    • The Gimp is in the menu as: GNU Image Manipulation Program
    • gcalctool is Calculator
    • gedit is Text Editor
• Security Update Notification
• Simple! One option: View Updates

• Simple list of packages with easy-to-decide buttons at bottom of dialog

• Package Updates Download

• Shutdown Screen has too many options

• VMware tools already seem to be functioning/working when installing Fedora 8 in VMware Fusion
  • i.e., I can move my mouse directly from the Fedora Desktop to my OS X desktop

Issues Encountered

This section I may need to follow up with a bug report, or at least see if there's something I did wrong.

• Tried to look at the release notes during the install by clicking on the "Release Notes" button and the fonts got messed up.
• Flash player not installed by default
  • http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/ForbiddenItems - explains the reasons why this, among others, is not installed by default
• Having a REALLY hard time getting graphics to all work really well. I've running on a ThinkPad T60p.
• NetworkManager is not able to connect to the "onenet" wireless network in the office
• Windows Key (Super Key) does nothing. Ctrl+Esc doesn't do anything either. In openSUSE, it's a nice shortcut to open the Main Menu