Fedora Core 3 x86_64

I have been a RedHat devotee for the last 5 years. Their decision to split the open source and commercial distros did not overly concern me. This technique was pioneered by the Mozilla project and has been used by many successful projects including Apple's Darwin.

When Fedora Core 2 came out I was quite disappointed. While it added the 2.6 kernel it's quality was much lower than FC1. There were freezing problems caused by power management that required boot-time options to workaround. It seems to me that the distribution's job is to shield users from these sorts of issues. If a user wants to use the vanilla kernel, they can download and compile it themselves.

With Fedora Core 3, the Fedora project has regained my confidence. It is fast, stable, slick, smooth and mature. I have been using it for the past week as both a user and as a developer, writing Java and C code. With Gnome 2.8 the user interface has many subtle user interface improvements. Desktop integration between the standard apps is improved. For example clicking on a mailto: link in Firefox smoothly opens a send new message dialog in Evolution 2.

I am running the x86_64 version of Fedora Core 3. It comes with 32 and 64 bit versions of libraries, and from what I can tell works well with both. I am using IntelliJ running a 32 bit version of JDK1.4.2. Our code is running JDK1.5.0 64 bit. I can step through my running app in 64 bit Java with my 32 bit Java IDE.

For many people Fedora Core 3 brings them up to date with a year of progress in Linux. There has never been a better time to take the plunge.

AMD64

AMD64 has been around for a while. The extreme server performance of the Opteron range has been leaking out slowly. In my own tests, we got a three times improvement in performance with no tuning.

On the desktop, AMD64 ushers in low-cost 64 bit computing. We just bought all the developers (myself included) new AMD64-based machines. They were AUD1600. We are now in the age of commodity 64 bit.

JDK1.5.0 for AMD64

Sun have partnered with AMD and one of the fruits of that partnership is JDK1.5.0's AMD64 support. The 2GB memory limit is now gone for Java.

The Reemergence of Web Standards

Two things are having an impact here. Firstly, the Mozilla project has finally triumphed with Firefox. This browser has captured the public imagination. Far from an overnight success it derives from years of work. As someone who has used it since Mozilla .9, and reported bugs against it, it is great for us that kept the candle alive to see it now. According to w3schools the Mozilla family is now at 18.6% browser share worldwide.

At this level Firefox must be supported. And as the most standards-compliant browser (74 out of a 100 cw IE's 39.5) ever, it means standards must be supported.

Tellingly, the web designers I work with love working with Firefox. The result is they develop on Firefox first and then "port" to IE.

Goooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooogle

While Google's long term effect on computing is hard to gauge, the results up to now are:

• Microsoft has been prevented from extending its monopoly into searching
• Gmail is an attack on Microsoft Hotmail and frustrates its attempt to use the combination of Exchange and Hotmail to push its patented senderid scheme into SMTP.
• Desktop searching is an attack on the Microsoft heartland.
• Google are now hosting the Firefox homepage. There have been rumours flying about a Google branded distribution of Firefox with some funky extra features.

The whole effect is to curtail Microsoft. Google is an effective monopoly which advocates ethics compared with Microsoft, who were found guilty of abusing their market position in desktop operating systems.

By curtailing Microsoft, the secondary effect is to promote standards through computing. The Windows OS gets less important.

The Total Effect

The whole effect is a big leap forward. Linux is better than ever. It is now usable for a large percentage of the population. The decline of Microsoft and the reemergence of standards gives this most standards-compliant operating systems a fertile world in which to take root.

Thanks to AMD64, 64 bit Linux and 64 bit Java 5, commodity 64 bit computing is now here. With the exception of the Microsoft's monopoly extension play, the struggling .NET, you can do everything on it.

My hope is that all of this will trigger a mass migration of the fence sitters to the Linux way. If you are one, why not wade in, the water's warm.