🚀 go-pugleaf

This article provides a short overview and history of the Fedora 
Project.

Introduction

The Fedora Project has become known for Linux innovation. Since its 
inception in 2003, Fedora has been a proving ground where new ideas in 
Linux are tested and refined by a global community of contributors. Its 
creation sprang from Red Hat Linux's transformation into Red Hat 
Enterprise Linux. This move required a separate open-source 
distribution to remain on the leading edge. Over the years, this 
approach has nurtured developments like Wayland, rpm-ostree, and many 
more spin-off editions, each having its own use case. As a result, 
Fedora has become a cornerstone for the broader open-source world, 
inspiring many other models.

Prior to Fedora Linux

The beginning of Fedora starts the same as many other systems, with the 
development of Unix and the GNU/Linux. Unix was conceived in the late 
1960s at Bell Labs. The technicalities it offered, like emphasizing 
modularity and portability, proved influential to future systems. The 
GNU Project, which contributed a key ideological foundation, urged 
programs to be published under the GNU General Public License. This 
license gave end users the freedom to modify and redistribute given 
software, as long as they extended the same rights downstream. In the 
early 1990s, Linus Torvalds released the Linux kernel. The GNU 
Project's userland software and Torvalds's kernel gave birth to 
"GNU/Linux" (usually abbreviated simply to Linux). Gradually 
distributions such as Debian, Slackware, and Red Hat Linux emerged to 
package these elements conveniently.

Red Hat and the transition

Red Hat Linux rose to prominence in the mid-1990s by combining RPM (Red 
Hat Package Manager) with a systematic method for creating, 
distributing, and updating packages. Its user and corporate 
friendliness made it stand out among other distributions. Yet as the 
2000s approached, Red Hat faced opportunities with bigger commercial 
and governmental institutions. These organizations were attracted by 
Linux's stability and cost-effectiveness, and sought multi-year support 
guarantees and formalized maintenance models. Red Hat began to pivot to 
a subscription-based enterprise solution known, thereafter, as Red Hat 
Enterprise Linux (RHEL). This business strategy aligned with demands 
for predictable release cadences and dedicated security patches. 
However, it also introduced a new question: what would happen to the 
fast-paced development tradition that had existed under Red Hat Linux?

To answer this, Red Hat attempted to continue open development under 
the banner of the "Red Hat Linux Project". But that model created a lot 
of confusion for customers. The result was a decisive move, in 2003, to 
discontinue the classic Red Hat Linux brand and unveil two new 
branches. These were RHEL and an openly developed community 
distribution. The community-based operating system took the name 
Fedora. This was in collaboration with Warren Togami's Fedora Project, 
an external repository of add-on software for Red Hat Linux. Fedora 
quickly coalesced as the new "upstream" community layer. Now emerging 
technologies could be introduced, refined, and tested by a global 
volunteer network before eventually being integrated into Red Hat's 
enterprise offerings.

Naming the Project

In its initial phase, Fedora was referred to as "Fedora Core" with 
"Core" denoting the central packages curated by Red Hat employees. A 
separate repository, known as Fedora Extras, captured 
community-maintained software. Over time however, the artificial 
boundary between Red Hat-maintained packages and community-contributed 
packages became increasingly frustrating to everyone working on the 
project. Red Hat engineers and volunteers alike recognized that the 
distribution would benefit from a single, unified development process. 
By the mid-2000s, community leaders pressed for the elimination of 
Fedora Core and Fedora Extras as separate entities. This became reality 
with the release of Fedora 7. In this release "Core" and "Extras" 
became unified ensuring that all packages would be maintained under 
shared infrastructure and open governance. This shift definitively set 
Fedora on a path toward greater inclusivity, allowing volunteers and 
Red Hat employees to collaborate as equals.

The Fedora Project Editions, Spins, Labs, CentOS, ....

Since Fedora Linux 21, the distribution has maintained a set of 
"editions", each targeting a particular environment.

Fedora Workstation is designed for desktops and laptops, shipping with 
GNOME as the default interface. With Fedora Linux 42, KDE was added as 
another desktop and laptop option.

Fedora Server focuses on server environments, offering packaging for 
critical server applications.

Fedora Cloud is Fedora Server optimized to run on cloud platforms like 
AWS, Azure, etc.

Fedora CoreOS is "atomic" and uses rpm-ostree to provide an atomic 
means of upgrading the operating system.

Fedora IoT addresses Internet of Things deployments. It ensures that 
Fedora's security and update mechanisms can be extended to small-scale 
or embedded hardware.

Over time, the distributions have been joined by specialized "Labs". 
These are curated sets of packages aimed at gaming, design, robotics, 
and scientific computing.

Concurrent with these developments, Red Hat began rethinking the role 
of CentOS. This distribution had historically been a rebuild of RHEL's 
source packages. Instead of simply mirroring RHEL, Red Hat inaugurated 
"CentOS Stream" as a midpoint between Fedora and RHEL. Under this 
arrangement, Fedora remains the upstream integration point, 
incorporating the newest features, libraries, and subsystems, under a 
community governance model. In CentOS Stream, Red Hat engineers refine 
the result into a near-final pipeline for the next RHEL release. Thus, 
in effect, Fedora not only drives RHEL but also aids in CentOS Stream's 
progression. This intricate relationship shows Fedora's status as a 
proving ground of enterprise-ready Linux technology, albeit governed by 
a global collective of paid and volunteer contributors.

Future goals of the Fedora Project

The Fedora Project sees continued expansion in contributor counts and 
new technical vistas. The project aims to remain at the forefront of 
container orchestration, edge computing, Internet of Things 
deployments, and imaginative spins such as Sway Atomic or Budgie 
Atomic, which repackage the immutable model for other user interfaces.

One can regard Fedora's twenty-year saga as a success in technological 
progress and community organization. Tracing its lineage through Unix, 
GNU, Linux, Red Hat Linux, and into RHEL, Fedora endures its legacy of 
shared knowledge. By preserving its guiding principles of transparency, 
inclusive governance, and rapid iteration, with its dedication to open 
source, Fedora remains poised to continue as a locus of innovation, 
shaping the paths of CentOS Stream, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, and many 
other distributions. In so doing, it carries forward the spirit of Unix 
and GNU, that advanced operating systems share their combined efforts, 
all striving toward accessible and empowering computing for everyone.

https://fedoramagazine.org/the-fedora-project/

-- 

Eduardo.M - Brasil
=================