Can't recommend Fedora 31 update

The update from Fedora 30 to Fedora 31 was a disaster. First, the update manager has downloaded 4GB of data from the Internet without telling the progress or the reason why so much packages are needed. Secondly, after the installation the Lyx software was broken.

In the first trial, Lyx had problems with background flickering. A first fix to the problem has introduced a new problem which is the malfunction of copy&paste. Right now, the Lyx software isn’t working at all. So the advice is, that if somebody is using Fedora 30 the better idea is to wait until Fedora 32 is published and not update to early.

The only advantage of the update was, that the home folder wasn’t removed. That means, all the data are available. But it seems, that the maintainer are not sure if this is working in every case. So they are recommending more than 3 times to backup all the data. Perhaps with the reason, that in the past users have lost their home folder?

X11 works

The problems with the Lyx software can be fixed by switching back from Wayland to the X11 environment. This can be activated in the login menu. The settings button allows the user to decide between Gnome under wayland, gnome classic under X11 and gnome under x11. If he selects the X11 version, Lyx will run normal. That means, the graphics are display normal and the copy&paste function is working. It seems, that the problem is located within the wayland display server.

Is Ubuntu Desktop obsolete?

Since a while some blogs have identified Ubuntu Linux as a failed experiment in creating a Linux distribution. They describe a technical backward oriented ecosystem which is no longer fulfill the needs of programmers. Usually the prefered Linux distribution of choice is either Arch Linux or Fedora which are both located near to the upstream. But is this description of Ubuntu Linux right?

No, it's distorting the reality. The reality can be measured in the number of newly published books and the number of newly published academic papers. If we enter the term “Ubuntu Linux” into Google Scholar we will see, that the distribution is healthy and have become lots of new users in the last two years. Most of them are switching from Windows 10 to Ubuntu because they get a powerful shell and lots of programming language without any costs. In contrast, the number of books about Fedora and Arch Linux is lower than ever.

It's correct that the iso image itself, which is the binary file compiled for the x86 architecture, can be switched easily from Ubuntu to Fedora. That means, instead of downloading Ubuntu19.04.iso the enduser can use the wget tool for retrieving the fedora30.iso file. The Fedora one has more features, has the better package manager and gets security updates more quickly. But this is only a detail issue. The Ubuntu iso file works reasonable well and if somebody is a first time Linux user, it's the prefered choice. Because all the documentation were written for Ubuntu but not for Fedora Linux. The more interesting aspect of a Linux operating system isn't the binary file, but the community. And here is Ubuntu the leading platform. Most weblogs in the internet, the askubuntu project and the media coverage as well is focused on Ubuntu Linux. It's the mainstream Open Source operating system and Fedora is compared to Ubuntu a smaller project.

To understand this paradox it's important to introduce the term upstream. Upstream is the place in which the software is created. Which is the gnome sourcecode, the kernel drivers, the systemd scripts and the Libreoffice suite. The upstream is close to Fedora and Red Hat. They are providing the programmers, the servers and they make also the technical decisions about the future. For example, the Gnome3 project which has changed the look and feel of desktop Linux was started by Red Hat, not by Ubuntu. That means, Ubuntu is far away from the upstream, it's located near the enduser. The typical user of askubuntu is mainstream user, who has installed Ubuntu on his computer as a secondary operating system for testing out the steam client and to become familiar with programming. That means, most Ubuntu users are beginner programmers, they come with a little or no background in programming.

Exactly this is the reason why Ubuntu is the leading distribution. Because such users are the future. Most people in the world, have little or no programming skills. They are equal to the majority which is in pure numbers more than a billion users. The question is not how to convince 10 new users to try out Fedora and program an advanced application, but the task is to motivate 100k people to install Ubuntu and write a hello world script in Python. This will bring the Open Source movement forward, and this is what Ubuntu can do at it's best.

Linux depends on millions of Ubuntu users, how have only little programming skills. They are the programmers from tomorrow and they will make the decision which operating system they are using at work and in their freetime. If somebody boycotts the Ubuntu ecosystem he is against Linux overall. He doesn't want that Linux will become a success at the desktop.

