Leader: Majorenos,Freya Aphrodite (Architecture)

Members: Dantes, Fiona Winslette R. (OS Features & Functions)

De Jesus, Luzyrna Yzabell ( History)
Elajie, Wadzna (History)
Martin, Charles (Architecture)

History of the Fedora Linux Operating System (Summary)

Fedora’s name derives from Fedora Linux, a volunteer project that provided extra software for
Red Hat Linux Distribution.

The Fedora Project began in 2003 as a Red Hat Linux community project to develop a free and
open-source operating system suitable for both personal and professional use.

Fedora Core 1, the first version of Fedora, was released in November 2003.

The operating system has undergone numerous changes and improvements since then, with
new versions being released regularly.

Before Fedor 7, Fedora was called Fedora Core after the name of two main repositories, Core
and Extra.

Fedora Core contained all the packages that were required by the operating system.

Since the release of Fedora 21, an effort to modularize Fedora distribution and make
development more agile.

HISTORY OF FEDORA LINUX OPERATING SYSTEMS

FEDORA- traces its roots back to the early 2000s when the Fedora Project was initiated by Red
Hat, a leading open-source software company. The project aimed to create a community-
driven, cutting-edge Linux distribution that would serve as a testing ground for new
technologies and features. In September 2003, the first version of Fedora, called Fedora Core 1,
was released. It was based on the Red Hat Linux distribution and provided a free and open-
source alternative for users who wanted to explore the latest advancements in the Linux world.

Over the years, Fedora gained popularity among Linux enthusiasts and developers due to its
focus on innovation, stability, and open collaboration. The Fedora Project embraced the
principles of open-source software and encouraged community participation in the
development process. With each new release, Fedora introduced new features, software
updates, and improvements to enhance the user experience. The project also emphasized
security and reliability, making Fedora a trusted choice for both desktop and server
environments.

In 2006, the Fedora community decided to change the release model and introduced the
Fedora "release cycle" concept. This meant that instead of having a single stable version,
Fedora would follow a regular release schedule, with new versions being released
approximately every six months. This allowed users to stay up-to-date with the latest software
and technologies without sacrificing stability. The Fedora community also established the
Fedora Spins and Fedora Labs, which provided specialized editions of Fedora tailored for
specific use cases, such as gaming, scientific computing, and robotics.

Today, Fedora continues to thrive as a vibrant and active community-driven project. It has
become a popular choice for developers, system administrators, and Linux enthusiasts around
the world. Fedora's commitment to open-source principles, constant innovation, and
collaboration has made it a respected distribution in the Linux ecosystem. It serves as a
platform for testing and showcasing new technologies, and its contributions often find their
way into other Linux distributions. With each new release, Fedora remains at the forefront of
the Linux world, providing a powerful and flexible operating system for a wide range of users.

Fedora Operating System

Fedora operating system is an open-source operating system that is based on the Linux OS
kernel architecture. A group of developers was developed the Fedora operating system under
the Fedora Project. It is sponsored by Red Hat. It is designed as a secure operating system for
the general-purpose. Fedora operating system offers a suite of virus protection, system tools,
office productivity services, media playback, and other desktop application.

According to the Fedora Project, it is always free to use, modify, and distribute. Fedora OS is
integrated with applications and packaged software. This operating system enhances the
abilities of the software. It offers the same consistency, procedures, and functionality as a
traditional OS. Fedora operating system is the second most commonly used distribution of
Linux after Ubuntu.

There are over 100 distributions based on the Fedora operating system, including the XO
operating system of Red Hat Enterprise Linux.

Features of Fedora Operating System

List of the Fedora OS features:

1. Fedora OS offers many architectures.

 2. Fedora OS is a very reliable and stable operating system.
3. It provides unique security features.
4. Fedora OS provides a very powerful firewall.
5. Fedora OS is very easy to use.
6. It supports a large community.
7. Fedora OS is actively developed.
8. Fedora OS is an open-source OS.
9. The interface of Fedora OS is very attractive.
10. This operating system offers live mode tools.
11. This operating system enhances internet speed.

Fedora OS comes with many pre-installed applications and tools, such as Internet Browser, PDF
and Word files Viewer, Pre-installed Games, Libre Office Suite, Programming language Support,
etc.

Fedora is a very stable, secure, and light-weight operating system. It supports different types of
architectures, such as IBM Z, AMD x86-x64, Intel i686, IBM Power64le, ARM-hfp, MIPS-64el,
ARM AArch64, IBM Power64, etc. Usually, it also works on the latest Linux kernel.

Fedora Linux

Specifications of Fedora Linux

Fedora has a reputation for concentrating on invocation, developing new technologies, and
closely working with upstream Linux communities. Applying changes upstream rather than
specifically for Fedora Linux guarantees that the modifications are available to every Linux
distribution.

