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Home » projects » OSDDP Project » issues

Fedora Project, Fedora, or Fedora Core?

stephen1 @ Mon, 10/17/2005 - 21:18

Project:OSDDP Project
Component:White Paper
Category:task
Priority:normal
Assigned:Rob Pitts
Status:completed

Description

Our paper takes an in depth look into the workings of the Fedora Project. Prior to this assignment no one in our group was familiar with this topic so it was definitately an interesting time trying to research and put together all of the information. When reviewing our paper, please take a look at the overall depth and tone of it. We chose to "divide and conquer" and we want to see if we had a good flow and consistent tone throughout the entire whitepaper. We had to hurry a little at the end, so review our introduction and conclusion and see if it fits with the scope of the paper.

Updates

#1 submitted by David Blakesley on Thu, 10/20/2005 - 05:24
Assigned to:» David Blakesley
Attachment:Fedora-Project-DB-notes.doc (76.5 KB)

Here is a copy of the white paper draft with some comments and changes inserted. Track Changes are turned on so that you can see the suggestions. There are also comments and even a few longer ones that I inserted in blue text so that you could spot them easily (and remove them later). Hope this helps straighten out a few things! --Dave
#2 submitted by stephen1 on Fri, 10/21/2005 - 21:07
Assigned to:David Blakesley» stephen1

After looking over Professor Blakesley's review it looks like we have a lot of updating to do. When we had done our first draft we are all a little confused on the fedora project, and we greatly appreciate all of the feedback
that you gave us. Our next draft is going to have to be completely redone. We are going to start by researching more information about the fedora project,and will have to rewrite most of the information that we’ve already written.
We will all work on the parts that we were assigned and then put out a rough draft of the next revision for everyone to look over and comment on before the next revision is due.
Here are the new areas that we are going to research:
-Discuss confusion of terms: Fedora, Fedora Project, Fedora Core

Once we get more research done on these areas we will be able to get the ball rolling a little bit better. The breakdown with our paper was that the terms all got intertwined and in all reality, they stand for completely different things. We are still planning on keeping some parts of our paper, but we are going to have to cut a lot of areas out due to the length of it if we are adding these sections.

#3 submitted by Rob Pitts on Fri, 10/28/2005 - 17:49
Category:tasks»
Assigned to:stephen1» Rob Pitts
Attachment:FedoraWhitePaper.html (40.69 KB)

After our first draft of our white paper, we realized that there was a lot of confusion surrounding terminology in our paper. Not only was this confusion felt by the readers of our paper, but by our own group members. Without meaning to, we had interchanged three very different terms throughout our entire paper, and in the end had created more confusion than necessary. After some more careful research and a better understanding of the topic, this is our second draft of our white paper. In this draft we talk about the Fedora Core, Fedora, and the Fedora Project (community). They all seem to be very similar terms, but they are in essence very different. We hope to instill in the readers the in depth differences behind these three terms. We would like for you to tell us what you think about our context and the flow of our paper. We would also like for you to tell us if there are any parts that you do not feel make sense to you. We need to make sure you understand and grasp the real differences in these terms, as we now do.

Thank you for your time!!!
Rob Pitt
Jodi Stephens
Claudette Nicodemus
Lucas Lovold
#4 submitted by stephen1 on Wed, 11/02/2005 - 16:08
Title:Fedora Project» Fedora Project, Fedora, or Fedora Core?
Category:» tasks
Assigned to:Rob Pitts» stephen1
Status:needs review» completed
Attachment:FEDORA.pdf (80.83 KB)

Here is our final draft of our project in pdf format. We changed the original issue title from "Fedora Project" to "Fedora Project, Fedora, or Fedora Core?" to incorporate the broader scope of our paper. We hope that after reading our paper, you are as well informed about the different forms of Fedora as we have become. Enjoy!!

Rob Pitts
Jodi Stephens
Claudette Nicodemus
Lucas Lovold
#5 submitted by Rob Pitts on Wed, 11/02/2005 - 18:21
Assigned to:stephen1» Rob Pitts
Attachment:Fedora.html (22.84 KB)

Here is the final draft of the original white paper project in html format. We hope that after reading it that you are as well informed about the differences between Fedora, Fedora Project, and Fedora Core as we have become.