Fedora 30 is the best operating system ever!

The new Fedora 30 operating system runs remarkable stable. For non-linux users i'd like to give a short overview what's inside the iso-file which can be downloaded from the project website. An xwayland server displays the Gnome desktop to the screen. If somebody doesn't like Gnome very much he can switch back to any other GUI for example fltk, E17 or LXDE. But suppose, the normal Gnome environment is preferred, then the user has in well sorted settings menu to change the WLAN configuration, change the colors, add a printer and even adapt the prefered non-english language.

So nice so good, the Fedora OS comes with a preinstalled LibreOffice suit which runs great and additionally the user the choice to install any database, texteditor, programming language or computer game he likes. The only condition is, that the software was published with a Gnu public license and is available in the repository. For many advanced software this is the case. Some examples are Lyx, LMMS, pitivi, archive managers, backup tools, Java, C++ compiler, python libraries and all sorts of network tools. By far, Linux is the most advanced operating system ever invented and it comes with the most developed software tools. It has surpassed the UNIX commercial operating systems like Solaris, has beaten the IBM operating systems like OS/2, and can compete easily with Mac OS X and Windows 10.

The only problem I've found is, that is the overall system is absolutely boring. After pressing the power button the login menu is there. Because of the daily system updates, the system gets all the patches and improved software automatically so the chance is high, that the same operating system will work in 1 years, in 2 years and even in 5 years from today. In around 1 years, the next version which is v31 gets releases, but updating the system to the next step is also not a problem. The user has to press a button, wait a bit and then he gets the new system. I don't think, that the look and feel can become greater in the future, the only limit which is visible is the underlying hardware. If the computer has only a resolution of 1368x768 even Fedora can display more pixels.

All in all i can say congratulations to Red Hat and to the entire Open Source movement. The systems runs great, no problems found.

Fedora 30 update successful

Today, I've migrated to Fedora 30. In contrast to a common misconception the borg-backup tool is working great, all the data from the USB stick have been restored into the home folder. What is new in Fedora 30 is, that no longer a root user is added in the install procedure. Instead only a normal user is created which can use the "sudo" command to gain more priviligues.

It is important to know, that after the first login, the Fedora system will download a lot of information in the background. This is around 1 GB in total. The best way is to wait until the task is done and doing other things in the meantime. The good news is, that in the default software repository programs like Google chrome can be installed easily. In previous FEdora version, the user had to add manually a repository, this is no longer nessarcy.

From the look and feel there is no improvement to previous versions. The announced faster login or the lower memory consumption is not there. The gnome desktop will take around 1.5 GB as default for rendering exact one window. The good news is, that all the programs are running smoothly. The webbrowser shows the Internet, the texteditor allows to read files and the filemanager can open USB media.

The overall look and feel is very similar to Mac OS X and Windows 10. The average user gets an easy to use operating system which he doesn't understand. If the user is interested in learning about computing itself, the better OS is Eulex Forth, http://forth-ev.de/wiki/events:ft2019:start which takes only 50kb of RAM.

Bug: Fedora 28 upgrade didn't work

The new Fedora 28 operating system works not very good. The update itself was installed. But it took many hours to download the 3 GB traffic from the internet. The better idea is called delta-upgrades and is used in the Android environment, but it seems that Red Hat don't like the idea very much. Another problem is, that after the update was installed the Chrome browser uses too much cpu-time. Usually the program needs 100% of the processing power and forces the fan to power up. The next problem is the outdated version of Jabref from the Fedora repository. It makes troubles with updates, and the installed version is outdated by 3 years or so.

The next (minor) problem is, that the Lyx document processor is also not amused by the new Fedora 28, because it is no longer possible to change the size of the outline window left on the screen. I'm sure, there are many other problems available for example with the Java runtime environment, but I'm not very pleasant to mention all the details. To summarize the bugreport a bit: Fedora 28 is not the greatest iteration, there is room for improvement.