Category: GNU/Linux

A smooth upgrade to Fedora 25

Last time they introduced new feature in Software application to upgrade Fedora to next stable version within ‘Updates’ section. I wanted to try it when they released 24. But availability of 24 from Software application was delayed for 2-3 days. I was so excited and could not wait that much. So upgraded using DNF.

Now this time I did not forget to check Software application before starting with DNF. I was checking on release day itself. So I thought they may not make it available so soon. But I started to doubt myself as it was taking more time to check for updates than it ususally takes. May be taking this long to download update info of new 25. And yeah… After few minutes there it is. 25 has already been available on the very same day of its release. Way to go upgrade button.

It was not showing anything in details like what is getting downloaded or how much of download already has been done. Just a progress bar which stayed at one position for a while. I like to see all those quick changing details when something important is going on. Even though I do not understand them. So addictive. And here it was getting bored by staring at that progress bar, which is not moving a single bit. So I started with a movie. I was so into the movie that did not even think about the upgrade. After movie ended, it had downloaded all packages and now upgrade button changed to install button.

I pressed it > Reboot > Lenovo & Intel logos > Kernel selection > now it was showing the progress of upgrade in percentage. After some time it rebooted again. And it was ready with Fedora 25.

The main thing I liked in 25 is the stable version of Wayland. Really great. It uses less memory than earlier. I had tried it in 23 and 24 too. It was very buggy. Now it is not. That is why it is a default choice.

So that’s it. I did not have to type any command in terminal, change any version number or update any repo details. Upgrade button > wait > Install button > wait > and done. Very Smooth.

The free world of Audacity on Fedora

My friend was getting married and he asked me to create a small wedding invitation video for him. He knows that I have one and half year of experience on video and audio editing. So I agreed.

But unlike 5 years back, now I do not use any professional tools anymore for video – audio editing. There are many professional software available for GNU/Linux but most of them are paid and I do not have to spend on them. Because this was a very small project. So I tried Kdenlive, Openshot and Pitivi. Free of cost and open source apps available. Pitivi is very basic. It was not enough. Kdenlive and Openshot were fine. Both were crashing for some reasons. But Openshot did the job fine.

Before all that, I had a piece of music to cut down as for background score, from its original 4-minute duration to 1 minute. Obviously, Audacity was the answer. This was the first time I was trying Audacity on Fedora. During installation, I found two packages. audacity and audacity-freeworld. I was not sure whatfreeworld package is for.

So I installed audacity first. Then I realized this one does not include some important components like mp3 support. I recalled, 5 years back, on Windows we would have to install Lame Mp3 lib separately. First thought to do the same. On second thought, instead, installed audacity-freeworld. And voila. It worked. No need to install additional lib.

I did not research on this much. I am not sure whether audacity-freeworld has lame mp3 lib included or not. It worked for me. That’s enough for now.

Finally, the search is over with Fedora & GNOME

At different times in past, I had been used Arch Linux, Linux Mint, Fedora, Pinguy OS and Ubuntu. I used to love KDE once, with LM and Arch. At the time I tried Fedora with GNOME Shell and hated its UI. Not more than Unity though. The situation has gotten completely reversed. Now I love GNOME, Fedora is my favorite and not liking the new Plasma UI so much.

When I was at Quikr, as they used to install Ubuntu on the laptops for all developers, at last I got opportunity to switch completely to GNU/Linux. Installed GNOME in it as Fedora claim it as a developer friendly DE and I ha…te Unity! This time I loved GNOME from a developer point of view. And yeah, buy the time it got more matured too comparatively to its previous version. Then somehow I got my eyes again on Fedora. As they supports GNOME officially. Our system administrator allowed me to install Fedora on my workstation. He had no issue since he personally likes Fedora very much and of course everything is free cost. Since then I am playing around within Fedora on my personal workstation too.

I love Fedora for its stability, simplicity and being updated with the latest longterm version of the kernel. Obviously, Fedora does not provide everything out of the box. For some stuffs, it needs some manual tweaks. But then hey, what’s the point of being grown as a GNU/Linux power user, right?

So finally, my search is over for a GNU/Linux which is suitable for me. Well, I also like Arch Linux and Linux Mint too. But now I am totally in love with Fedora & GNOME and very excited for the next v24 with v3.20. And I am definitely going to use this new Graphical System Upgrading tool to upgrade it. Read briefly about it here.