

Fedora 18 "Spherical Cow" released - rjknight
https://fedoraproject.org/en/get-fedora

======
ch0wn
Here are the release notes: [http://docs.fedoraproject.org/en-
US/Fedora/18/html/Release_N...](http://docs.fedoraproject.org/en-
US/Fedora/18/html/Release_Notes/index.html)

~~~
jpdoctor
Anyone want to create highlights for those of us with a short attention span?

~~~
RyanZAG
The firewall daemon firewalld will be the default firewall solution for Fedora
18, replacing iptables. Using firewalld will allow for application of policy
changes without reloading, allowing connection states to stay unbroken when
rules are changed.

UEFI Secure Boot will be supported in Fedora 18. This will allow Fedora to
boot on systems that have Secure Boot enabled. Tools are available for
administrators to create custom certificates to sign local changes to GRUB or
the kernel.

Fedora 18 adds FedFS, a mechanism to provide a coherent namespace across
multiple file servers.

Fedora 18 includes Samba4, which provides improved cross-platform file server
support.

The X.org server has been rewritten to support 'hot' plugging and unplugging
of GPUs. Specifically, this allows Fedora to provide better support for USB
connected graphics devices exposed by many modern systems and laptop docking
stations. The user is no longer required to restart the X.org server for such
devices to be recognised.

~~~
jpdoctor
Thanks for that. God I hope firewalld has more intuitive config than iptables.

~~~
scott_karana
It's just a wrapper overtop.

That said, it likely is more intuitive :)

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rwg

        2.4.3. rngd
        Random number generation is improved by enabling rngd by default.
    

_violent twitching_

The /dev/random situation on Linux is beyond laughable, and everyone who
thinks the "solution" for a kernel problem is MOAR USRLAND DEEMONZ!!!!@$^#$#
should drown themselves in the nearest toilet immediately.

~~~
joelthelion
Could you elaborate on this, or share a link or two?

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rwg
This is several years old now, but it is an overview of a (failed) attempt to
replace Linux's existing random implementation with Fortuna, an improved
variant of the Yarrow algorithm used by FreeBSD, and a comparison with Linux's
existing random implementation.

<http://jlcooke.ca/random/>

This is a thread on LKML about adding support to Linux's random implementation
for Intel's RdRand instruction. You have to read all the way through to see
the extent of the insanity. ("We can't trust Intel because NSA backdoor
government spying chemtrails HAARP fluoride wharrgarbl!")

<http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.linux.kernel/1173350>

I can't find the LKML thread to link to it, but earlier this year, there was a
hullabaloo over a paper published at <https://factorable.net/> regarding
network-connected devices generating weak keys because of "insufficient
randomness" at boot time. This led to a reworking of how/when/why entropy is
fed into Linux's entropy pool.

~~~
uvdiv
How is it unreasonable for open-source OS developers to be concerned about
closed-source blobs in cryptographic components?

~~~
rwg
The entire CPU is "closed source." If you can't trust the CPU, then it's game
over for _everything_ you're doing on the CPU.

~~~
zurn
Trust isn't binary. Backdooring or exploitably bungling the deterministic
parts of the CPU without getting caught is much harder than doing the same for
the RNG part. Black box RNG's are notoriously hard to evaluate.

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zanny
If there were a rolling release Fedora, I'd be all over that as a drop-in
alternative to Ubuntu for friends and family.

* Systemd > Upstart in performance usability (for me, at least).

* selinux > apparmor when properly integrated (personal preference, but it sees more active development and feature parity).

* RPMs and debs are basically the same thing except not. I have to say adding repos in Ubuntu is much easier than in Fedora.

The choice of GUI during installation is also nice. I just can't keep putting
relations and friends on distros that break on really major updates (like
10.04 to 12.04 for Ubuntu) and that is one of the reasons I run Arch. Problem
is Arch has really bad support for MAC and takes forever to set up.

~~~
sho_hn
> I have to say adding repos in Ubuntu is much easier than in Fedora.

Hm, could you elaborate? Adding a repo is usually "wget .repo file into
/etc/yum.repos.d/" which doesn't seem harder to me than editing sources.list
(about the same, really). What's soured your experience?

~~~
gecko
I'd assume he's referencing the "apt-add-repository" with ppm support, which
automatically takes care of editing sources, adding GPG keys to sign the
downloads, and rebuilding the repo list, in one shot. It's not dramatically
different than Fedora, but it's different enough you do appreciate it after
awhile.

