Differences to Ubuntu

= Introduction to Fedora for Ubuntu users = Although looking familiar, Fedora does some things different than Ubuntu. This page tries to explain the major differences to Ubuntu in day-to-day use and introduce former Ubuntu users to the Fedora tools.

The root account
The biggest difference for users coming from Ubuntu to Fedora is that sudo does not work. The  account is the account for the system admin. This account is disabled in Ubuntu. In Ubuntu, you perform actions that require  privileges using sudo. In Fedora,  access can be gained with su su will ask for your  password, not your regular user password. The  password is the password you entered while installing, not the password you entered when creating a user account after your first boot. After you logged in successfully as, you have administrative rights as long as you close the terminal or log out with exit

Package Management
Fedora uses different tools for package management than Ubuntu. Here is a quick overview how to accomplish common tasks in Fedora:

Updating software
If you want to keep your system updated, the PackageKit update applet will help you. It will notify you about updated packages and security updates. Its settings can be changed at System->Preferences->Software Updates. If you want to update your system manually, open System->Administration->Software Update or run yum update as.

Installing/Removing software
If you want to install or remove software, open System->Administration->Add/Remove Software. To install or uninstall packages, check or uncheck their check boxes.

For installing packages on the command line, simply type yum install package1 package2 package3 and for removing packages yum remove package2

The yum shell
If you want to add and remove packages at the same time, or trigger mass transactions, like updating your system, then installing  and , and then removing  , you can use the yum shell. Open the yum shell (as ) with yum shell Then you can simply type update install firefox emesene remove pidgin transaction run You can use any valid yum command in the yum shell. To see what it will do, type transaction list and to accept the changes, type transaction run. For more information about the yum shell, have a look at the yum-shell manual page man yum-shell

Searching software
You can search software in the graphical Add/Remove Software program by entering search terms in the search box, or on the command line by typing yum search searchterm1 searchterm2

Getting the restricted stuff
If you are looking for the equivalent of the Ubuntu  and   repositories, that include patented and closed source technologies and programs, consider enabling the RPMFusion repository. free is the equivalent of  and contains potentially patent-encumbered software like   or the , nonfree includes non-free software like proprietary 3D graphics drivers. These repositories can easily be enabled by typing (as ): su -c 'rpm -Uvh http://download1.rpmfusion.org/free/fedora/rpmfusion-free-release-stable.noarch.rpm http://download1.rpmfusion.org/nonfree/fedora/rpmfusion-nonfree-release-stable.noarch.rpm'

Using apt anyway
If you still like apt better than yum, you can also use apt on Fedora. Install apt with the following command: yum install apt Note that apt won't be able to access the RPMFusion repositories. After that, you can use apt-get as usual (don't forget to log in as )

Life cycle
Unlike Ubuntus 18 months, Fedora only offers 13 months of updates per release. That means that you have to upgrade to the latest Fedora at least every second release. Fedora also doesn't offer a LTS version. Be sure that you're able to upgrade your system at least every 13 months. Regular Fedora releases happen every six months. If you want to know when the next Fedora is going to be released, have a look at the Release Schedule