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Jiri Eischmann's Blog

Getting Ready for Fedora 21

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I’ve been using Fedora 21 on my home computer since alpha, so it’s really nothing new for me, but I’m really excited about the release. In my opinion, it will be the most significant release since Fedora 7 when Core and Extras got merged. It’s also been the most stable release of Fedora I’ve used.

While Fedora QA guys are working on the final polishing as that F21 can meet the final criteria, ambassadors are getting ready for the release. Last week, the vendor finally delivered stickers of new products and case badges for the EMEA region:

DVDs are also on their way. In EMEA, we decided that we would only produce Workstation DVDs, we won’t need any special image from the release engineering which will speed up the process. The vendor promised me that if we provided them with ISO by Friday afternoon they would deliver the DVDs on Wednesday December 9th which is the release day! So if everything goes well, physical media won’t be behind the images for the first time in the history. And it should go well because if Fedora 21 is declared gold at the go/no-go meeting on Thursday we can take the latest image that has been declared gold and send it to the vendor right away.

Artworks for DVD sleeves and disks are also ready (thanks to inkscaper):

And where to get them? At release parties! You can even organize one and ask for support in form of media and swag.

21 responses to “Getting Ready for Fedora 21”

  1. Vyacheslav Avatar
    Vyacheslav

    Amazing artwork! 🙂
    I’m impressed.

    Reply
  2. Kevin Kofler Avatar
    Kevin Kofler

    > In EMEA, we decided that we would only produce Workstation DVDs, we won’t need any special image from the release engineering which will speed up the process.

    So much for the promise at the beginning of “Fedora Next” planning that the wildly popular Multi-Desktop DVD would remain (with only Desktop replaced by Workstation). This really sucks! Why are we removing choice from our users that way? We are now back to the dark era with only GNOME disks available, and probably a bunch of hand-burned KDE media from me (on my time and at my expense, grrr!) at the Vienna event only. There’s no technical reason to not do the Multi-Desktop DVDs anymore, I know from trustworthy sources that they wouldn’t actually cost you any more than Workstation-only. This is a pure dick move to hide KDE from Fedora users.

    Reply
    1. Kevin Kofler Avatar
      Kevin Kofler

      PS: And this removes support not only for KDE Plasma, but also for the other desktop environments (Xfce etc.) that were on the Multi-Desktop DVD, and for legacy 32-bit-only computers (which were automatically detected and provided with an appropriate image by the Multi-Desktop DVD). In other words, this is a huge step backwards.

      Reply
    2. eischmann Avatar
      eischmann

      Kevin, I’m not aware of the fact that ambassadors, who are in charge of media production, have ever made such a promise.
      You’re right that there is no technical reason not to have a multidesktop DVD (well, there is one: you don’t need to build an extra DVD, test it etc. so the production if faster and time is critical if you want to distribute the DVDs to users ASAP), but this not primarily about technical reasons, this is primarily about marketing.
      When we decided for official products, we decided to have a clear offering of distinguished products. We discussed it many times with regions and the marketing team and having a multidesktop DVD would pretty much sabotage the effort to have a clear offering because if you have three official products you want to market apart from other spins, you can’t just mix them with th spins in one of the distribution channels before they reach the users.
      We asked all regions to discuss it with ambassadors what DVDs they want to produce. In the end, it’s their decision because the production is paid from regional budgets. All regions have come up with slightly different solutions: EMEA only produces Workstation, APAC produces mainly Workstation and maybe some Server, LATAM mainly Workstation and maybe some Xfce Spin ones because there are still many old computers, and NA is still considering the multidesktop DVD AFAIK.
      Frankly I don’t have a problem to produce KDE DVDs if I see a strong demand for it which I haven’t seen from ambassadors. But if the KDE SIG comes to us and say: hey, we’d also like to have DVDs for our users, it’s important to us, I think there is no problem to invest in it.

      Reply
      1. Vyacheslav Avatar
        Vyacheslav

        Totally agree.
        Now time for fast market steps forward!

        One simple product for one direction. No more distraction of users about many DE.

        If user want something else Gnome 3 after some days or weeks used – simple solution like
        sudo yum install @kde-desktop
        helped him.

        Reply
        1. Stan 'Xeno' Trzmiel Avatar
          Stan ‘Xeno’ Trzmiel

          I don’t know what this marketing message had to be, but current course of things in Fedora doesn’t help fight the feeling DEs other than GnomeShell became second class-citizens at best. Not very nice approach to theirs developers/maintainers and users.
          I wonder what famous “F” that once stood for “Friendship” means now.

          Reply
          1. Vyacheslav Avatar
            Vyacheslav

            All mainstream desktop distributives with commercial causes provide one DE – Unity in Ubuntu, KDE as main in Suse. But Suse block user by some seconds on page with select DE. Percent of rejection on this page, I supposed, is very small. But, what matter, users have some distraction in subconsciousness in future.

            In battle for Desktop, I believe, need strong marketing movement.
            As I wrote above, one simple product to one main direction.
            Simple and undrstandable graphic, image and meaning to end-user.
            New users, who don’t have some experience in LNX country.

          2. eischmann Avatar
            eischmann

            I agree that the status of other desktops and spins in Fedora needs to be resolved and clarified after the Fedora.Next changes.
            However, I’m not sure if all desktops should automatically get the same treatment. It’s also our responsibility to advertize and ship to users primarily what has the best quality and the only other desktop that can match the level of testing of GNOME in Fedora is KDE. All other desktops have no systematic testing.

        2. Kevin Kofler Avatar
          Kevin Kofler

          > One simple product for one direction. No more distraction of users about many DE.

