What are the main differences between Fedora and Ubuntu? [Please keep it civil!]

[cb951303]

Well usually a repo contain many non-free software you need, it is not like you need a different repo for every piece of software you want to install.

nope, what I meant was, you have to choose the packages one by one. in ubuntu you just install ubuntu-restricted-extras and that's all

[aaaantoine]

I tried out Fedora 10 as a LiveUSB stick yesterday. There are quite a few differences.

- Fedora uses RPM packaging, Ubuntu uses DEB packaging.
- The default color schemes, obviously. This is purely subjective.
- There are a great number of subtle differences in the Gnome environment between Fedora and Ubuntu. Fedora breaks its Preferences menu into sub menus while Ubuntu does not. Fedora has four workspaces by default, while Ubuntu has two. In Fedora, Nautilus has no toolbars, while Ubuntu offers toolbars for navigation.
- Ubuntu enables Compiz by default. Either Fedora doesn't, or the open source ATI drivers are a fickle mistress.
- Speaking of such drivers, Ubuntu offers the Restricted Drivers manager ("System->Administration->Hardware Drivers" as of 8.10), which includes such convenient tools as a 1-click install for the Broadcom BCM43xx firmware. Fedora appears to not offer such a component.
- Fedora 10 has Kernel-based modesetting, which is an important new feature for graphics. Unfortunately, KMS isn't supported in the ATI drivers yet, so I cannot attest to its awesomeness other than what I've heard.
- Ubuntu uses sudo by default. The Fedora/non-sudo equivalent is to type "su -c 'insert command here'", but this uses a central root password.
- For some reason, Fedora doesn't have wget installed by default, at least not in the Live environment.

That's all I've noticed so far.

[blazercist]

nope, what I meant was, you have to choose the packages one by one. in ubuntu you just install ubuntu-restricted-extras and that's all

Ok, thats not correct the way you've said it... ubuntu-restricted-extras is a metapackage for several other packages which is just a collection of codecs which decode restricted formats.

Fedora also has metapackages which contain a number of actual packages, what Fedora does not have is ANY restricted format codecs in its official repositories. But those codecs are available from third party repos.

I don't use Fedora, I don't like RPM.

[Swarms]

...Not needed.

I am not siding with anybody here, but poop=brown, so he is not exactly lying?

[cb951303]

Ok, thats not correct the way you've said it... ubuntu-restricted-extras is a metapackage for several other packages which is just a collection of codecs which decode restricted formats.

Fedora also has metapackages which contain a number of actual packages, what Fedora does not have is ANY restricted format codecs in its official repositories. But those codecs are available from third party repos.

I don't use Fedora, I don't like RPM, but don't spread the wrong info.

I know that ubuntu-restricted-extras is a meta package, and I already told that fedora doesn't include restricted codec formats and all... And I surely didn't spread any wrong information. I recommend you to read my first post with the second one. that should clear what you have in mind

[igknighted]

When you open a thread at ubuntuforums, you will get what you want or at least 10 replies in a day.When you open it at fedora community it may take weeks.You REALLY miss that

Also, fedora's artwork is cool and kde team rocks

Yes, but all 10 of those ubuntuforums posts will be asking you for the same config file, often not even a relevant one. The fedoraforums post will almost certainly be helpful in answering your question.

I think the biggest difference is in philosophy. Fedora is a showcase for the latest and greatest free software available (free as in open source). This means you usually see new technology in fedora a release cycle before othe distros. Also you tend to get a little more instability that comes with living on the bleeding edge (especially with upgrading app versions mid-release), and the focus on free software only means that it isn't as easy to use non-free stuff (fedora itself wont touch anything non-free or legally iffy software... you need RPMFusion for that).

Ubuntu is about providing a linux-based windows replacement (see bug #1). This means older, more stable software. It means that there is a lot of effort put forth to enable non-free software and drivers. It also tends to have a lot services loaded by default making the system more "bloated" if you will, and slower to boot.

EDIT: The difference between YUM/Packagekit and Apt/Synaptic is trivial. The actual words you type to launch the command and the extension at the end of the files are really the only differences to the end user.

[jseiser]

I really hate that package management system. apt (debian/ubuntu) is far more flexible. I heard other good things about PacMan too.

I am not defending rpm, because it has its problems. but apt is just as bad. pacman is the best I have used so far. that and ports systems.

$ sudo apt-get autoremove --purge cpufrequtils libcpufreq0
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
The following packages will be REMOVED:
  cpufrequtils* libcpufreq0* xfce4-cpufreq-plugin* xfce4-goodies*
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 4 to remove and 163 not upgraded.
After this operation, 266kB disk space will be freed.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]? y
(Reading database ... 67313 files and directories currently installed.)
Removing cpufrequtils ...
dpkg (subprocess): unable to execute pre-removal script: Permission denied
dpkg: error processing cpufrequtils (--purge):
 subprocess pre-removal script returned error exit status 2
dpkg (subprocess): unable to execute post-installation script: Permission denied
dpkg: error while cleaning up:
 subprocess post-installation script returned error exit status 2
Removing xfce4-goodies ...
Removing xfce4-cpufreq-plugin ...
Removing libcpufreq0 ...
dpkg (subprocess): unable to execute post-removal script: Permission denied
dpkg: error processing libcpufreq0 (--purge):
 subprocess post-removal script returned error exit status 2
Errors were encountered while processing:
 cpufrequtils
 libcpufreq0
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1) 
$ sudo apt-get -f install cpufrequtils libcpufreq0
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
cpufrequtils is already the newest version.
libcpufreq0 is already the newest version.
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 163 not upgraded.
2 not fully installed or removed.
Need to get 12.4kB of archives.
After this operation, 0B of additional disk space will be used.
Get:1 http://ftp.us.debian.org sid/main libcpufreq0 004-2 [12.4kB]
Fetched 12.4kB in 0s (31.5kB/s)
Selecting previously deselected package libcpufreq0.
(Reading database ... 67297 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to replace libcpufreq0 004-2 (using .../libcpufreq0_004-2_i386.deb) ...
Unpacking replacement libcpufreq0 ...
dpkg (subprocess): unable to execute old post-removal script: Permission denied
dpkg: warning - old post-removal script returned error exit status 2
dpkg - trying script from the new package instead ...
dpkg (subprocess): unable to execute new post-removal script: Permission denied
dpkg: error processing /var/cache/apt/archives/libcpufreq0_004-2_i386.deb (--unpack):
 subprocess new post-removal script returned error exit status 2
dpkg (subprocess): unable to execute new post-removal script: Permission denied
dpkg: error while cleaning up:
 subprocess post-removal script returned error exit status 2
Errors were encountered while processing:
 /var/cache/apt/archives/libcpufreq0_004-2_i386.deb
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