Relatively, Fedora Linux has a short life cycle; all versions are usually supported for three
months at least, whereas the X version is only supported until one month after the X+2 version
is published and with approx six months between almost all versions. The users of Fedora Linux
can upgrade from release to release without reinstalling.

Package management

Almost all editions of Fedora Linux utilize the RPM package management system, with DNF as a
tool to handle the RPM packages. Here, DNF utilizes libsolv, which is an external dependency
resolver. Also, flatpak is by default included and supports snap packages. Fedora Linux utilizes
Delta RPM if updating packages to offer delta updates. Any Delta RPM includes the difference
between a new and an old package version. It means that only the modifications between the
new package and the installed one are downloaded, decreasing bandwidth consumption and
network traffic.

Security

By default, Fedora Linux utilizes Security-Enhanced Linux, which implements a range of security
policies, such as mandatory access controls, which Fedora Linux adopted early on. It offers a
hardening wrapper and so hardening for each of its packages by utilizing compiler features like
PIE (position-independent executable).

Software

Fedora Linux is available pre-installed with a huge variety of software like Firefox and
LibreOffice. Additional software from the software repositories is available and can be installed
with the GNOME Software or DNA package manager.

Different repositories can additionally be included in the system so that software not present in
Fedora Linux can be easily installed. Software that's not available by official Fedora repositories,
either due to it doesn't meet the definition of free software of Fedora or its distribution may
disrupt US law, can be installed with third-party repositories.

System installer

As a system installer, Fedora Linux utilizes Anaconda.

Editions of Fedora Linux

Starting with Fedora version 30, It's available in five different editions. Where two editions are
treated as secondary, and three versions are treated as primary as of version 35.

Primary editions

Workstation It targets those who want a powerful, user-friendly, and reliable operating system
for their desktop and laptop computers. By default, it provides GNOME, but other desktops can
also be installed and can directly be installed as Spins.
Internet of Things

The Fedora Linux images are tailored to execute on IoT devices. It supports aarch64, armhfp,
and x86_64 processors.

Server

Its target management is for servers. It contains modern data center technologies. This version
does not provide a desktop environment, but anyone can be installed. The server edition will
provide Fedora modularity and additional support for other update streams for famous
software like Go and Node.js from Fedora 28.

Secondary editions

CoreOS

The successor of Container Linux and Fedora Atomic Host after Fedora 29, it offers a minimal
Fedora Linux image which contains only the bare essentials. It's not to be distracted with
Fedora Core. It is developed for distribution in cloud computing. It offers Fedora CoreOS images
optimized minimal images to deploy containers.

Silverblue

It is an immutable desktop OS. All silverblue installations are identical to all other installations
of a similar version, and it never modifies as it's used. This immutable design is proposed to
make the OS more stable, establish a platform, easier to develop and test, and less prone to
errors for containerized applications and container-based software development.

Labs

Also, the Fedora Project distributes Fedora Linux custom variations known as Fedora Labs,
similar to Debian blends. These are created with specific groups of software packages, targeting
unique interests like scientific computing, robotics, designs, security, and gaming.

Remixes and Spins

Officially, the Fedora Project distributes distinct variations known as "Fedora Spins". These are
Fedora Linux with distinct desktop environments. The project permits unofficial variants to
utilize the "Fedora Remix" term without prompting for further permission.
Architectures

ARM-hfp, ARM AArch64, and x86_64 are the primary architectures offered by Fedora. Also,
Fedora supports RISC-V, MIPS-el, MIPS-64el, IBM Z, and IBM Power64le as secondary
architectures as of version 35.

Alternatives

Also, the Fedora Project distributes many other versions with fewer use cases than discussed
above, like minimal installation images and network installers. They are meant for expert users
or special cases that wish to include custom installations or set up Fedora using scratch.

Fedora Server

Fedora Server is a very flexible and powerful OS. It keeps all your infrastructure and services
under your control. Fedora operating system offers the latest data center technologies.

Features of the Fedora Linux Operating System

Here are some common features of the Fedora Linux Operating System.

Ships With Stock GNOME: One of the most appealing aspects of Fedora is its use of a mostly
stock GNOME desktop. Fedora appeals to users who prefer the familiarity of GNOME while still
offering some extra features by keeping this mostly stock configuration.

Easy to use: Fedora is extremely user-friendly. Fedora’s user-friendliness makes it the preferred
choice for many users looking for a dependable, secure, and powerful operating system.

Providing Cutting-Edge Software: Fedora updates every six months, and there is no LTS version,
so you always get the most recent updates, and the most recent version is always the flagship
edition.

Adaptable and Powerful: Fedora Server is a highly adaptable and powerful operating system. It
keeps complete control over your infrastructure and services. Fedora’s operating system
includes the most recent data center technologies.

Large community: Fedora supports a large community.

Open-source: Fedora is an open-source OS that can be used by anyone and contributions can
also be submitted.
Interactive interface: Fedora OS has an attractive interface thus making it more user-friendly
and easy to use for customers.

