Fedora 9, just how stable is the final release?

John Boyle · 05-21-2008, 04:38 PM

I have Fedora 8 and before I try Fedora 9, which I have heard even in The Final release, has some stability issues! Can anyone verify or deny that statement?

jay73 · 05-21-2008, 08:04 PM

If you have an nvidia graphics card, it will be better to wait. Sulphur ships with a newer version of Xorg that nvidia has not released any (fully functional) drivers for yet.

Cogar · 05-22-2008, 12:49 PM

Yes, the Fedora Forums (not here, but the ones over at Fedora) have exploded due to the volume of questions, which are up at least 50%. I downloaded, burned, and even printed a nice image on a F9 DVD, but have decided to avoid installing it until the reported bugs are ironed out. Fedora "odd number" releases have generally had more problems (an urban rumor, but based on some history with that distribution) so having problems like this would be expected in a #9 release of Fedora.

armanox · 05-22-2008, 01:05 PM

The biggest issue that I've seen working with Fedora 9 is that a lot of software is "new", KDE 4, new version of XOrg, new GDM, packagekit, Firefox 3, etc. All of this new software (a lot of major changes) is functional but not polished. ATi and nVidia proprietary drivers are not functional with Fedora 9 at this time, GDM lacks a configurator, KDE 4.0.3 lacks a lot of features, etc. I expect the edges to be smoothed out by the time that Fedora 10 is en route.

lazlow · 05-22-2008, 02:41 PM

Reponding to Cogar's remarks: Every time there is a new release the volume of questions shoots up dramatically. The odds or even things is just an urban legend. It just depends on how much new stuff they decide to put into a particular release. I have used every version since FC4, some I liked (FC5) some I did not (F7). F9 has a ton of new stuff, so it is going to have a lot of "issues". Most(but probably not all) of those issues will be cleared up by next fall (F10 release) but F10 will have some more new stuff and therefore will have its own issues.

All that being said, I would stick with F8 at least until Nvidia and Ati build drivers compatible with the new xorg. By that time most of the glaring problems will be well on their way to being fixed.

justaguy_75ae · 05-22-2008, 05:32 PM

it works fine for me. my only problem is because xorg 7.4 is beta nvidia will not release drivers.

chrism01 · 05-22-2008, 07:11 PM

Also, FF 3 is still beta, and I read the other day the new KDE had issues for similar reasons. They (RH) just decided it made more sense to go with stuff that is very nearly done, rather than stick you with an old ver eg FF2 which will soon be superceded.
Also, Fedora is know to be a bleeding edge distro.
Personally, I'd just give eg 3 mths to settle down.

BallsOfSteel · 05-22-2008, 09:42 PM

I couldn't even get past the partitioning on an install of Fedora 9. It would just lock up. I was surprised that a Live version of it booted. I'm a fan of Fedora and I am EXTREMELY disappointed, but you can't make everyone happy, right?

I went through every single troubleshooting step I knew. I downloaded different .iso's, burned to different media, burned at slower speeds, tried the text mode install (which worked, but when attempting to go into GDM it would freeze again)... just NOTHING worked. The RC was more stable than the final release. Very odd.

Brandon

armanox · 05-22-2008, 09:51 PM

Well, everyone is entitled to a bad release. I personally couldn't stand FC2,3, or 4. Fedora Core 6 was good, Fedora 7 was very good, and Fedora 8 was phenomenal. Fedora 9 is a bit rough on the edges, but, I expect good things to come with Fedora 10 (Like, Firefox 3 stable, KDE 4.1, a configurator for GDM, and more).