I’ve been using Fedora since version 8. I wanted to re-install a good old working copy of Fedora-13 on my daughter’s laptop. I would consider using the version 14 as well, but I don’t see why, as long as everything my daughter needs works fine.
I found only Fedora-15 available for a download. I tried it and hated the new look of Gnome 3 desktop. I could not find an option to install the latest version of the OS with the familiar desktop.
I understand this is very subjective, but it is mine – the new look of Gnome reminds me of Microsoft’s attempts to make something “new” like Vista or Win 7, just new looks where the core system files remain the same but a user has to learn using “ribbons” instead of toolbar buttons and “libraries” instead of plain folders. I have been programming for some 20 years (scientific applications) with Win GUI, and those apps still work on all Microsoft OS from NT to 7, just because I stick to plain API calls to OS functions. I am fine with “new looks” but can’t deal with “ribbons”…
In addition, when I tried to update Fedora on my 64-bit desktop with version 15 and this Win7-like desktop, I got an error message that Gnome 3 could not install because my graphics card was not good enough for it! Thanks a lot. One thing I got used to love about Linux in general was that it never whined about hardware whatever it was.
I understand that I am mixing OS and desktop issues here, but in reference to my options to download and install a new version, I just get Vista-type desktop (and trends) with the default download options from fedoraproject.com. No, my daughter does not want to re-learn how to use her laptop by exploring other desktops.
I’d like to ask the Linux community a few questions:
- Can I install Fedora-15 and have the old familiar Gnome desktop? I am not an advanced user of Linux, thus I would need detailed instructions on doing that. Can I find them anywhere?
- Is there a way to uninstall the default version of Gnome and install an older one? I recon this would take a lot of step-by-step instructions…
- Can I find a way to download and install Fedora 13 or 14 now?
I understand that most users of Linux will scoff at this post, but I know they are smart and creative people who can understand what I am trying to say here. I am very open to a friendly advice.
Thank you.
SD

I'm not sure if you know this ( & apologies if you do...), but Fedora is RedHat's bleeding edge/unstable R&D distro
that gets replaced approx every 12-13 mths.
Doesn't mean it can't be stable, but it's definitely not designed for long term use. The old repos get shutdown/archived after 1 or 2 versions after.
If you want RH style, but long term support (ie updates) consider a desktop style install of CENTOS (Free version of RHEL).

Alternately consider a different distro.

Alternately, you may hear from a guru who knows how to backtrack the GUI (if its possible), but you have to accept that (on Fedora), that GUI is gradually expiring & its going to become progressively more unlikely to be do-able.

Good luck

There's a huge reason why. You won't get important security updates, and the package manager won't work.

I don't know about GNOME 2, but you can try installing Xfce. It doesn't have as many bundled applications, but it has a look and feel similar to GNOME 2, and it can be configured to have the two panels on the top and bottom of the screen (if that's what you like).

I'm afraid that there's nothing you can do about Gnome 3, which a lot of us dislike as much as you do. Fedora jumped the gun and included it the moment it came out. Other distros are waiting for it to stabilise, but all will be switching because Gnome 2 will no longer be maintained.

As the last poster says, if you liked Gnome 2, you may like Xfce; I do. Don't use it in Fedora, where it is a minority choice and so gets less feedback from users and less care from the developers. Mint offers an Xfce version built from Debian Testing. That's a rolling release: you never need to re-install with a new version because there are no versions — it just gets updated week by week. If you feel that a rolling realease may be a bit unstable, try Salix. That's based on Slackware, and so as stable as you're going to get, and Xfce is Salix's default desktop. Avoid Xubuntu: I tried the current version of that and had a lot of trouble getting videos to play properly.