Fedora Core, Fedora Project, Fedora/GNU, Fedora BSD, Fedora Coupe deVille, Fedora ala mode

Havoc Pennington hp at redhat.com
Tue Sep 23 18:37:19 UTC 2003


On Mon, 2003-09-22 at 21:29, rg wrote:
> 
> JK, below, makes a good point.  If you call it something as seemingly 
> abstract on the end user's end as xxx project, the average joe looking 
> for a Linux distro is likely to pass right over it.  If said 'joe' does 
> not, and goes on to install it, he or she is most likely going to call 
> it Fedora Linux anyway.  This abstraction in regard to naming because of 
> the possibility of a future BSD based release is beyond the average user 
> - the distinction is one for developers.  Also, the naming of the 
> downloadable distro as Fedora Core, sounds more like a naming for the 
> kernel to the average joe; it does not sound like a full distro. Again, 
> this distinction seems more aimed at developers than end users.

The Fedora Project _is_ aimed more at developers, early adopters, and
other people that follow the open source world closely. It's not a home
desktop product, or a commercial product at all.

"Fedora Core" distinguishes the core from the Extras, Alternatives, etc.
- if you write "Fedora Linux" people might think that means the whole
pile of stuff hosted on the Fedora Project site so it's more confusing.
It looks like the installer for the next test release will say "Fedora
Core Test 1" or something like that and the splash screen says "Fedora
Core"

> This points to a continuous failing in the Linux community at large - 
> while it pays lip service to end users, it is still too developer 
> oriented. Call it geek-oriented if you like, but the average end user 
> who puts Linux on his or her desktop is not interested in technical 
> nuances and possible future BSD releases - the average user doesn't even 
> know or care what BSD is.

Fedora Core doesn't pay lip service to home desktop users. It explicitly
says on the site that developers and open source enthusiasts and so
forth are the target audience.

> Also, if you guys are masking the Red Hat heritage of the 'distro', how 
> is the average person supposed to even know that the logical follow up 
> to RH9 is Fedora Project?  

They aren't supposed to know that, because for many people it isn't
true. See http://fedora.redhat.com/about/rhel.html

Many people should be buying a commercial product. Don't make
assumptions about pricing or about retail, read the FAQ carefully on
that point.

Havoc





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