Grandmaster clash

Ubuntu and Fedora are two of the big names in the Linux distribution world and their stewardships are set up quite differently. While they both have their funding foundations in large commercial segments of the Linux world, Ubuntu is specifically developed to be the commercial offering for all of Canonical’s businesses: desktop (that happens to be used by home consumers); and its server, edge and cloud deployments. Fedora, on the other hand, is the technological bleeding-edge development distro that’s used to forge and test systems that will eventually find their way into Red Hat Enterprise Linux – the big serious distro that’s created a multi-billion dollar business.

Let’s not forget, of course, that Fedora is blue and Ubuntu is Orange! Luckily it’s Jonni and Mayank rather than myself comparing the two projects to see what works well and what rubs them up the wrong way.

Approaches in how projects tackle installations should mirror users’ needs. LTS builds offer stability, but at the same time provide software that’s gradually aging (though Snaps and Flatpaks can work around this issue). In contrast, rolling release or more frequently updated distros mean constant updates, but greater security – at the cost of possible stability.

Rather than being critical of either direction, we need to bear in mind that it’s all part of the varied open source ecosystem, which we’re more than happy to embrace, because we can never envision one size fitting all. And mirroring that sentiment, this issue contains our usual wide range of features, reviews and tutorials. Enjoy!