Sun has made a significant step for providing users and developers better access and freedom with Java. Sun announced this week they will be open sourcing key parts of Java under the GPL. In effect most users should not see a direct impact on their Java usage, however in the long term Java will have a more widespread usage, subject to fewer problem and more readily available on different systems.

Due to licensing and Sun’s tight control of Java (TM), an open implementation of a Java compiler (GCJ) is being actively developed. Previously any Java developer risked the possibility that an adverse change in policy by Sun could affect their Java development. Although the intention is good, the vast majority of developers still used Sun Java, leaving GCJ very immature. Distributions like Fedora included GCJ, but prohibited Sun Java. However since most GPL software is acceptable in Linux distributions, Java will most likely will show up in Fedora, Debian and others which formerly banned it. At least it should make for an easier installation of Java in Fedora Core!

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In other developments, Sun has release the Java 1.6 RC (Release Candidate). Included in the Desktop Features are improvements to the GTK look and feel. Hopefully this should make Gnome Eclipse users happier!

For those who wish to try Java 1.6 along side 1.5 in Fedora Core:

Download the JRE (jre-6-rc-linux-i586.bin) from … Sun Early Access Downloads.

As root:

# sh jre-6-rc-linux-i586.bin
# mv jre1.6.0 /opt/jre1.6
# alternatives --install /usr/bin/java java /opt/jre1.6/bin/java 3
# echo 3 | /usr/sbin/alternatives --config java

# java -version
java version "1.6.0-rc"
Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.6.0-rc-b104)
Java HotSpot(TM) Client VM (build 1.6.0-rc-b104, mixed mode, sharing)

I don’t recommend testing the web browser plugin (as if Firefox doesn’t have enough reasons to crash). However playing around with Eclipse may be nice to see if you notice any changes!

Posted in: Development, Fedora, Linux, Software,

The need for PHP4 has not changed much since Fedora Core 5 (FC5). Hence I have taken the time to update the SRC.RPM that I had originally distributed for FC5 to support Fedora Core 6 (FC6). Included are several security updates as well. FC5 users who used this file previously should update.

The updated source RPM package is provided on the following guide:

PHP4 on Fedora Core 6

Steps provided should work for FC6, FC5 as well as FC4. Although no testing was done for FC4. There are some precompiled binary RPM’s provided as well. (The binaries MAY be out of date.)

As always, these have only minimal testing by myself. Furthermore, please take care when using these files on production servers.

Posted in: FC5, FC6, Fedora, Hosting, PHP,

After some rather clunky Test releases, buggy installers and 3 delays, Fedora Core 6 “Zod” is finally released!

The full list of features can be found on the FC6 Release Summary.

Please download using the official mirror list or through Bittorrent. The release notes give a comprehensive list of changes. There is also a Fedora Core 6 Tour with some media.

For more help I’ve create a page to explain to people on How to download Fedora Core.

I have not yet completed my Personal Fedora Core 6 Installation Guide but the current draft should help for people who plan to install immediately.

Posted in: Distributions, FC6, Fedora,

It appears as though NTFS support in Fedora is no longer considered to be a “Forbidden Item”. A request has been made to include NTFS-3G into Fedora Extras.

This has always seemed silly to me. The kernel has had NTFS read-only support for years. The kernel source shipped by Fedora includes the source to the driver. However someone thought that it violates some rules if shipped in binary format, but not in source. Anyways, it took long enough.

Pretty soon, people will be able to access NTFS partitions out of the box, and if the NTFS-3G works as well as people claim then the read-write functionality should be there also. … I hope.

Update: For people looking for NTFS on Fedora.

Posted in: Fedora, Linux, Setup,

While Adobe is hard at work at version 9 of the Flash plugin for Linux, there was a critical security update that affected version 7 for Linux.

It is recommended everyone update their flash plugin. Users of the macromedia.repo who have configured yum, should run:

# su -c 'yum update flash-plugin'

Posted in: Desktop, Fedora, Multimedia, Software,