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  Fedora 7 Release Adds Installable KDE Live CD
KDE in Linux Distributions Posted by Kevin Kofler on Thursday 31/May/2007, @07:08
from the shiny-like-the-moon dept.
The Fedora Project has announced the immediate availability of their latest release, Fedora 7 (Moonshine) including, for the first time, a KDE live CD/DVD showcasing KDE and KDE applications, which can also be installed to the hard disk, resulting in a regular Fedora installation with KDE. Along with other current software, Fedora 7 includes KDE 3.5.6. Unfortunately, KDE 3.5.7 was released too late to be included in Fedora 7, however it will be made available as an update. The 32-bit version fits on a 700 MB CD, the 64-bit version needs DVD or special overlong CD media for space reasons. KDE is also included on the traditional installer DVD. KDE in Fedora 7 defaults to the default KDE look and feel, with Plastik as the widget theme and CrystalSVG as the icon theme.
fedora 7 screenshot
Fedora 7, more screenshots at The Coding Studio

A lot of work has been done to improve the KDE experience in this release of Fedora. Thanks to the merger of Core and Extras, the core packages are now open to non-Red Hat contributors, and Rex Dieter of KDE-RedHat fame is now co-maintaining the KDE packages with Red Hat's Than Ngo, bringing the packaging improvements from the KDE-RedHat project into the official Fedora packages. Work has also been done on KDM, including integration with ConsoleKit and a new default theme, Fedora Flying High, with support for face browsing (i.e. the user list with user images), which is now enabled by default. A KDE Special Interest Group has been created to work on KDE and KDE applications in Fedora and maintains a list of KDE-oriented packages currently considered for inclusion into Fedora. For the next release, a plan to get KDE 4 integrated is currently under discussion.

You may have noticed that there is no "Core" in the name this time. This is not an omission. Starting from this release, Fedora is no longer split into separate Core and Extras repositories. Instead, there is a single collection of packages, the Fedora Collection, from which different "spins" are produced, both traditional installer-based spins and live CD/DVD spins. The following spins will be of interest to KDE users:

  • Fedora: the default installer-based spin, offering a package set comparable to the traditional Fedora Core.
  • KDE Live: a live CD/DVD spin based on KDE, using KDM as the display manager and KDE applications such as Konqueror, KMail and KOffice as the defaults. Alternatives such as OpenOffice.org or Firefox and other additional software available from the Fedora Collection can be added after installation to the hard disk.
  • Everything: not a real spin, but a Yum repository (also usable with APT-RPM or Smart) containing the entire Fedora Collection.

Note that only the installer-based spin can be used to upgrade from a previous version of Fedora (without reinstalling). Live CDs or DVDs can only be used for fresh installs (or reinstalls). Upgrades through Yum, APT-RPM or Smart are possible, but strongly recommended against.

Download the ISO through bittorrent or the download mirrors.

Rex will be talking about Fedora 7 and KDE at aKademy next month.



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The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whomever posted them.
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Over 40 comments listed. Printing out index only.
RH
by foo on Thursday 31/May/2007, @10:10
Knowing RH it must be one heck of a unthankful job for Than Ngo. Kudos man, you're the one keeping RH even remotely usable for the most of us ( while your company continues to overlook it's customers, us ).

RH really had it's way. If Linux desktop is not completely dead it's really well delayed for good 5-10 years from what it could have been.
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KDE is ugly "by default"
by cossidhon on Thursday 31/May/2007, @10:13
First impressions are always important and it strikes me that KDE based distro's always look ugly by default (imho of course), where the default look-and-feel of gnome based distro's look reasonably OK. KDE can be made to look beautiful too, but most distro's use KDE's default. First Impression matters! (ask any girl :-). Compare the default look-and-feel of the latest Kubuntu with the latest Ubuntu and you see what I mean. It's the same with OpenSUSE and now with Fedora 7. I still think the current KDE has better functionality and speed than the current Gnome, but all large distro's (Fedora, Suse, Ubuntu) seem to favour Gnome as their default and I for one don't think licensing issues are the only reason. Many people prefer the look-and-feel of Gnome saying it's "clean" and "slick". I have to agree with them. The default KDE look is far too flashy. With lot's of adjustments the look can be made much better, but most people don't seem to bother. If I look at KDE based screenshot's I tend to notice the same thing. Most peoples KDE desktop's look "ugly".
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Ah finally!
by gopala on Thursday 31/May/2007, @11:12
I remember, my first linux installation redhat9, where using kde was a nightmare with x server crashing and requiring frequent reinstalls. I tried fc1 but got bugged up with that too for not having proper kde support. I was using fc4 a few months back but now changed completely to kubuntu(6.10) due to its wonderful kde support.
BTW i forgot to mention, kde caught me in first sight itself even though i had gnome installed (my taste of course ;) )
Anyway, a nice news for kde && fedora fans. :p
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default KDE
by madpuppy on Thursday 31/May/2007, @15:50
I don't know what the big deal is, I think KDE is really fine in it's default form. I mean how hard is it to change a wallpaper or theme? if it is such a problem, then maybe adding somthing to the first start setup wizard of KDE that allows you to download themes,wallpapers, pointers and icons before you get to the desktop. then you will never have to see the "default" desktop. it will be your setup that you see.

blah.....
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KDE look and feel
by Anand Vaidya on Thursday 31/May/2007, @16:47
I think plastik is quite acceptable.

I think Baghira looks pretty nice and available on the repos on (K)ubuntu. Maybe KDE default can be switched to Baghira?
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F7 on Inspiron 6400
by mybays on Wednesday 06/Jun/2007, @02:57
There are lots of bug in laptop,can`t install video drivers,always crush.
I must wait for the advanced version,or upgrade.
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