Fedora 30, the newest release of the venerable Linux distribution that serves (in part) as the staging environment for Red Hat Enterprise Linux, was released Tuesday, bringing with it a number of improvements and performance optimizations. Fedora 30 uses GCC 9.0, bringing modest performance improvements across all applications that have been recompiled using the new version, as noted by Linux benchmarking website Phoronix.
The new version includes some quality-of-life improvements, for which work began in previous versions. These include the new flicker-free boot process, which hides the GRUB loader/kernel select screen by default, and relies on some creative theming to incorporate the bootsplash image from your hardware into the loading process. This also makes updating software through the Software Center a more seamless process.
If it has been some time since you've taken a look at Fedora, the release of Fedora 30 is a great opportunity to become re-acquainted with the long-running Linux distribution. Improvements to GNOME have redeemed the usability of Fedora well after the initial release of the GNOME 3.x series, while greater attention to usability for users who are not necessarily IT professionals puts it on the same level for ease-of-use as Ubuntu.
Related Stories
Fedora developer and Program manager, Ben Cotton, opens up about what happened when he fat-fingered a script to automatically close bugs as Fedora 29 reached End-Of-Life the other day. When version 29 reached EOL, he accidentally also closed several thousand other bugs which should have remained open. He writes about how that happened.
Simply put: I messed up. When I created the CSV file, I neglected to specify the version in the Bugzilla search. As a result, I had a CSV file with 20,000 bugs. I started the script and it processed approximately 150 bugs before the community noticed that bugs were being closed inappropriately.
Earlier on SN:
Fedora 30 Brings Immense Quality of Life Improvements to Linux on the Desktop (2019)
Fedora 26 Released (2017)
Fedora 25 Released (2016)
(Score: 4, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 30 2019, @10:03PM (1 child)
About time!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 01 2019, @01:10AM
I only use the first release of fedora and stopped using it immediatly, it was too shitty even before systemd
(Score: 5, Insightful) by c0lo on Tuesday April 30 2019, @10:07PM (6 children)
Da fuck with bootsplash image, I want to see all the log until the XServer kicks in.
Last time it became handy was only one week ago, when a laptop that used to be connected by wire took ages to boot when disconnected: the eth0 iface was configured to wait for DHCP.
https://www.youtube.com/@ProfSteveKeen https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by r1348 on Wednesday May 01 2019, @12:41AM (2 children)
You might wait for a while for XServer, Fedora defaults to Wayland since 2 releases now...
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Wednesday May 01 2019, @01:11AM (1 child)
Thanks for the tip.
A good thing I'm not using Fedora, then. Based on the advice, it will probably be a (long) time until I get to try it again.
https://www.youtube.com/@ProfSteveKeen https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by r1348 on Wednesday May 01 2019, @12:38PM
You can change the default display server back to X in literally 2 clicks, but yeah, whatever rocks your boat.
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 01 2019, @08:09AM (2 children)
pro tip: Hit the [esc] key at the splash and you'll see it all.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Wednesday May 01 2019, @08:16AM (1 child)
Not gonna change the Devuan installation, thus no need to hit anything - I'm having the way I like already.
https://www.youtube.com/@ProfSteveKeen https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 01 2019, @01:13PM
You are just like me: I am glued to my screen in those first seconds to watch that baby grow.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 30 2019, @10:12PM (1 child)
Waxing very eloquent about how shiny they polished the new piece of it.
(Score: 5, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 30 2019, @11:11PM
sh
Here, I think you dropped this.
(Score: 4, Funny) by aristarchus on Tuesday April 30 2019, @10:13PM (4 children)
Hiding computer stuff from the sensitive and easily confused user? This is Linux! Give me Command Line, or give me death! And what the heck is a "Software Center"? We asked for death, and Redhat gives us systemd, a living death.
cite: Zombie protesters against cuts to education in Wisconsin.
(Score: 3, Funny) by PartTimeZombie on Wednesday May 01 2019, @12:15AM (3 children)
Sounds good! Where do I sign up?
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 01 2019, @03:09AM (2 children)
Brainssss!!!!111!!
