The latest version of Red Hat’s community-developed operating system, Fedora Core 4 (FC4), has been released by the Fedora Project. Fedora Core 4 comes packed with GNOME 2.10, KDE 3.4, Firefox 1.0.4, OpenOffice.org 2.0 (1.9.104), X.org 6.8.2 and a 2.6.11-based kernel. FC4 adds to this impressive lineup, by including the GNU GCC 4.0 compiler suite, built-in OS virtualization with Xen, GFS clustering file system, PowerPC (ppc/ppc64) architecture support and Fedora Extras. As with previous releases of Fedora Core, this latest version aims to deliver stability, performance and security along with a great mix of the latest open source technologies. So let’s take a look at what’s good and what’s not in Fedora Core 4.

Fedora Core 4 graphical boot

The installation package is available on four CDs or a single DVD. Ever since Fedora Core 1, the stability of the Anaconda installer has improved with each release. No surprises this time either. A full installation (6.9GB) from the single DVD took approximately 1 hour 20 minutes on a generic PC with an AMD Athlon 1.1Ghz processor, 1.5GB memory and a 60GB hard drive. FC4 correctly detected the Linksys 802.11b PCI card too.

The most noticeable improvement when you boot-up FC4 is how much faster the process is. It took only 55 seconds to get from the GRUB boot menu to the graphical login screen, compared to a minute 40 seconds in Fedora Core 3. GNOME’s startup time was a mere 16 seconds, down from 27 seconds in FC3. I found most applications to be more responsive, startup times for OpenOffice.org, Firefox and Thunderbird have improved quite a bit.

Gnome desktop startup

GNOME 2.10 users will notice the new menu structure in the top panel. Previous GNOME releases used two top-level menus, Applications, and Actions. The new menu structure incorporates three top-level menus, Applications, Places and Desktop. Applications lists all the GNOME applications along with Run Application, which lets you type in the exact the command to run. Places provides links to your home folder, the desktop, file chooser bookmarks, mounted removable devices, networked servers, the recently used files, and file search. The Desktop links the Preferences submenu (to configure desktop settings), the System Settings submenu (to configure system resources), entries for locking the screen, logging off, and accessing the Help documentation.

The new default GNOME ClearLooks theme is visually appealing and all widgets are well defined. However, the default theme in Firefox could be better. Some of the icons (e.g., New window, new tab) are unclear, especially without text labels below. This was easily resolved by installing the “Qute” theme from the Firefox themes website.

Gnome ClearLooks theme

Multimedia applications Totem (video player) and Sound-Juicer (CD ripper) are now officially part of the GNOME desktop. Due to licensing issues, MP3 support is missing from FC4. Hopefully this will be resolved as the newly announced Fedora Foundation assumes development of future Fedora Core releases. I added MP3 support by installing the “gstreamer-plugins-mp3″ package from the Livna.org RPM repository. The trusty XMMS audio player is now available via Fedora Extras. Rhythmbox is the preferred audio player. HelixPlayer could not play RealAudio files out-of-the-box, so I installed RealPlayer 10 instead which worked fine. Note that you’ll need to have the GCC 3.2 compatibility libraries installed, as RealPlayer was compiled with GCC 3.2.

Evince is a simple document viewer that comes with GNOME, replacing gpdf. Currently, Evince only reads PDF and Postscript documents. However, support for other document formats may be added in the future as plugins are developed.

OpenOffice 2.0 startup

OpenOffice.org 2.0 (beta version 1.9.104) makes its debut in FC4. This new version uses the new OASIS OpenDocument XML standard by default. Offering greater flexibility to users, the OpenDocument format is vendor neutral, and is also supported by KOffice. Note that OpenOffice.org 1.1.x will support this format starting with 1.1.5, which has not yet been released.

Another area of improvement is OpenOffice.org’s interoperability with Microsoft Office. Numerous MS Office document features now translate directly into OpenOffice.org documents. I was able open older versions of Word and Excel files without any problems. For greater compatibility with Excel, Calc spreadsheets now support a maximum of 65536 rows.

The word count feature is now able to calculate the number of words in a selected block of text, not just the entire document.

OpenOffice.org 2.0 adds a new database component, Base, which enables you to use database data within OpenOffice.org. You can create and modify tables, forms, queries, and reports, using the built-in Java-based HSQL database engine or external databases (e.g., ADO, Microsoft Access, MySQL) via standard ODBC/JDBC drivers. Base also incorporates wizards to assist newbies with otherwise complex tasks like constructing SQL queries.

In the past, package management has been one of the weaknesses in Fedora Core. Unfortunately, there is little improvement in FC4. Both up2date and system-config-packages leave you using the yum command-line tool for most tasks. To ease package management, two excellent packages worth installing are Synaptic and Yum Extender (yumex), a graphical front-end for yum.

In its ongoing effort to provide a high quality, up-to-date development environment, the Fedora Project ships FC4 with the GNU GCC 4.0 compiler, Eclipse IDE (compiled with GCJ), PHP 5.0.4, Perl 5.8.6, mod_perl 2.0, and many components of the Apache Java project.

Fedora Core 4 introduces operating system virtualization, based on Xen 2.0. Originally developed at the University of Cambridge Computer Laboratory as part of the XenoServers project, Xen 2.0 features enhanced hardware and operating system support, greater configuration flexibility, and usability. Keep an eye on Xen, as it promises to be the open source virtualization environment for everything from cluster computing to kernel development.

Conclusion

Every Fedora Core release outshines the previous one, Fedora Core 4 maintains this pattern with an excellent collection of the latest open source packages and improved performance. Two areas that still need some work are out-of-the-box sound mixing and package management.

