Fedora Fun
I updated my Linux system from Fedora Core 2 to Fedora Core 5. There's a things in the new release that I'm really happy about:
- About 90% of the work for using a Wacom graphics tablet is automatic in FC5. Relatively recent kernel and X drivers come with the OS. Just fiddle with xorg.conf and change a couple Gimp settings, and it's ready to go.
- There's a cool new system called udev, I think, that lets you unplug and reconnect the graphics tablet without having configuration trouble. Helpful if you live in a house with a toddler.
- The Nautilus file manager has really nice support for networked drives. The interface for mounting remote drives on windows machines is a lot slicker than the interface Windows itself uses. It also creates a frontend for SSH/SCP that makes a remote machine running SSHD act like another drive.
- Maybe this has been true for a long time, but the site, Livna, which has a lot of drivers that have legal problems in the states, can be tied into the automatic software update system. I like being able to say "yum -y install gstreamer-plugin-ugly" and getting six different video libraries with legal challenges automatically loaded on my computer.