(Score: 2) by aristarchus on Wednesday May 01 2019, @08:37AM (1 child)
As if a reply was necessary! Ow! Hey, Stop gnu-ing on my skull, you corporate sell-out zombie!
Not quite mandatory Youtube vid:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQYjZc7gKXc [youtube.com]
Got to see it in ASL, to really get the nuance!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 01 2019, @09:08AM
You get YouTube on irc? Ewww dude. Really?
(Score: 1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 30 2019, @10:18PM (1 child)
This some kinda joke for millenials?
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 01 2019, @05:14AM
I think it's a joke ABOUT millenials.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 30 2019, @10:28PM
Totally immense. Like YUGE, but better. Immense.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 30 2019, @10:36PM (9 children)
So they mention of gnome 3 being better got me a bit curious, but TFA didn't have many details:
So new icons and better FPS? WTF?!
Anyone using gnome 3 who cares to comment?
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Tuesday April 30 2019, @11:20PM (4 children)
Sorry, LXDE FTW.
(hey man, at least I cared to comment. It may well be that the set of soylenters who use gnome 3 is empty)
https://www.youtube.com/@ProfSteveKeen https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 01 2019, @08:06AM (1 child)
https://spins.fedoraproject.org/en/lxde/ [fedoraproject.org]
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Wednesday May 01 2019, @08:19AM
Already using it on top of Devuan. As a plus, no systemd - makes me a happy camper.
https://www.youtube.com/@ProfSteveKeen https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 01 2019, @09:13AM
Gnome3 .. Is that the pile of shit Ubuntu 18.04 LTS uses in place of unity?
I can't say I hated or liked unity. The close on too left was irritating but other than that it was my desktop for 3 years. A good run.
Ubuntu 18.04 LTS lasted less than an hour. What the heck were they thinking? Do they use the OS they create?
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Wednesday May 01 2019, @04:11PM
Yeah, I'm with you there. LXDE and XFCE in my case. I was a Gnome fan for years and years, but 3 broke me. It was a difficult time of many betrayals: 3, Unity, Beta, Lollipop.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 2) by Farkus888 on Tuesday April 30 2019, @11:43PM
But can I install i3? I don't think I've used gnome this decade. I can't imagine a user who went to the "hassle" of Linux but couldn't be bothered to get a better desktop.
(Score: 2) by PartTimeZombie on Wednesday May 01 2019, @12:13AM (1 child)
I use Gnome but on Ubuntu, not Fedora.
As far as I am aware, I am still on 3.2x as I use the 18.04 LTS version. I forced myself to use Gnome in an effort to figure out why it was the default desktop in so many of the biggest distros. After a few months I am really pleased with it and likely won't change anytime soon.
In it's default state Gnome is not great, but I have never used a GUI that has good defaults going all the way back to Win 95, so I might be hard to please.
In my humble opinion Gnome 3 doesn't work properly without Tweaks and Dash to Dock installed.
The default icons in almost every distro are utter rubbish, although Redhat's are nicer than most.
Systemd is great and easy to use. If something happens to go wrong it is usually easy to diagnose and fix with systemd. (That be an unpopular opinion).
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 01 2019, @05:28PM
I like systemd just fine as an end user. Neckbeard criticisms may be valid, but are beyond my pay grade.
(Score: 1) by r_a_trip on Wednesday May 01 2019, @09:02AM
Gnome 3.32 in Ubuntu 19.04 feels a bit snappier. It hasn't crashed on me yet. Other than that, I haven't really noticed sweeping changes.
Then again, I murder the default workflow with Dash to Panel, which makes Gnome 3 a lot more palatable. Also Gnome Tweak Tool is an essential addition.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by legont on Tuesday April 30 2019, @10:37PM (3 children)
It is not even mentioned in the summary. Have anybody seen it working? Is it what I hope it is? Which would be an ability to buy 10x resolution monitor, tell the bloody OS to scale it 10 times, and end up with exactly the same font and icon sizes just way way more beautiful. My poor eyes are waiting for this for the last 20+ years.
"Wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding" - John Kenneth Galbraith.
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 30 2019, @11:14PM
I thought every modern OS had this. Maybe you should switch to Windows.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Tuesday April 30 2019, @11:27PM (1 child)
Missing quotation from your comment: when using Wayland.
