Customized spins of Fedora

When Fedora 7 was released, one of the big features that we talked about was the idea of customized spins of the distribution.

Now that Fedora 8 is on the way, it’s useful to look and see how we have done, and what sort of custom spins have been created.

Custom Spins of Fedora

The Fedora Project released both a GNOME- and a KDE-based spin for Fedora 7. For Fedora 8, once again we have those two spins, and we add to them a developer spin, and an electronics lab spin. These spins can be placed on a CD, DVD, or USB key and are “live,” meaning that they can be booted and run off of that media, without having to touch a hard disk. Each spin ncludes an icon on the desktop that the user may double-click in order to initiate an full installation. We also provide detailed instructions to assist in the creation of bootable USB drives that run Fedora.

As always, Fedora tries to stay as close to the latest upstream as possible. Fedora 8 is no different, as almost every package has been updated.

The rest of this article will discuss the four spins that were made available with Fedora 8 Test 2. The Fedora Project wiki includes a larger list of spins that have been created.

Fedora 8 Test 2

Fedora 8 Test 2 is available via BitTorrent and mirrors.

There will be a third Fedora 8 test release in October, and the final version of Fedora 8 will be released in early- to mid-November.

Fedora 8 GNOME

• GNOME 2.19.90, which provides all the main desktop functionality
• Firefox 2.0.0.6, a premier web browser
• Evolution 2.11.92, an email, calendar, and contact management suite
• OpenOffice 2.3.0 (on the DVD) and AbiWord 2.4.6 (on the LiveCD)
• GIMP 2.4.0 RC2, an image composition and editing program
• Pidgin 2.1.1, a premier instant messenging client
• Compiz 0.5.2, a 3-D window manager using OpenGL
• NetworkManager 0.6.5, a tool for configuring network connections
• Rhythmbox 0.11.2, an audio player and catalog
• Totem 2.19.90, a movie and video player
• Apache 2.2.4, a premier web server
• Kernel 2.6.23, the heart and soul of the Linux system
• Pulse Audio, and improved Linux sound system
• RPM 4.4.2.2, the package manager used by Fedora, Red Hat, and others
• X.Org 7.2, which provides the underlying graphical user interface
• Wireless firmware for Intel 3945, 4965, 2100, and 2200 cards
• Updates to most of the system libraries, etc
• Updated SELinux policies
• New default desktop artwork

Fedora 8 KDE

• KDE 3.5.7, which provides all the main desktop functionality
• Firefox 2.0.0.6, a premier web browser
• KOffice 1.6.3, a suite of office applications
• Beryl 0.2.1, a 3-D window manager using OpenGL
• NetworkManager 0.6.5, a tool for configuring network connections
• Amarok 1.4.7, an audio and media player
• Kaffeine 0.8.5, a video and media player
• Kernel 2.6.23, the heart and soul of the Linux system
• RPM 4.4.2.2, the package manager used by Fedora, Red Hat, and others
• X.Org 7.2, which provides the underlying graphical user interface
• Wireless firmware for Intel 3945, 4965, 2100, and 2200 cards
• Updates to most of the system libraries, etc
• Updated SELinux policies
• New default desktop artwork

Fedora 8 Developer
This spin includes everything in the Fedora 8 GNOME spin, as well as:

• Eclipse 3.3.0, a graphical development environment
• Autoconf 2.61.9, a tool for configuring source code and Makefiles
• Automake 1.10, a tool for automatically creating Makefiles
• Ant 1.7.0, a platform-independent build tool for Java
• Avalon Framework 4.1.4, a Java components interface
• GCJ 1.5.0, a JPackage compatible runtime environment
• JUnit 3.8.2, a unit-testing framework for Java
• Log4j 1.2.14, libraries for adding logging to Java software
• Lucene 1.9.1, a Java-based text search engine
• Xalan 2.7.0, a Java-based XSLT parser
• Xerces 2.7.1, a Java-based XML parser
• Axis 1.2.1, a Simple Object Access Protocol implementation in Java
• Tomcat 5.5.23, a servlet and JSP container
• Flex 2.5.33, a a tool for recognizing lexical patterns in text
• Bison 2.3, a tool that takes a grammar and generates a parser for it
• CVS 1.11.22, source code management and version control
• Subversion 1.4.4m, source code management and version control
• GCC 4.1.2, a collection of source code compilers
• Glade 2.12.1, a GTK+ graphical user interface builder
• OpenLDAP 2.3.37, Lightweight Directory Access Protocol suite
• SystemTap 0.5.14, a tool for gathering information from the kernel
• Lots of GNOME, Perl, Python, kernel, RPM, etc. development libraries

Fedora 8 Electronics Lab
This spin is based off of the Fedora 8 KDE spin, and also includes:

• Kicad 2007.01.15, electronic schematic diagrams and circuit boards
• Alliance 5.0, a tool for Computer Assisted Design (CAD)
• XCircuit 3.4.26, a graphical circuit schematic drawing program
• Ngspice 17-13, a general purpose circuit layout program
• Toped 0.8.5, an integrated circuit layout editor
• Atlas 3.6.0, linear algebra software
• FreeHDL 0.0.4, a VHDL simulator
• GHDL 0.25, a VHDL simulator that uses GCC
• gEDA 20070902, a program for working with circuit schematics
• IRSIM 9.7.50, a tool for simulating digital circuits
• Icarus Verilog 0.9.20070608, a verilog compiler and simulator
• Magic 7.4.35, a VLSI layout tool
• Octave 2.9.13, a language for numerical computation
• OpenEXR 1.4.0a, tools for working with high dynamic range files
• Piklab 0.14.5, a development environment for microcontrollers

The Fedora repositories provide a wealth of software. Allowing people to remix and customize it to suit their purposes provides users with freedom, choice, and power.

This entry was posted by The editorial team on Friday, September 28th, 2007 at 12:47 pm and is filed under Fedora. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.