Rob Pitts
Jodi Stephens
Claudette Nicodemus
Lucas Lovold

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Fedora v Fedora Core v Fedora Project
David Blakesley
Thu, 10/20/2005 - 05:21
 

Hi, Team--

I have updated the issue with a copy of your white paper that has comments and suggestions inserted, so check that out for additional feedback. I'm going to copy the main issue right here so that you can see it easily. (This comment is also in the file attached to the issue.) I think you'll need to discuss this as a group and map out your plan, but you can do it!

Dave

***

Charlie and I noticed some confusion (understandable) about “Fedora” that I think I can straighten out. The “Fedora Project” is a community of developers of “Fedora Core,” which is the actual program being distributed and developed with the help of Red Hat (the company). That means that Fedora Project functions like a clearinghouse for open source developers to place their programs and updates for others to download. (Another one like it is SourceForge, http://sourceforge.net/ , which actually collects a whole bunch of different development communities into one.). People can go to Fedora Project and download updates and such, just as you describe. Because it is a community (not unlike our class website functions), you can’t exactly “download” the Fedora Project (that would be like downloading our class site!).

However, here’s where the confusion starts to come in. “Fedora Core” is the name of the source code for Red Hat Linux, which is the server and operating system that is open source and that is used around the world on servers and desktops. Fedora Core can be downloaded because it is a program, and businesses use it a lot (your class website and even OSDDP are running on a computer that uses Red Hat Linux).

And it gets really tricky because “Fedora” is also the name of another, totally different, project called simply “Fedora” (http://www.fedora.info/). Fedora is a Federally supported project to create software that will help people keep track of and make connections between “digital objects” (like images or even websites that include content). (A library, for example, might need to carefully track its electronic journal articles, its ebooks, its electronic card catalog, and all its digital reference source, like dictionaries.) So this is where the confusion really sets in. It seems that you alternate among Fedora Project (the Red Hat Linux community), Fedora Core (the actual Linux program), and Fedora (the university-led project to create a different database-type program).

So don’t be discouraged about your initial confusion. Others have been confused also. In fact, to such a degree, that I could see your whole white paper being about this confusion; you could help others get it straightened out once and for all! So, for example, in your revision, it might be structured something like this:

Nature of the Problem: Confusion across the terms of Fedora, Fedora Project, and Fedora Core and its history (what other people might have said about it; heck, you could even email the directors of projects to let them know what you’re working on and ask them how they might understand the issue!)

(1) Discussion of the differences between an open source community and open source code (since that is part of the confusion here)

(2) Definitions (very carefully written) of the various Fedoras, with screen shots to add some visual interest and information

(3) Suggestions for resolution or multiple points of view that are possible on the problem of naming.

(4) Citations/references, etc.

In some respects, this confusion has a lot to do with the definition of open source also (interestingly). Open source refers to the actual code of a program that programmers create and develop. But open source has evolved to include reference to the “open source community” and the “open source process,” which are the social and creative elements that support the effort to make something (the program).

If you don’t want to take the suggestion above (which is perfectly fine), see if you can revise the white paper with this in mind. I think a focus on the Fedora Project (as an open source community) would be very interesting. How did it get started? How does it help? What does it compare too? Why did Red Hat create it? Are there any other examples where a corporation (like Red Hat) has created a project to work on open source like this? How have they done? So you’ll just need to separate out the parts that seem to be dealing with Fedora (University of Virginia/Cornell). And be sure that you don’t confuse Fedora Core (program) with Fedora Project (community).

Here are a couple of links that point to the key differences and are perhaps the most important ones that show the difference:

http://fedora.redhat.com/
http://www.fedora.info/

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Who is Fedora
cel4145
Thu, 10/20/2005 - 08:17
 

There's quite a bit on the web about the name controversy. Just Google the terms "cornell fedora redhat" and the group will find much discussion.

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