Desktop now uses Fedora 9

This is just a quick note that I have upgraded to Fedora 9. Generally, I am against upgrading an operating system at the time of a new release. The new OS version might be tagged as stable, but it is a fact that, during the first weeks after the release, many new bugs are discovered. Although I knew this very well, I decided to go for Fedora 9 and, so far, I haven’t regret it, despite the several rough edges it contains.

I usually upgrade my server or desktop through yum, but this time I performed a clean install. I wouldn’t expect a yum upgrade to work just one day after the OS’s general availability, taking into account that Fedora does not officially support upgrading through yum. Truth is: I tested it and it would cause much more trouble than good.

What I would consider as the highlight of this release is PackageKit, a program that is used by GNOME in order to stand between the user and the various package managers, so users don’t have to worry about what happens behind the scenes. Personally, I believe that approaching free software’s “chaotic” development model in such a way is good for both the end-users and the active contributors, as it makes their effort more focused and coordinated. PackageKit also includes a command line interface.

The release notes for Fedora 9 contain all the information you need to know about the changes and the new features. If you find it difficult to go through the release notes in their entirety, make sure you at least read the section about the new features of the GNOME desktop environment included in this release or read the relevant section about the desktop environment you use. Finally, if GDM looks a bit ugly, read the GDM 2.22 Configuration. Although, I hate the term “known bugs”, this is where you find the Fedora 9’s common bugs and known issues.

Having used Fedora 9 for a day or so, I can say that it is a fine release that deserves your attention. But, I would recommend upgrading to it after a week (or two) hoping that until then most of the annoying bugs will have been resolved.

PS: I tried to take advantage of the new kernel-based mode-setting feature as described in this article at Phoronix, but it did not work. The hardware I tried it on is the following motherboard: ASUS P5KPL-VM using the onboard Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 3100 (GMA 3100). If you have any more clues, please let me know.

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