^-- just a for instance

[igknighted]

I am not defending rpm, because it has its problems. but apt is just as bad. pacman is the best I have used so far. that and ports systems.

$ sudo apt-get autoremove --purge cpufrequtils libcpufreq0
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
The following packages will be REMOVED:
  cpufrequtils* libcpufreq0* xfce4-cpufreq-plugin* xfce4-goodies*
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 4 to remove and 163 not upgraded.
After this operation, 266kB disk space will be freed.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]? y
(Reading database ... 67313 files and directories currently installed.)
Removing cpufrequtils ...
dpkg (subprocess): unable to execute pre-removal script: Permission denied
dpkg: error processing cpufrequtils (--purge):
 subprocess pre-removal script returned error exit status 2
dpkg (subprocess): unable to execute post-installation script: Permission denied
dpkg: error while cleaning up:
 subprocess post-installation script returned error exit status 2
Removing xfce4-goodies ...
Removing xfce4-cpufreq-plugin ...
Removing libcpufreq0 ...
dpkg (subprocess): unable to execute post-removal script: Permission denied
dpkg: error processing libcpufreq0 (--purge):
 subprocess post-removal script returned error exit status 2
Errors were encountered while processing:
 cpufrequtils
 libcpufreq0
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1) 
$ sudo apt-get -f install cpufrequtils libcpufreq0
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
cpufrequtils is already the newest version.
libcpufreq0 is already the newest version.
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 163 not upgraded.
2 not fully installed or removed.
Need to get 12.4kB of archives.
After this operation, 0B of additional disk space will be used.
Get:1 http://ftp.us.debian.org sid/main libcpufreq0 004-2 [12.4kB]
Fetched 12.4kB in 0s (31.5kB/s)
Selecting previously deselected package libcpufreq0.
(Reading database ... 67297 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to replace libcpufreq0 004-2 (using .../libcpufreq0_004-2_i386.deb) ...
Unpacking replacement libcpufreq0 ...
dpkg (subprocess): unable to execute old post-removal script: Permission denied
dpkg: warning - old post-removal script returned error exit status 2
dpkg - trying script from the new package instead ...
dpkg (subprocess): unable to execute new post-removal script: Permission denied
dpkg: error processing /var/cache/apt/archives/libcpufreq0_004-2_i386.deb (--unpack):
 subprocess new post-removal script returned error exit status 2
dpkg (subprocess): unable to execute new post-removal script: Permission denied
dpkg: error while cleaning up:
 subprocess post-removal script returned error exit status 2
Errors were encountered while processing:
 /var/cache/apt/archives/libcpufreq0_004-2_i386.deb
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

^-- just a for instance

You can't compare rpm and apt... they don't do the same thing. It's apples and oranges. In fedora's case, yum is the equivalent to apt. Other rpm-based distro's have their own (zypper for suse, urpmi for mandriva).

Actually, for all the criticism that suse takes for package management, as far as resolving dependencies it is probably the best out there of all the mainstream distros (note: i do not consider arch a mainstream distro)

[Simian Man]

I actually prefer using yum to manage my system than apt for several reasons:

• Searching the repositories with 'yum search' does not need root privelages whereas 'apt-cache search' does
• 'yum search' and 'yum install' are shorter than 'apt-cache search' and 'apt-get install'
• The output from yum is easier to read

These don't matter when you use the GUI frontend, but I rarely do. People who bash rpm without reason are usually just repeating what they heard from other people who were themselves spreading FUD.

Also regarding the community, the experienced user to clueless newbie ratio is significantly higher in the Fedora community.

[CrucifiedEgo]

I actually prefer using yum to manage my system than apt for several reasons:

• Searching the repositories with 'yum search' does not need root privelages whereas 'apt-cache search' does
• 'yum search' and 'yum install' are shorter than 'apt-cache search' and 'apt-get install'
• The output from yum is easier to read

These don't matter when you use the GUI frontend, but I rarely do. People who bash rpm without reason are usually just repeating what they heard from other people who were themselves spreading FUD.

Also regarding the community, the experienced user to clueless newbie ratio is significantly higher in the Fedora community.

Sorry, but a few corrections:
1: aptitude search does not require root/sudo
2: I use bash aliases personally. psearch='yum search'='aptitude search ditto install/update/remove/upgrade
3: Indeed.

Thanks to those that pointed out that rpm==dpkg, not apt. yum is perfectly acceptable (though for some reason it caused me nothing but trouble on centos4 boxes.)

Also, to clarify another point, the windows-explorer like interface can be enabled in nautilus by selecting 'open all in browser windows' in the preferences dialog. The default settings are still different of course (and relevant to this post).