Hats Off For Fedora 10!

So in the previous entry we got to know about Fedora 9 and the alluring features it comes with. So by now, you would probably be dying to get Fedora 9 and chuck Windows into the recycling bin. But, wait! Fedora 10 is in the making and some of the interesting features that the Fedora development team is working on is really hair-raising. In short, Fedora's distribution of Linux is becoming more and more like Windows 2020. Ok enough of schmoozing Fedora 10. I'll get to the point and not bore you too much.

Initially on Fedora 9:

Webcam: Hey OS! My user wants to use me!
Fedora9 : What? Oh wait...I have the support files somewhere here...
Webcam : I am waiting.....
Fedora9 : I had it here only! Oh! Got it!
Narrator : So Fedora9 tries to connect with Webcam with the support files.
Narrator : After some time...
Webcam : I'm still waiting!
Fedora9 : Webcam, I am so sorry...
Webcam : Nooooo!
Fedora9 : All the drivers are not in the mainline kernel. I tried so hard but...
Webcam : No! It can't be!
Fedora9 : It's not totally my fault! You have camspecific pixelformats and my applications don't support that!
Webcam : What do you mean?
Fedora9 : I mean, your pixelformats are compressed and my web camera applications cannot support that!
Webcam : Oh bother!
Fedora9 : Tell you what! Why don't you try asking my elder brother?
Webcam : Elder brother who? You have an elder brother?
Fedora9 : Yeah! I sure do! Fedora10
Webcam : Should have guessed that!

So, initially on Fedora 9, there was'nt enough support for web cameras to function mainly because the required drivers for the web camera to function was not in the mainline kernel. In Fedora 10, that problem is to be solved. It has been proposed by the Fedora 10 team that the web cameras applications would function better and with more reliability. So, say goodbyes to your bizarre hang-ups when you try to connect your webcam in Fedora. Thanks to Hans de Goede, a true Fedora Fan! You can check out the progress of this feature at:
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Features/BetterWebcamSupport

Next up on the menu is enhanced bluetooth capabilities! One thing that everyone loves - being wireless. Ever since Fedora Core 1 was started, its bluetooth has been undergoing massive enhancements to perform better and to suit the wireless world that Linux users are in today. It is highly demanded that an OS should have good bluetooth functionality inorder to be efficient and useful. In Fedora 10, a list of bluetooth functions have been improved from Fedora 9:

1) Sending files to a mobile phone or a Palmtop
2) Receiving files from remote bluetooth devices (they can your mobile phone, wireless keyboard, mouse or printer)
3) Browsing files on remote device
4) Sharing local printer over bluetooth (this is going to be particularly useful for SoC Linux users)
5) Remote control functionality (this allows you to turn your bluetooth into a remote control to operate certain electronics that allows you to access them through bluetooth)
6) GPS! (car users and road-trip vacationers, rejoice!)
7) Networking over bluetooth

So, all these functionalities were already present in Fedora 9 but in Fedora 10, they would be better stabilized and tweaked to high performance. Of course! They are some new proposed functions of bluetooth in Fedora 10 like the GPS and remote control access.

Celebrate all tablet users! Because Linux from Fedora 10 is going to be more 'tablet-friendly'. The type of tablet users ranger from students to designers to even building architects. With the group growing, it would only be profitable that Fedora has a good support system for tablet usage. It has been proposed that this improvement to Linux would make tablet usage more smooth on Fedora 10. So pick up your digital pencils and sharpen up for Fedora 10 with tablet support. By the way, the team calls it 'TabletsJustWork' for the developmental process of this feature.

A few more praise-worthy developments for Fedora 10 would be fingerprint registering from fingerprint readers, good Haskell support with higher number of quality libraries and tools and also the availabilty of openJDK in your Fedora distro of Linux. Furthermore, in Fedora 10, you will get something new called the DeviceKit which enumerates devices and triggers signals to tell you when the device is plugged or plugged out from the drive and it comes with the Gnome Disk Utility that manages your devices plugged into the system.

That concludes the Fedora and Red Hat saga for this blog. But Red Hat is not the only Linux distribution community around and Fedora is not the only distribution available. There are many out there like I mentioned in previous blog entries. In coming entries, we will look at SUSE and openSUSE.

And don't think I will be ending this blog in a 'mundanity' since there are no pictures of cute bill gates or videos flaunting about Linux. But still, I want you to take a look at the videos below on the OLPC (if you've forgotten what that means, it's the one-laptop-per-child scheme by Red Hat). Bon Apetite!