Fedora vs. Ubuntu

[Uno Engborg]

Ian Malone wrote:

> On 21/09/06, Kwan Lowe <kwan at digitalhermit.com> wrote:
>
>> Arthur Pemberton wrote:
>> > I have a computer science class mate who is interested in switching to
>> > Linux, starting small with installing it and dual booting. He fits the
>> > type that should be able to switch easiy: non-hardcore gamer, non
>> > hardcore multimedia.
>>
>> I'd definitely recommend Fedora Core for computer science students. 
>> It has a
>> boatload of development packages (as do the others, but in FC they 
>> are extremely
>> easy to install). Kdevelop and Eclipse are available, as are all the 
>> standard tools.
>>
>> In addition, if you're in CS then you likely have a raft of 
>> mathematics classes to
>
> <snip>
>
>> packages are available for Ubuntu, but not in the default Synaptic 
>> "Mathematics"
>> section (as of Ubuntu 6.0.6).
>>
>> To be clear, I'm impressed by Ubuntu. It's extremely easy to install 
>> and use for the
>> normal stuff (Email, web, multimedia, wireless).  Fedora has a 
>> slightly steeper
>> learning curve, but it pays off when you need to do more elaborate 
>> things.  As is
>> true for any distro, you can make Ubuntu more Fedora-like and vice 
>> versa; it's just
>> a matter of the default installation choices.
>>
>
> My 2p, I'd agree with the above.  Ubunutu's major advantage (at least FC5
> vs Dapper, which is maybe a little unfair), is simpler hardware 
> support out
> of the box; eg. my dad's rt2500 based wireless card works in Ubuntu,
> but the module has to be manually compiled and installed in FC.
> Doing stuff which isn't supported is maybe slightly more difficult in 
> Ubuntu
> (eg. I can get WPA working for this card in FC, but not in Ubuntu).
> It's easier to get Ubuntu working on your machine than FC, it's harder
> to mess about with it.  So the answer is obviously it depends what they
> want it for.

I have similar experiences. E.g. VMware Server installs easily on FC5 but
not so on Ubuntu. If we compare using Xen on FC5 and Ubuntu it
gets even clearer.  In FC5 Xen was up and running after just a hour or so,
on Ubuntu I never managed to figrue out how make it work, even though there
was plenty of documentation at the Ubuntu site.

I would recommed Ubuntu if you are going to lure somebody into using Linux
It looks very polished and professional, but if he is going to use it 
for real work
use Fedora. Ubuntu is still valuable as a live cd when you need to boot 
into linux
occcationally perhaps to do an ssh to your home server.

>
> I've noticed the Gnome based distros are getting more alike.
> This isn't always a great thing; eg. the disc manager in Ubuntu
> really doesn't want to mount FAT or NTFS as anything other
> than root-owned read-only.  A slight problem in a live disc.

I would say the likeness is a good thing, at least if it comes from 
using the same
upstream gnome source. This means that bugs can be fixed in one
place to the benefit of all.


Regards
Uno Engborg