Which leads to...
Those who sacrifice the (Uni)X philosophy for their eyes deserve neither (large grin)
https://www.youtube.com/@ProfSteveKeen https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by legont on Wednesday May 01 2019, @11:08PM
Oh!, come on. I have not had a chance to sacrifice it and possibly never will. Besides, Star Trek under OS360 was my thing.
"Wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding" - John Kenneth Galbraith.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Snotnose on Tuesday April 30 2019, @10:49PM (5 children)
Give me decent housing, good friends, a good job. Those improve my quality of life.
An OS? Yeah, notsomuch.
Of course I'm against DEI. Donald, Eric, and Ivanka.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by coolgopher on Wednesday May 01 2019, @01:26AM
Being forced to use substandard tools at work for ~40h/wk can certainly reduce one's quality of life.
(Score: 2) by corey on Wednesday May 01 2019, @02:40AM
It's free, so you don't have to work as much. And you'll get more done with it, same outcome. :)
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 01 2019, @06:44AM
Found the windoze luser.
(Score: 1) by r_a_trip on Wednesday May 01 2019, @09:19AM
Should we give you a machine with MS-DOS 6.22 and Windows 3.11 for Workgroups to do your computing on? Enjoy fiddling with config.sys and Himem to get your devices into upper memory.
(Score: 4, Informative) by Phoenix666 on Wednesday May 01 2019, @04:15PM
Having tools that do exactly what I want them to do, when I want them to do it, definitely brings quality to my life. Forced upgrades and all the rest of the nonsense that comes with the walled gardens massively wastes my time and money. That's what the choice of OS means to me and many others.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 4, Informative) by Appalbarry on Tuesday April 30 2019, @11:14PM (3 children)
Download here: https://getfedora.org/en/workstation/download/ [getfedora.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 01 2019, @12:22AM (2 children)
Ah, thank you for the Missing Link. Now the 'evolution' is complete. You sure its not another dud archeological find?
Well, my quality of life will improve now. I really, really need a big improvement so this has my hopes up.
Question - is just downloading and having the ISO enough, or do I need to actually install it?
Could someone also please quantify the improvement I can expect?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 01 2019, @09:20AM (1 child)
Well boy do we have great news for you.
Cumming from Windows you will have great appreciation for systems, the core of RedHat.
You remember those heady days in Windows where something went wrong but you're not sure what and finding out why can be a pain in the ass. You are sure going to get on just swell with systems. The complete and utter person who had a large hand in its creation was thinking specifically of people like you when creating this Mon..er..u.entous piece of software. Come join the crowd at redhat. Two's company, right?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 01 2019, @05:30PM
yes, typing "systemctl" is sooo difficult.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 01 2019, @12:23AM (3 children)
This article was low quality. Why did you choose this one over any of Aristichoke's far more interesting submissions in the queue?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 01 2019, @12:51AM
interesting != good
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 01 2019, @06:48AM
Aris is a political prisoner of SN.
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Wednesday May 01 2019, @04:16PM
Somebody explained the reason for that once, but it was Greek to me.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by corey on Wednesday May 01 2019, @02:48AM (4 children)
... But why not. It's Fedora, if you want text until X starts, use Gentoo or the like.
This kind of polish makes it compete with Windows better. Your mum's and dad's or grandma's not going to want to see text flying by. A seamless polished experience that's bug free is what they want. So they can have Fedora.
Great thing is, just in time because all the proprietary software is going subscription licence based. Endless $. But Fedora is free.
Sounds daggy but life improvement is one way to put it.
I like text, btw.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 01 2019, @02:55AM
Windows is dying. Netcraft confirmed it.
:Polished?"
You are a turd. Keep polishing.
(Score: 2) by Subsentient on Wednesday May 01 2019, @04:12AM (1 child)
It's not hard to keep the text. Fedora's tried to have a boot splash by default for ages. Just remove "rhgb quiet" from the kernel command line and you're good. I've done that for literally almost a decade.
"It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society." -Jiddu Krishnamurti
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 01 2019, @05:45AM
Or just hit when you see the splash screen.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by mobydisk on Wednesday May 01 2019, @07:21PM
Having worked with lots of mum's and dad's and grandma's, and actually being a dad, and working with experts in the field permit me to correct your misconception.