          You call that “no more distraction”. I call that “no more choice”, and think it will lead to many potential new users avoiding Fedora, especially because the one choice being offered is IMHO *not* what people want. (Pretty much ANY of the other desktop Spins we produce would be a better default than the GNOME Workstation.)

          > If user want something else Gnome 3 after some days or weeks used

          What if they do not want to use GNOME 3 at all to begin with? And even if they do try it out, it will be more like minutes than “days or weeks”. I tried it. It took me less than 10 minutes to realize that this is a completely unusable desktop environment.

          > simple solution like
          > sudo yum install @kde-desktop
          > helped him.

          That leaves the user with all the GNOME stuff still installed, taking up disk space, cluttering the menu, and possibly running unwanted background services (such as Zeitgeist). Getting rid of GNOME after the fact is not straightforward at all.

          Reply
          1. Vyacheslav Avatar
            Vyacheslav

            I realize that point.
            I think about this.
            If Fedora say “A” he (she?) must say “B”.
            step 1: cut product for part of target audience – done.
            step 2: insert feedback channel and programm that interactive modify product by demand.

            For example.
            During install one slide describe advantages of gnome, other slide – list of other DE (just brief information)

            After install on first boot one big slide about user expirience in DE and reminding about other UX path (mention DE).

            Before first shutdown / logout / reboot Gnome – window with question “How you rate your user expirience and satisfaction about Gnome 3?”
            Good, bad, unknown

            Good – “Fedora pleased with your opinion” and remind about other DE.
            Bad – “Fedora provide many other DE. Would you like change DE right now?”
            Big screen advantages other DE with short review.
            Option to full removes any Gnome packages.

            Unknown – something middle.

            After some time this question will repeat. About three times.
            And this application need shortcut in favorites apps in main menu current DE, of course.

            This mechanism will provide interest adventure to some users, who will change DE in regular. 🙂

            Also Fedora will have some important information about his target audience.

      2. Kevin Kofler Avatar
        Kevin Kofler

        It’s exactly the marketing aspect that I have an issue with! Before, we said that Fedora supports several desktop environments and that the user should just pick one (which matches reality). Now, the marketing will claim that there is only GNOME and refuse to market all the other desktop environments that Fedora also provides (and as a side effect, distribute media that also make the experience of actually installing them highly suboptimal). This is a huge step backwards, back to the era before Spins. And no, I don’t see the “three Products” thing as an axiom that can be assumed and from which the rest has to follow, I think the mistake actually lies right there. Products need to be abolished, everything should be a Spin and be marketed equally. The distinction between Products and Spins is arbitrary and artificial, and amounts to having first-class and second-class citizens among the Fedora deliverables.

        Reply
  3. ahmed Avatar
    ahmed

    Nice Art work. I love the first stickers picture and I am asking if you can share the files for them since I want to use them with my machine (I want to stick the fedora workstation specially).

    And thank you in advance.

    Reply
    1. eischmann Avatar
      eischmann

      https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1309518/stickers.tar.bz2

      Reply
      1. Vyacheslav Avatar
        Vyacheslav

        Oh, thank you!
        I need this too.
        And can you shared DVD cover?

        I write article about what need first after install Fedora 21 Workstation, and plan add collage from DVD cover and my ultrabook.

        Or, may be, you have graphics mention “install fedora 21 on workstation” with this new style?

        Reply
        1. eischmann Avatar
          eischmann

          It’s all here: https://inkscaper.fedorapeople.org/Fedora21/media-artwork/

          Reply
  4. Basil Avatar
    Basil

    This is an upsetting development. To take away the choice of dedicated installation media verges on the irresponsible. As a longtime KDE user, I looked upon them as an opportunity to have a computer unencumbered by the to-me-useless gubbins that comes with installing from media made for another DE. I’ll be seeking out a guide for removing GNOME nonsense, you can be sure.

    Very disappointing.

    Reply
    1. eischmann Avatar
      eischmann

      Please see my answer to Kevin above.

      Reply
  5. Marco “Milozzy” Milone Avatar
    Marco “Milozzy” Milone

    Since I see more bias than praise here, I take the chance to leave the silent majority for a moment and express my amusement for this awesome design… Great work Jiří!!
    Cheers!!!

    Reply
  6. Basil Avatar
    Basil

    Is it really ‘bias’ to desire freedom? It’s what led most of us to choose Fedora in the first place, after all. I’m glad (if I’m reading eischmann’s posts correctly) that KDE, Xfce, and the rest won’t be abandoned. But looking at the Fedora main page, they have very much been relegated to the back of the bus. New users are bound to think they’re lesser options, if they bother to look for them at all. Even seasoned users will find the layout irritating as they poke about searching for their favourite spin.

    Reply
  7. Rico Bergmann Avatar
    Rico Bergmann

    As I see lots of people complaining about the in deed very unluckily presented spins, let me mention this article written by Matthew Miller: http://fedoramagazine.org/5tftw-five-fedora-21-faqs/
    It seems like the Fedora team actually knows their way of presenting the spins isn’t that good and they do not plan to hide – or worse slope off – KDE, Xfce and so on. There’s simply no fitting idea about how to integrate the choice within the current strategy – which says “most people want GNOME so we will concentrate as we’ve always done on this DE and try to make it really good instead of providing five or six different DEs which are all more or less buggy” – yet.
    So instead of beefing one should better try to think about a good way to bring together both sides.
    This quarrel won’t lead to anything except an ending like Debian currently experiences – and which I hope nobody wants in here.
    Cheers!

    Reply
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