十个理由让你爱上 Fedora 10[图文]

六个月前的这个时候，我(jonrob)写过一篇文章，名字叫做“5 个理由让你爱上 Fedora 9”。这次是在 Fedora 10 即将发布的这段时间，有更多的理由你会爱上这个版本。

RPM Fusion

Fedora 长期以来都受到批评，因为不提供专有软件，专利编码译码器(codec)，出于我们熟悉的种种原因。过去，可以通过各个第三方软件仓库才能获得这些被禁止的额外软件，可是它们往往与 Fedora 基本的软件仓库的软件冲突，或者互相不兼容。

现在好了，几个最常用的软件仓库已经走到了一起，并且创建了一个全新的超级软件仓库，这就是 RPM Fusion 。这是你获取多媒体解码器和硬件驱动所唯一需要的软件仓库。

RPM Fusion 最了不起的是，多亏了 Fedora 的开放特性，他们使用完全相同的工具（比如打包软件）和相同的打包过程各自打包他们的软件，所以质量还是有保证的。

更好的打印支持

在 Fedora 8 中打印机自动配置成为可能。插入几乎任何一台打印机，所有缺失驱动程序将被自动安装，整个过程都不需要使用者自己动手。

在 Fedora 10 中，打印机控制应用程序，系统配置打印驱动程序，都被彻底重写编写和简化。当然，有些改动是很小的，正是这些很小的改动让整个打印系统改头换面，不是吗？一些显著改进包括：

不需要根密码的时候不再提示输入根密码

没有纸张，被拒绝的打印任务等等的图标

打印任务失败时通知用户，并且提供诊断工具找出失败原因

对话框被简化，不再让人感到混乱

初始打印机对话框

更好的遥控支持

喜欢用你的电脑看电影或者听音乐吗？想用你的遥控来控制这些应用程序吗？ Fedora 现在包含 gnome-lirc-properties 包，它让配置和添加新的遥控变得更加容易，它也允许使用者为他们的遥控器配置自定义按键事件。基于这一特性的开发工作被重新提出，不仅仅是 gnome-lirc-properties ，还包括别的流行的应用程序以确保它们在信的配置工具下工作正常。

更好更快的启动

Fedora 10 包含一些巨大的其启动过程的改进。从系统刚刚开始启动的时候开始，使用者会注意到不再有 Grub splash 画面了，节省了系统启动整个过程的时间，同时，去掉了一些屏幕闪动的画面，使启动过程更加精炼。对于那些想进入启动菜单的使用者，只要系统启动的时候按住任意键别松开，启动菜单就会出现了。

Grub 加载完毕之后，使用者会注意到 RHGB 不复存在了。它已经被一个全新的程序，Plymouth 所替代，Plymouth 利用了基于内核方式的设定，让启动过程不再闪烁，平滑的过渡到GDM，并提供更好的图形界面。着不仅仅是美化，Plymouth 不需要一个独立的 X 服务器来运行，因此这个改进让系统启动速度大幅改善。

除了这个特性之外，别的工作也正在被看开发出来以降低系统启动时间，包含默认启用的预读功能，这一点利用了平行启动系统，还不只这些。总之，很多用户应该能看到他们的系统启动速度更快了。

连接共享

这个特性一定会在全世界的黑客大会上非常流行，连接共享允许使用者更容易的建立无线自组网络，所有的流量将通过一个额外的连接。首选连接，比如第二个 WI-FI 卡，3G数据连接，或者是纯以太网连接。

这一特性以来于 Fedora 9 中已经被开发出来的 3G 网卡开箱即用功能，也包括在网络管理器下允许对多网络设备的支持。

网络管理器的这个改进并不止这些，很多用户反映在连接无线网络的时候，网速有比较重大的提高。它看起来和 Mac OS X 下的 Airport 连接差不多。

急救工具箱

“急救工具箱是一个自动化的回复工具，它是和普通的恢复过程结合实现的，并且将它们应用到了系统中。急救工具箱处理恢复的过程凭借插件。一个插件在系统中负责一个特定的部分，就像Grub，init 代码和 X 服务器。急救工具箱被设计来自动修复在集中保持用户数据完整性方面遇到的问题。换句话说，急救工具箱将尽力修复系统的错误，并让你有能力恢复这些错误改动”

