User:Pfrields/Objectives

This page explains the objectives of the Fedora Project.

Mission and core values
The Overview page contains explanations of the Fedora Project's mission. The Foundations page explains the Project's core values.

General

The Fedora Project's objectives can be broken into three categories:

1. Creating a free (as in Freedom) Linux distribution
2. Building open source software communities
3. Developing the science and practice of building communities

Creating a Free (as in Freedom) distribution

• Create a complete, general-purpose operating system built for and by a community. The operating system is an integrated set of software that addresses and balances needs of a wide variety of users.
• Build the operating system exclusively from free and open source software. Fedora is self-hosting and self-building, and requires no non-free software to create the distribution.
• Emphasize usability and a "just works" philosophy in default configurations and feature designs.
• Include a wide range of packages that fits into the various different needs of the users. This package set is limited, of course, to packages that Fedora can legally provide, and also subject to our packaging guidelines.
• Produce robust time-based releases every six months using a release model that allows the development team the flexibility it needs to ensure quality, while making sure that a release does not slip indefinitely. Our schedule may shift from time to time based on participant needs, but only after consideration and approval by the community governance entities that oversee the Project.
• Ensure that releases will always be available for free download in binary, source packages and as installable images.
• Provide timely updates for releases, throughout the supported lifetime of a release (thirteen months).

Building open source software communities

• The community includes current and potential or future contributors.
• Do as much of the development work as possible staying close to upstream projects. In general, we prefer to move to a newer version for updates rather than backport fixes.
• Be on the leading edge of free and open source technology, by adopting and helping to develop new features and version upgrades.
• Promote rapid adoption of new releases by allowing for easy upgrades, with minimal disturbances to configuration changes.
• Establish and implement technical standards for packages, ensuring the quality and consistency of the operating system.
• Promote a global perspective by supporting as many languages and geographic locales as possible.

Developing the science and practice of building communities

• Use existing models that work, (re)building on them only as needed in each case.
• Self-identify as a community of practice and keep a balance of domain, community, and practice in the Project.
• Promote a scientific approach to continuous learning through failure and advancement.
• Follow sound and scientific community principles that are derived from eons of humanity's lessons learned and relearned.

Objectives Outside of the Fedora Project

• The Fedora Project is not interested in having a slow rate of change in its distribution, but rather to be innovative. We do not offer a long-term release cycle because it diverts attention away from innovation. For those community members who desire a long-term release cycle, there are derived distributions that satisfy this requirement. For community members who require a business-class support model beyond community maintenance, we recommend Red Hat Enterprise Linux.
• The Fedora Project is not interested in having its distribution be a platform for proprietary or patent encumbered components. While we do not purposely make installation of such components more difficult, we also do not allow our schedule or processes to be driven by theirs.
• The Fedora Project is not a dumping ground for unmaintained or poorly designed software. Sheer quantity of available software is not a measurement for the quality of a distribution. We do not include free and open source software that interferes with the Project's mission of advancing free and open source software.