Image via WikipediaIt all started when I tried to upgrade Ubuntu 11.04 to 11.10, i already had a relatively slow Internet connection and it took me about 12 hours to get the full update and then it came to the point of restarting my PC and simply logging back in to experience all the new unity desktop goodness. However during to booting process there were several essential processes that could not start and I believed one or two could not even be found. After several failed attempts at trying to reboot I decided to do a disk upgrade, but I did not have the latest Ubuntu disk so I had to go with what I had.My choices were Xubuntu 11.04, OpenSuse 11.4 (which i later realized was a bad copy) and Fedora14. At that point in time I was not crazy about the idea of going with Xubuntu, mainly because my dilemma was caused by his brother distro. OpenSuse was my next choice but for reasons stated above I just couldn't. The reason for OpenSuse being my next choice was that I was interested in the Yast2 configuration for a server setup. It was an easy way for me to set up a development server for some databases.
My last resort was Fedora14. At the time Fedora16 was a couple weeks away and 14 was still running Gnome 2. I dreaded the thought of another upgrade but reluctantly I installed it. I only had the live CD but that was OK for a first install as it prevents me from installing too many unnecessary applications. The main benefit I got form the installment is that Fedora has a nice default partitioning scheme using logical volume manager and separating home from the root. This allows me to at least get back my data if I crash again. As soon as I logged in and went to the fedora site and got the F15 DVD the upgrade went as smooth as ever and I was satisfied with Gnome 3, which I have grown to like. Although on my Asus EEE some applications can be a pain because of the screen size so I later installed the LXDE desktop to remedy this problem.
So far my fedora experience has been great. I used the howtoforge tutorial to get me up and running to a windows comparable state. I also got the added benefit of Fedora having more updated packages for Postgresql and MySQL.
Well F16 is 4 days away and I cant wait to see whats new. I hear Gnome 3.2 is nice and I hope to get enough practice using Fedora so that I will have what to takes to write the Red Hat Exams. Wish me luck :)