My hope is that future releases of Fedora Core will attract even greater community participation, especially as the Fedora Foundation takes shape.

From every angle — whether anticipating the future, surveying the wide range of new technologies, or delving deep into implementation — open source software (OSS) is harnessing the prime drivers of Information Technology (IT).

The Long View

Recent research from Harvard Business School argues that, given the right mix of conditions, OSS can ultimately displace traditional software like Microsoft Windows. But “world domination” is not as simple as one might think. Several factors need to be in place for OSS to succeed. Surprisingly, it’s not enough to be free or even better than traditional software.

Given Microsoft’s overwhelming numerical advantage on the desktop today, no degree of “better” or “free” alone will position OSS to kill off Windows. What’s needed is the additional backing of significant strategic partners in the software ecosystem. Already many governments and multinational vendors are stepping up to fulfill this role by increasing their backing of OSS. Consequently, according to the Harvard researchers, Microsoft’s best survival tactic against such a threat may be to sharpen its psychological warfare of Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt (FUD).

The Wide View

Processing and communicating information across heterogeneous computing environments requires an agreement on standards. Early on, standards were primarily industry driven. Then, as the need for interoperability became more complex, a process of collaborative standards development, or open standards, emerged. With the blossoming of the Internet, open standards became the dominant paradigm for industry, government and consumers to work together.

“An alarming din of FUD will roar up against open source adoption.”

Open source fits perfectly into this collaborative standards development process. For example, producing an open source implementation of a standard like LDAP helps confirm the workability of a complex technology. Open source also helps technology stakeholders collaborate on the features and operational behavior intended by a standard — ultimately forming a reference implementation. Fundamentally, the same dynamic drives both open source software development as well as collaborative standards development.

The Deep View

As equal participants, OSS guarantees collaborators comprehensive access and control. Unfettered control is required by many governments as well as by specific industries like embedded device manufacturers. For example, control of every detail of implementation allows governments to verify security unequivocally. In a different corner of the ecosystem, complete and royalty-free control allows manufacturers of appliances and embedded devices to shave their prices to the thinnest of margins needed to compete in global markets.

No other software development and deployment paradigm allows this depth of access and control. What’s more, open access and control means that open source is self-escrowing. OSS can not be forced out-of-date as long as any user wants to maintain it, even to the point of forking the project if necessary.

Desperate and Deliberate Counter Moves

From each point of view, the imperatives for OSS are clear. In the long view, the imperatives include better, more cost-effective software and… a little help from strategic partners. In the wide view, advantages include the ability of OSS to address heterogeneous computing environments together with an unparalleled capacity to express the open standards necessary for evolving communications and computing technologies. In the deep view, OSS empowers access and control of every detail and nuance of technology and its expression in form of software.

But watch out for desperate counter moves by proprietary vendors. As legacy vendors seek to checkmate OSS using the latest business school advice or their own counsel, an alarming din is likely to roar up aimed at scaring potential open source adopters, at dividing the open source community, and at defeating government policy mandating openness, transparency and competition. In short, prepare for the coming of an unprecedented propaganda war of FUD.

The open source community is abuzz with a new way to characterize the progress that open source software is making. Tom Friedman, a Pulitzer Prize winning columnist at the New York Times, is a leading voice of an analysis which says that the traditional barriers preventing collaboration in various areas of technology are coming down. As he puts it “It’s a Flat World, After All”.

Barriers and Problems

The main problem with this new optimism is that it’s too easy, too simplistic. In reality, while some barriers are crumbling and many efficient, intelligent, and even cheap ways of doing things are coming on the scene, just as many new barriers are cropping up. From a distance, all worlds look flat. It’s only when you get close enough to see the details that you can make out the contours. The new digital information world appears flat until you run over the new potholes.

“From a distance all worlds look flat.”

Unfortunately, many of the underlying barriers and problems reinvent themselves in the new digital era. The virtual worlds of the Web and open source software are not enough to change the shape of the real world where poverty and exclusion are the ground realities. In the absence of will to eradicate poverty and disenfranchisement in the real world, the virtual worlds may never have enough power to materially improve the lives of people. Worse still, in many parts of the world, both the digital gap as well as the material gap are painfully widening. Even where the digital gap can be narrowed, the coming digital paradise looks a little tarnished when you see the kinds of things that it is actually used for, like graphic violence and spam.

Other technologies from earlier eras have also tried to flatten the world. As the creator of the original “global village”, radio, and then television, teaches us that mass communications ultimately becomes engaged in little more than entertainment. Just as often, it serves equally as a voice of propaganda for the political and cultural majority. Is this radio and TV world a flat world or a dumb world, or just another world with its own challenges and problems? Similarly, is the Internet a flat world? Perhaps it’s instead a world of chaos or maybe it is just another world with challenges and problems?

Open source - a new force to flatten the world

As a new force to flatten the world, open source software is a complex mesh of industry and community interests. It’s also replete with its own challenges and problems. Perhaps the greatest challenge is that meaningful collaboration is often limited to the club of wealthiest participants. The inclusiveness of the open source community represents an ideal which can flatten the barriers to entry and spread the benefits of participation in the world-wide IT revolution. But just being invited to the party, does not convey an ability to fully participate across the digital divide. The goal must be to enable an adequate standard of participation. Unfortunately, the barriers to participation inevitably boil down to resource as well as language constraints.

So to really flatten the world, using the open source method as a means as well as an end, the people responsible for much of today’s progress must not just drink from the golden goblets of benefits but also commit resources and effort in action to those who cannot cross the digital divide on their own.

Flatness is not enough. Bridges must be built and the flat world must also be paved with the resources needed by everyone to drive on the new roads of opportunity.