零缺陷音频

“PulseAudio 声音服务器已经被重写，替换了传统的驱动中断处理方式，取而代之的是基于计时器的音频时序安排。这是别的系统，比如苹果 CoreAudio 和 Windows Vista 的声音子系统采用的处理方式，有很多优点，不仅在最小程度上减少了功耗，将中断减少到最低程度，灵活的调整应用程序潜在的各种需求。”

Sugar 桌面

自始至终，红帽公司和 Fedora 一直和 OLPC 项目紧密合作。目前，在帮助获得更广泛的注意和创新力使用的努力之下，专注于孩子们的 Sugar 桌面环境（孩子们更喜欢，大家都这么说），Fedora 项目的成员努力工作和一些实用的活动打包，因此你能更容易的在你的 Fedora 系统上使用它们。

这是一个很不错的方式来参与这个项目的开发工作，更多的活动一直都在打包进来。如果你想试一下，你需要做的就是安装 Sugar桌面 群组。如果你想帮助开发，请点击查看这个维基页面。

Sugar 主桌面截图

改进的解码器支持

这个功能和 RPM Fusion 的到来衔接的很好，增加 GStreamer 的附加依赖的时候将直接指向受限解码，只要播放需要。如果使用者的 PackageKit 开启了 RPM Fusion ，它将自动寻找并安装你正在播放的媒体文件的合适的解码器。

Fedora 10 下安装解码器

更好的摄像头支持

Hans De Goede 一直在非常刻苦的开发以确保如果一个摄像头存在的 Linux 版驱动程序（对大多数摄像头来说，驱动程序的确存在），在 Fedora 下开箱即可使用。以前，摄像头并不能得到良好支持，不仅因为驱动程序并不包含在内核中，也因为他们使用 V4L2 ，然后很多应用程序纸盒 V4L1 兼容。现在，更多摄像头驱动程序被包含在教新的内核中，并且很多随机且机密的应用程序和驱动程序兼容。

其他！

这些仅仅是Fedora项目成员开发出来的功能，并且受益目标放在桌面用户。除了这些特性之外，还有一些常用的一系列最新和最高版本的软件，连同一些新的特性将让软件开发者和系统管理员工作更轻松。你可以点击这里查看完整的特性清单，你也可以点击这里下载预览版本。

期待 6 个月之后别的发行版本增加很多这样的特性。

原文见 10 Reasons You’ll Love Fedora 10

Around about this time 6 months ago, I wrote a post called 5 Reasons You’ll Love Fedora 9. This time around Fedora 10 is about to be released, and there are even more reasons you’ll love this release.

RPM Fusion

Fedora has long received a lot of criticism for not providing support for proprietary software and patented codecs out of the box, for all the reasons we’re so familiar with. In the past, to get access to these forbidden extras there were a number of third party repositories that you could access, some of which were incompatible with the main Fedora repositories as well as with each other.

Now, the teams behind the most common repositories have come together to create one new super repository: RPM Fusion. This is now the only repository you’ll need to get all multimedia codecs, hardware drivers etc.

The really cool thing about RPM Fusion is that thanks to Fedora’s open nature, they’re using exactly the same tools (e.g. build software) and processes to build their packages, so quality is guaranteed.

Better Printing

In Fedora 8 it became possible to plugin almost any printer and any missing drivers would be installed automatically and the printer configured, all without the user having to do anything.

In Fedora 10, the printer control application, system-config-printer, has been completely reworked and simplified. While some of the changes are small, it’s the little things that make all the difference, right? Some of the highlights include:

* not prompting for a root password until it’s needed;
* icons and status symbols for no paper, rejecting jobs etc;
* users are notified if a job has failed, and offered the option of running a diagnostic tool to find out why;
* dialogues have been simplified and de-cluttered

Initial Printer Dialouge

Initial Printer Dialouge

Better Remote Support

Enjoy using your computer to watch movies and listen to music? Want to use your remote to control these applications? Fedora now includes gnome-lirc-properties, which makes configuring and adding new remotes really easy, as well as allowing users to configure custom key press events for their remotes. All of the work done on this feature has been pushed upstream, not just to gnome-lirc-properties, but also to other popular applications to ensure they work correctly with the new configuration tools.
gnome-lirc-properties

gnome-lirc-properties

Better And Faster Startup

Fedora 10 sees a number of huge improvements to its boot processes. From the very beginning the user will notice that there is no Grub splash anymore, saving time in the boot up process as well as removing some screen flicker to give a more polished finish. For any user who wants to access the boot menu, simply hold down any key during startup and it will appear.

