Its the time to upgrade…
Its been a while since I posted anything, in fact, come to think of it this is probably the worst case of writers block that I have had in a while. Can’t seem to get down to writing anything at all and add to that a slightly exaggerated work schedule and it only gets worse. Well, now I have a good reason. Yesterday, saw the release of Fedora 9 (Sulphur). Normally, I don’t write about a distro until I have actually installed or upgraded, but this time I have a question as well. Should I stick with Fedora and go to 9 or should I be looking at Ubuntu. Some friends have been after me for a while to switch to Ubuntu. I have actually given it a test drive several times but somehow, I just seem to come back to Fedora. Most of the servers I run and manage are all running Centos, so this brings me to the question:
What distro should I run on my laptop?
a) Ubuntu - supposedly slick and everything just works. Plus now has Long term support.
b) Fedora - Familiar is favourite. Cutting edge, most innovative and still my favourite.
c) Centos - A step back, but stable and longer life-cycle.
Last year when I was at FOSS.IN I met with Rahul Sundaram who gave me the time tested “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” when I asked if I should upgrade from Fedora 7 to Fedora 8. I normally, like to wait for a while for the dust to settle down before I upgrade my main machine (my laptop) after all my livelihood depends on this machine. I can’t afford to spend hours trying to fix it to keep things running. I need it to be reasonably stable and extremely reliable.
Right now, I don’t have a choice, I do need to move on. Come June 13th and Fedora 7 will die. At least officially, and then there will be no more updates to it. Running a rapidly changing distro does have that disadvantage, but of course the changes in the new ones are always something to look forward too.
My gut (and its a large gut) feel is to stick with Fedora, just curious to know what others who may be in a similar state are doing?
Would love to get some comments and feedback. Plan is to change over this weekend. Fedora 9 looks tempting and I will be installing it to play around with. Yes, I did manage the download, despite all the chokes.
Cheers…Kishore
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I don’t think you wanted my opinion as such but why don’t you try out both for real. Grab the latest live cd’s of Fedora and Ubuntu and spend sometime with it. From a administration viewpoint if you are working on CentOS, Fedora as upstream for that distro will be much closer and you get kind of a ongoing preview of future releases.
On the other hand, Ubuntu as a project tends to spend more time within the distribution itself compared to upstream projects which adds up a level of polish on the desktop especially with integration of non-free components like the proprietary drivers or patent encumbered codecs which Fedora can’t touch due to being US based in some cases and doesn’t want to in other cases having a strictly free software only philosophy.
I don’t think there is one answer for everyone though you will distribution fanboys will pitch in for their own all the time and I will gladly say that with my own biases.
Rahul, your opinion is important to me, some of the reasons you state are precisely why I use Fedora. My first choice would still be Fedora, but I do feel I should at least consider the others.
Thanks.
Cheers…Kishore
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Without getting into the Fedora vs. Ubuntu aspect, one reason for you to upgrade to Sulphur might be the new X/OpenOffice.org and possibly lower boot-up times.
Personally, I am sticking to Fedora 8 on my desktop since my parents and sisters have started using it and I don’t want to rock the boat so soon.
Debarshi, thanks. More votes for Fedora 9 is not a problem
My issue is I will have to move though I am extremely happy with Fedora 7 right now.
Cheers…Kishore
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I use Ubuntu and I am happy. I agree with dont upgrade if it not broken/needed theory.
I am using Ubuntu and love it.
IMHO, geeks (experts) like you should be trying out new flavours every now and then as this has following benefits :
a. it will stimulate your ‘geeky’ intellect
b. newbies (like me) also benefit as you would start to fix things / do wonderful things in the new distro
So, my suggestion : UPGRADE (even change the distro in this process)
Hi! Aseem,
Thanks. I actually went ahead with Fedora 9, I should probably blog about it. But I try new distros every now and then, I just don’t use it as my main and only machine. Cause that I’d prefer to be stable and familiar.
Cheers…Kishore
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How has the after effects of the upgrade been?
I am interested to hear more about that.
If you are on Fedora for a long time and doing your professional work on Centos most of the time, the logical path is Fedora only and not Ubuntu.
Thats what you have chosen already
Do write about your experiences with Ubuntu and your decision making process. It will help others who are in similar situation.
Regards,