There is a misunderstanding that users don't want to see the gears turning. But they really do: especially when something goes wrong. A blank screen or a fake animated GIF progress bar is frustrating. First, they don't know that there is a problem. How long do you wait? Then when they decide there is a problem, grandma calls the repair person or geeky grandson who asks "What message is on the screen?" If the answer is "The screen is blank" or "It says ERROR: SOMETHING WENT WRONG, PLEASE CONTACT SERVICE" that is frustrating. But when it has a rolling log of everything that happened up until that point, and a detailed message with an error code, then the person on the other end of the phone can direct grandma to do something. Problems get resolved faster. Technical messages aren't what frustrate people - it's missing or unhelpful messages that frustrate people.
Anecdote: during my day job I work on a very expensive high-end medical device. It took an "Apple" design approach of hiding the details, and the #2 piece of feedback we got from our clinical trial was that people wanted to see what was happening. So we added several progress bars showing what hidden internal steps the robotics were doing, much like our older products did.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Subsentient on Wednesday May 01 2019, @04:18AM (1 child)
I hate systemd, I really do. Hell, I wrote my own init system, Epoch. (Epoch's site/my server's down due to a move, wait a few days for it to come online again)
But Fedora is good. Despite systemd, Fedora is good. The dnf package manager is rock solid, the OS is nearly impossible to kill by stuff like a power outage during an update, the packages are bleeding edge and largely untampered with (looking at you, Debian and openSUSE), and the filesystem layout is much less aneurysm inducing than Debian and friends.
I've tried distro hopping many times, but unless I have time to compile SubLinux 3 (I don't), I'm sticking with Fedora, as I have since 2008.
"It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society." -Jiddu Krishnamurti
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 01 2019, @05:55PM
Tuned and a lot of other Redhat tools are really cool too.
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 01 2019, @04:43AM (1 child)
Both as a server and as a workstation for my personal projects.
There have been a number of questionable choices made by Fedora over the years, not least of which was Gnome 3.
As for the "quality of life improvements," that's for the great unwashed. The users who don't know or care what's giving them a desktop, as long as they can get online for extra Google/Facebook surveillance.
Fedora is generally pretty solid. For the GUI, i use it with XFCE [xfce.org]. Which works just fine with Wayland.
Wayland [freedesktop.org] does not yet have decent remote desktop capabilities, but Xorg [wikipedia.org] still works just fine if you need remote desktop functionality.
Overall, Fedora Workstation [getfedora.org] isn't a bad choice at all. However, if using it will provide "quality of life improvements," your life must suck pretty bad.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Appalbarry on Wednesday May 01 2019, @08:34PM
However, if using it will provide "quality of life improvements," your life must suck pretty bad.
I did boot up the live USB and went "Oh."
The sheer lack of gee whiz stuff is actually reassuring, but at the end of the day I had to ask why I would bother abandoning Mint/Ubuntu in exchange for Fedora. I can't see that there's anything that would make it better or worse than what I'm using now.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 01 2019, @06:51AM
It's Red Hat's testing ground, so no thanks.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by tangomargarine on Wednesday May 01 2019, @03:13PM
I go out of my way to turn back on the boot messages. And haven't all distros been doing some generic graphic to hide all that for years?
So it hides the GRUB screen, big whoop. I run a dual-boot so I'd need to disable that shit anyway.
Anybody remember when SystemD claimed it was going to make our boot experience better, then shat all over everything? Waiting a minute or two for boot to finish (the horror!!) is a small price to pay for leaving everything else unfucked. If this is the best Red Hat can do to show me QOL improvements, they can go fuck themselves. I haven't forgotten they're the ones responsible for SystemD.
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
(Score: 2) by Bot on Thursday May 02 2019, @03:20PM
Actual linux distributions like mx linux need somebody to help [mxlinux.org] with systemd-shim, which has been booted off debian because, as figured out in advance by 102% of systemd critics, systemd goes its own way and want the rest of the system to comply. In the words of its creator, “never finished, never complete, but tracking progress of technology” (peculiar way to say "bringing planned obsolescence to linux").
Account abandoned.