Pre-installed applications: Fedora comes with pre-installed applications and tools such as
Internet Browser, Word Files Viewer, PDF Viewer, Libre Office Suite, etc.

Lightweight: Fedora OS is stable, secure, and lightweight and supports different architectures
like IBM Z, Intel i686, IBM Power64, etc.

Package Management: Fedora uses the RPM Package Management System. It uses Delta RPM
to install the packages.

Advantages of Fedora Operating System

 Fedora OS is a very reliable and stable operating system.
 It enhances the security in this operating system.
 It offers many graphical tools.
 This operating system updates automatically.
 This OS supports many file formats.
 It also offers many education software.
 It supports a large community.
 It provides unique security features.

Disadvantages of Fedora Operating System

 It requires a long time to set up.
 It requires additional software tools for the server.
 It does not provide any standard model for multi-file objects.
 Fedora has its own server, so we can't work on another server in real-time

Structure
There are two tiers of architectures with Fedora support:

Primary Architectures : These are architectures with the majority of the users, the most
common architectures. Build failures on these architectures are fatal: no packages push to the
repositories if they fail to build for a primary architecture. Fedora package maintainers are
required to make sure that their package builds properly for this architecture (or is properly
ExcludeArch'd).
Alternative Architectures : These are architectures with motivated Architecture Maintainer
Teams. There are two classes of Alternative Architecturs, the ones built in Primary koji where
build failures are fatal and ones built on their own koji instances where build failures on the
alternative architecture are not fatal: if packages successfully build for the primary koji, they
push independently of any alternative architecture build successes or failures.

🔗 Primary Architectures
 ARM-hfp (32-bit, little-endian, hfp for ARMv7->) (as of Fedora 20, until Fedora 37)
 x86 (32-bit for i686->) (until Fedora 25)
 x86_64 (64-bit)
 ARM AArch64 (64-bit, little-endian for ARMv8->)

🔗 Alternative Architectures
 ARM-sfp (32-bit, little-endian, sfp for ARMv5->)
 IA64
 MIPS-64el (mips64r2, little endian, n64 ABI)
 MIPS-el (mips32r2, little endian, o32 ABI)
 MIPS-n32el (mips64r2, little endian, n32 ABI)
 Parisc
 PowerPC (32-bit)
 PowerPC64 (64-bit, big-endian for POWER5->)
 PowerPC64le (64-bit, little-endian for POWER8->)
 RISC-V (64-bit open source ISA)
 s390x (64-bit for zEC12->)
 SPARC (32-bit)
 SPARC64 (64-bit for sun4u->)
 x86 (32-bit for i686->) (Fedora 26 until Fedora 30)

🔗 Architecture Maintainer Teams

In order to manage and support alternative architectures, each alternative architecture will
have a team responsible for the Fedora release on that architecture. Each team will assign a
team lead.

🔗 Architecture Maintainer Team Responsibilities

  Receiving notifications of alternative arch build successes and failures
 Patching packages cleanly such that they build and function correctly on the alternative
architecture, with a minimal amount of architecture conditionalization in the spec file
(avoid %ifarch wherever possible). To enable this, architecture team members will have
special grouped ACL access to all packages, permitting them special access to make
changes. This ability requires a great amount of respect, and alternative architecture
maintainers are expected to be extremely careful when modifying packages. With
special access comes extra responsibility. Think before you commit. Consult the package
maintainer before making a change, no matter how trivial.
 Resolving architecture specific bugs filed against packages
 Holding regular status meetings on IRC for the architecture
 Meeting target dates for architecture stability, freezes, release candidates, and releases.
If unable to meet target dates, release does not occur. Target dates for alternative
architectures can be slightly farther out than the target dates for primary architectures,
allowing for longer build times and architecture fixes for packages frozen for primary
architectures. If an alternative architecture fails to make release goals for two
consecutive Fedora releases, the architecture will be re-evaluated by FESCo.
 Maintaining and hosting the buildserver(s) and storage for that architecture
 working with Release Engineering on Composing trees for that architecture
 Maintain a section on the fedoraproject.org wiki for the architecture, documenting the
effort, the maintainer team, the meeting schedule, and other useful information for
users, packagers, and developers.
 Participate in and give progress reports to the Release Engineering meeting on a weekly
basis

Each alternative architecture maintainer team will have a dedicated mailing list (e.g. fedora-
[email protected]) to serve as a contact point for architecture specific questions, bug notifications,
build notifications, etc.

There is a generic alternative arch list at [email protected] one or more team

members should subscribe here.

In addition, alternative architecture teams should do the following:

Run regular 'rebuild all in mock' runs (usually requires dedicated system)
REFERENCE:

 https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Architectures
 https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/fedora-operating-system/
 https://www.javatpoint.com/fedora-operating-system