Following on from Grub, users will notice that RHGB is no more. It has been replaced with a brand new application, Plymouth, that takes advantage of kernel based modesetting, allowing for a flicker free boot process, smooth transitions to GDM, and much prettier graphics. It’s not all about aesthetics either, Plymouth doesn’t need a seperate X server to run, and so boot up speed has been improved by this change.

Beyond this, other work has gone on to reduce boot time, including enabling readahead by default, taking advantage of Upstart’s parallel boot system, and much more. All in all, many users should see their system’s start up much quicker.

Connection Sharing

A feature that is sure to be extremely popular at hackfests around the world, connection sharing allows a user to easily setup an ad-hoc wireless network that will then route all traffic through an alternative, primary connection such as a second wi-fi card, a 3G data connection, or a plain old ethernet connection.

This feature relies on work done in Fedora 9 to ensure that all 3G data cards work out of the box, as well as work to allow support of multiple network devices under NetworkManager.

The improvements to NetworkManager don’t just end here either, with many users reporting a significant speed bump when connecting to wireless networks. It now seems to be on a par with Airport in Mac OS X.

Check out this link to see a video of developer Dan Williams explaining how to use the new technology.

First Aid Kit

“Firstaidkit is an automated recovery tool that brings together common recovery processes and applies them to a system. The way that Firstaidkit handles the recovery processes is by means of plugins. The idea being that a plugin will focus on a particular issue in the system, like grub, init scripts or Xserver. Firstaidkit is designed to automatically fix problems while focusing on maintaining user data integrity. In other words, Firstaidkit will try its best to fix your system while giving you the possibility to revert the changes.”

Glitch Free Audio

“The PulseAudio sound server has been rewritten to use timer-based audio scheduling instead of the traditional interrupt-driven approach. This is the approach that is taken by other systems such as Apples CoreAudio and the Windows Vista audio subsystem and has a number of advantages, not the least in reduced power consumption, minimization of drop-outs and flexible adjustment of the latency to the needs of the application.”

Sugar Desktop

From the very beginning, Red Hat and Fedora have worked closely with the OLPC project. And now, in an effort to help gain wider attention and use of the innovative, child focused Sugard desktop environment (which children prefer, by all accounts), Fedora Project members have worked hard to package it along with some useful activities so that you can easily use it on your Fedora system.

It’s a great way to get involved with the development of this project, and more activities are being packaged all the time. If you’d like to try it out, all you have to do is install the sugar-desktop group. If you’d like to help out with development, check out this wiki page.
Sugar home screen, from laptop.org

Sugar home screen, from laptop.org

Improved Codec Support

This feature links very well with the arrival of RPM Fusion, and sees the addition of dependencies to GStreamer that will point to restricted codecs when they’re needed for playback. If the user has RPM Fusion enabled PackageKit will automatically find and install the appropriate codecs for the media you’re trying to play.
Fedora 10 codec installation

Fedora 10 codec installation

Better Webcam Support

Hans De Goede has been working extremely hard to make sure that if a driver that supports a webcam exists for Linux (and for most webcams, a driver does exist), it will work out of the box in Fedora. In the past this hasn’t always been the case, either because the drivers have been outside of the mainline kernel, or because they use V4L2, while many applications will only work with V4L1. Now, many more webcam drivers are in the upstream kernel, and huge numbers of random and esoteric applications will work with the drivers.

More!

These are only the features that have been developed by Fedora Project members, and are largely targeted at desktop users. Beyond these, there’s the usual array of the latest and greatest versions of upstream software, along with a significant number of features that are aimed at making the lives of developers and system administrators easier. You can check out the full feature list here, and you can download the preview release here.

Expect to see many of these features cropping up in other distributions in 6 months to a years time.

http://news.fedora-zh.org/2008/11/18/10-reasons-you-will-love-fedora-10/