This week I installed the latest preview release of Fedora, having used the latest release of Ubuntu for a few months now.
The latest version of Ubuntu brings with it GNOME 2.26, which includes updates to the main burning application Brasero.
One of the cooler updates was the new notification system (example), which pops up notification bubbles from applications. This works particularly well with Pidgin where user messages pop up in the little unobtrusive bubbles so you can easily see what people are sending you without having the chat window open. I would love to see Banshee integrate in a similar way for new tracks, and it would be great if the notification system can make it's way to other distros because I think it works fantastically well.
Of course, being a new release, it brings with it updates versions of apps in the repos. In particular, OpenOffice 3, and a big one for me, XMoto 0.5 which is a fantastic little motocross puzzle game.
As for Fedora, there have been a lot of big changes too, although most are under the hood. The most immediate change that I see is a much faster boot, and a very snappy interface once logged in. This is particularly noticeable coming from Ubuntu, as I find the Ubuntu a bit slow to boot (especially with a web server installed) and the interface a little bit sluggish at times. Like Ubuntu, Fedora 11 includes GNOME 2.26.
Unlike Ubuntu, Fedora doesn't seem to have any big interface changes. The two that made an impression on me was the removal of sub menus in the System menu (which is great) and also a really nice background that extends when using dual monitors to show a cool Lion head on the right monitor. While Ubuntu comes with a very recent NVidia driver (for my GTX 260), I had to install a new driver manually in Fedora to get the fancy desktop effects.
The big plus for me in Fedora though is all of the developer tools it ships with, including a pre-configured Windows cross-compiler which is a fantastic idea because they are a pain to set up on your own. Another thing that makes Fedora stand out for me is Fedora Eclipse with nearly every plug-in I need (except for PDT which I much prefer to PHPEclipse.
As a general computer user, Ubuntu is brilliant, but as a developer, loading up Fedora is equally great. I'm going to use Leonidas until a stable-ish build of Ubuntu Karmic Koala comes out, and with the releases of Fedora and Ubuntu being staggered I can see myself switching between them every three months or so. It's great to be spoiled for choice :)
The latest version of Ubuntu brings with it GNOME 2.26, which includes updates to the main burning application Brasero.
One of the cooler updates was the new notification system (example), which pops up notification bubbles from applications. This works particularly well with Pidgin where user messages pop up in the little unobtrusive bubbles so you can easily see what people are sending you without having the chat window open. I would love to see Banshee integrate in a similar way for new tracks, and it would be great if the notification system can make it's way to other distros because I think it works fantastically well.
Of course, being a new release, it brings with it updates versions of apps in the repos. In particular, OpenOffice 3, and a big one for me, XMoto 0.5 which is a fantastic little motocross puzzle game.
As for Fedora, there have been a lot of big changes too, although most are under the hood. The most immediate change that I see is a much faster boot, and a very snappy interface once logged in. This is particularly noticeable coming from Ubuntu, as I find the Ubuntu a bit slow to boot (especially with a web server installed) and the interface a little bit sluggish at times. Like Ubuntu, Fedora 11 includes GNOME 2.26.
Unlike Ubuntu, Fedora doesn't seem to have any big interface changes. The two that made an impression on me was the removal of sub menus in the System menu (which is great) and also a really nice background that extends when using dual monitors to show a cool Lion head on the right monitor. While Ubuntu comes with a very recent NVidia driver (for my GTX 260), I had to install a new driver manually in Fedora to get the fancy desktop effects.
The big plus for me in Fedora though is all of the developer tools it ships with, including a pre-configured Windows cross-compiler which is a fantastic idea because they are a pain to set up on your own. Another thing that makes Fedora stand out for me is Fedora Eclipse with nearly every plug-in I need (except for PDT which I much prefer to PHPEclipse.
As a general computer user, Ubuntu is brilliant, but as a developer, loading up Fedora is equally great. I'm going to use Leonidas until a stable-ish build of Ubuntu Karmic Koala comes out, and with the releases of Fedora and Ubuntu being staggered I can see myself switching between them every three months or so. It's great to be spoiled for choice :)