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rjknight
Hopefully Gnome 3.6 will be a bit more mature and address some of the concerns
people have with it, although MATE is now a first-class package in the Fedora
repository for those who can't stand Gnome 3.

Looking at the feature list, there are relatively few blockbuster features,
but I'd be interested to know how useful people think the Active Directory
support is, relative to support in other Linux distros (or OSX for that
matter).

~~~
reidrac
Fedora 18 includes Cinnamon: <http://cinnamon.linuxmint.com/>

I think it is a very good option if you don't like Gnome 3 but want to benefit
from all the new stuff (ie. GTK+ 3) with a more traditional desktop interface.

~~~
keypusher
What do you mean by includes? It's the default interface, or it's accessible
in the repos? Looks really nice and I'm thinking of upgrading from FC17.

~~~
reidrac
Cinnamon is not installed by default (it is based on Gnome 3 that _it is the
default_ ), you need to run:

yum groupinstall "Cinnamon Desktop"

Check the release notes: [http://docs.fedoraproject.org/en-
US/Fedora/18/html/Release_N...](http://docs.fedoraproject.org/en-
US/Fedora/18/html/Release_Notes/sect-Release_Notes-
Changes_for_Desktop.html#idm4145456)

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piqufoh
Does 'spherical cow' make you think 'bloated bovine'?

~~~
jlgreco
Makes me think of hanging out in the highschool physics classroom after
school, calculating what sort of spring you would need to fling a cow into
orbit.

Nerdy, but Fedora has never really been into that whole _"imaginary computer-
illiterate grandmother"_ user-base anyway.

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mixmastamyk
Can anyone with experience comment on the number of regressions each release
of Fedora compared to Ubuntu? Many of them aren't the distros fault of course,
but I'm looking for something up to date with a bit more focus on QA.

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saljam
Why don't distributions provide an image that can be dd'd onto a USB stick?
I'm sure I'm not the only one who finds USB mass storage infinitely more
convenient than CDs nowadays. Sure, they provide a USB image creator, but you
have to have a fairly standard (and graphical, last time I checked) Linux
installation first. And sure, you can extract the files and make one yourself,
but is that really necessary?

This goes for both Ubuntu and Fedora.

~~~
limmeau
Can't you just dd the ISO image to the USB stick?

[http://docs.fedoraproject.org/en-
US/Fedora/18/html/Installat...](http://docs.fedoraproject.org/en-
US/Fedora/18/html/Installation_Guide/Making_USB_Media-UNIX_Linux.html)

~~~
saljam
OK, I stand corrected! I should've done my homework...

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bni
The release notes says Fedora 18 uses the 3.6.0 kernel. Yet on my F18 machine
the kernel version is:

3.7.2-201.fc18.x86_64

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donniezazen
Between cutting edge Fedora and Bleeding edge Arch, my vote goes to Arch. It
does take a long time to setup Arch but after that most packages can be
grabbed from repo or AUR unlike Fedora that recommends manual compiling.

~~~
sethish
Examples? The only things I have to compile are python packages with
c-extensions and the occasional small daemon like xcape.

~~~
donniezazen
Thinkfan is one of the packages that I couldn't find in fedora repo or any
third party repos. It is available in Ubuntu repo and pretty much every
software out there is available in Arch's AUR. Other license ridden packages
like MS Core Fonts are included in Ubuntu Partner's repo and again in AUR. You
will also have to either write systemd files or borrow and modify from other
places. Ubuntu has a huge collection of PPAs and Arch has AUR. But again all
of these things can be done using already posted tutorials or community help.

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Nux
Wow, nice! At last. This one packs a lot of goodies!

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wildster
Why do Fedora releases have such bad names? Although Spherial Cow is at least
better than Beefy Miracle.

~~~
switch007
Reference from a hilarious British 90s comedy.
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xgnuxd0tiHk>

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papablogger
i like the new features given in <a
href="[http://www.papablogger.org/2013/01/Fedora-
Linux-18-Spherical...](http://www.papablogger.org/2013/01/Fedora-
Linux-18-Spherical-cow.html>fedora) 18</a>

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jvc26
Spherical Cow? Well that's a new one!

~~~
arethuza
It's a very old joke:

<http://www.physics.csbsju.edu/stats/WAPP2_cow.html>

~~~
alanctgardner2
When I heard it the punchline was "Assume a spherical cow which isotropically
radiates milk", which was pretty awesome.

