JohnBabich/Overview

= Fedora Overview =

What *is* Fedora?
An operating system, a set of projects, and a mindset.

What is Fedora? The operating system is Fedora. It comes out twice a year. It's completely free, and we're committed  to keeping it that way. It's the best combination of robust and latest software that exists in the free software world.

The mindset is doing the right thing. To us, that means providing free and open software and content, at no cost, freely usable, modifiable, redistributable, and unencumbered by software patents.

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Core Principles
There are a couple of fundamental principles that drives Fedora.


 * Fedora is about the rapid progress of Free and Open Source software and content.
 * Fedora believes in the statement "once free, always free".

More information is available at


 * http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Objectives
 * http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html

Freedom: Make ogg, not mp3
Why is mp3 popular? Because it's better than everything else out there?

No. mp3 is popular because its creators licensed it broadly to spur its adoption. Then, once it was the de facto format, they started to enforce their patents aggressively and restrictively.

The free and open multimedia codecs such as the Ogg family of codecs are superior, and they are not patent-encumbered. Never have been, never will be. That's why we support free and open formats like Ogg Vorbis (lossy) and FLAC (lossless) for general audio and Ogg Theora for video.

For those people who insist upon using mp3, it's not difficult to  figure out  how to get these players. Still, we'd much rather change the world instead of going along with it.


 * http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/CodecBuddy

Predictable Release Schedule
Fedora has a predictable and consistent time-based release schedule. There is a new release every six months that drives incremental improvements to users at a rapid pace. With a time-based release schedule, the release itself is more important than any particular feature, thereby driving the high rate of progress in free and open source software projects by virtue of a positive feedback cycle.


 * http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Releases/Schedule

Simply Beautiful
Fedora is well-known for its emphasis on not just functionality, but also being beautiful and attractive, with a fresh new look for every release produced by a community of talented artists. Free and beautiful software for everyone.


 * http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Artwork

Highly Secure
Fedora is the thought and action leader in many of the latest Linux security initiatives and is a highly secure operating system. In addition to such basic features as firewall, many unique security highlights, like SELinux and Exec-shield, are enabled by default.


 * http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Security/Features

Leading Free Software
Fedora developers actively contribute to several hundred free and open source software projects, including initiating and maintaining essential elements of Linux and free software components. These elements include the Linux kernel, glibc, GNOME, and many other core system libraries and administrative frameworks. Red Hat, the Fedora Project's sponsor, continues to invest millions of dollars not only in developing free software, but also in buying previously proprietary products and donating them to the open source community-at-large.


 * http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/RedHatContributions

Accessible Technology
Localization, internationalization and accessibility bring free software to many more users, and Fedora is proud to have a great community of developers, translators, content writers, artists and usability experts that drive free software forward. We can always use more help! Consider helping us by joining the Fedora Project.


 * http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/L10N

Shared Benefits
Fedora strives to follow the development of different free software projects it includes as closely as possible, only adding its own patches where this is considered essential. The primary goal is to share the benefits of a common code base for end users and developers, while simultaneously reducing unnecessary maintenance efforts. In this way, other free and open source projects and Linux distributions directly benefit from our efforts.


 * http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/PackageMaintainers/WhyUpstream

Solid Foundation
Fedora nurtures open technology to create a vast pool of software with no legal encumbrances. With all these unique characteristics listed above, it is no surprise that Fedora forms the base for several dozens of major free and open source software projects including derivative distributions like Red Hat Enterprise Linux  and OLPC.

Fedora Project also provides several custom variants of Fedora called Fedora spins, along with the open source creation tools, which allow you the ultimate freedom and flexibility to make your own customized version of Fedora.


 * http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/DerivedDistributions
 * http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/CustomSpins

Communicate: Fedora Community
Fedora Web Forums:: For end user help, use our Fedora community web forums.

Fedora Mailing lists:: Fedora Project has several mailing lists for users and contributors.

Fedora IRC Chat Channels:: Chat and ask questions live in the Fedora IRC channels at.

For other ways of communicating with the Fedora community, refer to http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Communicate.

Why Should I Help?
Your name in lights, an online CV, and maybe a trip to FUDCon.

First, contribute to Fedora and get your name in the distribution. Hey, fair is fair.

Second, if you're a Fedora contributor, you don't need a fancy resume; you can just tell potential employers to do a web search on your name.

Third, top Fedora contributors receive travel stipends to attend the Fedora Users and Developers Conference (FUDCon) at the location closest to them. You will have the opportunity to meet some of the giants of the free and open source movement in person, as their peers and equals.

And finally, you'd be playing with this stuff anyway. Spend your time doing stuff that you enjoy while helping other users in the community. Spread free software. What more incentive do you need? Join us.


 * http://fedoraproject.org/en/join-fedora