Thread: using fedora 10

We installed it on an Intel Core2 Duo machine with 512 MB RAM and the installation was sruooth. and similar to its earlier release. It very well detected all the hardware and everything worked fine. We also compared the installation time and booting time with its predecessor Fedora 9. For this we installed Fedora 9 on the same system on which Fedora 10 was installed, without changing any hardware. Surprisingly there was hardly any difference between the two. Both the distros took almost half an hour to install and took approximately same amount of time to boot. The installation was done with default package selection. But what's worth mentioning here is that the number of default packages to be installed in Fedora 9 was 928 whereas in Fedora 10 it was 1070.

Next we installed Fedora 10 64-bit on HP Pavilion dv6000 for checking the performance on a laptop. As most of the laptops these days come with a processor that supports 64-bit OS. and also as a 64-bit open source OS doesn't cost you any extra penny. so its worth having one. The installation process was smooth and was over within 20 minutes. After the system got restarted, there was no text booting sequenceand was removed by a three phase graphical sequence. Some difference there with the previous cUstro. When the login screen prompted us. we tried the finger print scanner which didn't work at all. However. we logged ourselves in by providing username and password.




Like the previous distro, th,is also failed to detect the NVIDIA graphics card. Hence we were required to download the driver from NVIDIA's site and then install it. It worked fine afterwards. However, you could face the same problem with Windows as well for some specific graphics cards. The support for webcam is pretty much enhanced and this was proven when it promptly detected the laptop's in-built web cam. Even applications such as 'Cheese Web Cam Booth'. which use this hardware. accessed it without any problem. Later we installed Skype, for making calls and checked both input and'lQitput sounds. Skype is only available for'31'-bitOSes, so we had to forcefully install 32-bit pulseAudio sound driver. But things didn't work as per expectations. After doing some research we found it was the pulseAudio driver creating probt lems. Hence uninstalling the pulseAudio, and working with ALSA solved the problem.

Everything was perfect after this step, Wireless connectivity was good and we got the laptop connected to a WPA secured WiFi with ease. You also have the option for connecting to hidden wireless networks which is indeed going to find favor with a lot of people. This feature was missing in the previous versions of Fedora, where manually connecting to these hidden wireless devices was a pain. Now since terror is at its peak these days, you better make your organization's WiFi system hidden, which makes it hard for others to access.

Overall. this distro proves itself to be a good competitor to others and is definitely worth a try. We have provided Fedora 10 with this month's DVD. Just boot your machine with the DVD and install it. Who knows. with the economy in recession and IT budgets taking a hit. you might be tempted to give it a shot across desktops!