In the past few weeks of the Outreachy contribution phase, I've learned a great deal about the Fedora Project that I'm excited to share with you. Within the Linux ecosystem, Fedora is a popular option among millions of Linux users. It is designed as a secure, stable, and flexible operating system. Fedora has been around since 2003, sponsored and supported by Red Hat. It is a free and open source Linux-based operating system, developed and maintained by the Fedora Project.

Fedora Linux offers thousands of free applications for various use cases, including office productivity services, and media playback, as well as libraries and frameworks for application development, making it a popular choice among technology professionals, software developers, game developers, digital artists, academics, and students. Fedora is known for its rapid release cycle, regularly updated every six months to provide the latest technologies and features ensuring users have access to up-to-date tools and quality software to perform their work. This frequent release cycle makes Fedora appealing to users.

Image source: fedoraproject.org

What is the Fedora Project all about?

The Fedora Project is the community that oversees the development of Fedora. They develop user-focused and free software platforms made freely accessible to everyone. It is a diverse community, with thousands of individuals from all backgrounds, organized into specialized working groups, collaborating to create innovative solutions for hardware, clouds, and containers.

The Fedora Project is built on four core principles:

• Freedom: Fedora offers free and open-source software (FOSS). It gives users the freedom to use, modify, and distribute it. This is accomplished through Fedora's choice of free alternatives to proprietary software and content.

• Friends: In the Fedora community, people from all backgrounds work together to create free software and improve Fedora Linux usability.

• Features: The Fedora Project is dedicated to developing stable technical features usable for a large range of users.

• First: Fedora is at the forefront of technical innovation, providing users with cutting-edge features and capabilities owing to its quick release cycle.

What does Fedora Linux Offer?

Fedora Linux is a free, open-source operating system. It is one of the most widely used Linux distributions. It is built on the Linux kernel, which serves as a building block for Fedora. Fedora Linux comes together with a desktop environment, and the default one is GNOME, a visual interface through which you access applications, manage files, and customize your desktop experience. Other supported desktop environments by Fedora Linux include KDE and Xfce. You can choose between these different desktop environments and customize your computing experience according to your preference.

Fedora Linux operating system is available in a range of editions intended for different users and uses including:

• Fedora Workstation: This edition is tailored for your desktop and laptop, providing a user-friendly environment for everyday computing tasks.

  

  Image source: fedoraproject.org

• Fedora Server: As the name suggests, this edition is designed for server use, it includes a variety of server management and administrative tools for the management and configuration of service and infrastructure.

  

Image source: fedoraproject.org

• Fedora IoT: This edition is intended for Internet of Things (IoT) devices. It is designed to provide a lightweight, secure operating system for embedded systems and IoT applications.

  

Image source: fedoraproject.org

• Fedora Cloud: This edition is intended for cloud computing environments. It is designed for deploying applications and services in the cloud.

  

  Image source: fedoraproject.org

• Fedora CoreOS: Fedora CoreOS is designed specifically for containerized workloads and modern container orchestration platforms like Kubernetes. It is designed as a secure operating system optimized for running containerized applications at scale.

  

Image source: fedoraproject.org

Other options include Fedora Spins, Atomic Desktops, Fedora Labs, and Fedora ALT Downloads. These are all free and available for download.

Fedora community

The Fedora community is an active and diverse group passionate about open source software. It includes contributors who are software engineers, designers and artists, system administrators, web designers, writers, speakers, translators, and many others from across the world. They collaborate to develop and improve the Fedora operating system and its associated projects. The community is inclusive, welcoming anyone who shares in Fedora's commitment to free and open-source software, regardless of their background or technical skills.

How can you contribute to the Fedora project?

Not an outreachy applicant? No worries, there are several ways you can get involved. You can help to test, report, and fix issues. You can also suggest changes via a merge or pull request, write articles and design graphics. The Fedora project is continually evolving and expanded by users and contributors - if you have ideas on improving an existing feature or documentation, please consider getting involved.

For Aspiring Fedora Outreachy Applicants

If you consider contributing to the Fedora Project during your Outreachy internship, this section is for you. I have shared ways to help you get up to speed or aid your understanding of Fedora, whether as a first-time open source contributor or someone new to Fedora.

• Read about the Fedora Project, Fedora Linux and the community. You can learn much about Fedora by reading Fedora documentation, Fedora Magazine and joining the Discourse platform. To dive deeper, read about Red Hat, Linux and other Linux distributions such as CentOS, Ubuntu, OpenSUSE, etc.

• The Fedora community is welcoming and supportive, so don't be afraid to ask questions or request feedback from your mentors.

• If your project of interest during the contribution phase involves software or tools not so familiar to you, get firsthand experience by trying those tools, software or platforms.

• Show up and contribute.

• Collaborate and assist other applicants in the community, as helping others helps you grow.

In conclusion, what I find interesting about Fedora is the level of coordination within the community. Especially as Fedora approaches the launch of a new version of its operating system, I notice how groups are actively working together, developing plans, and holding meetings. This experience has shown me the commitment and time people invest in creating open source software we use daily.