Fedora is a somewhat frustrating distro (distribution) of Linux. This is because it is closely associated with Red Hat, a commercial Linux open source distribution.
I was using Red Hat for quite awhile as a free distro before it took on its commercial identity. When it became commercial many of the folks that donated a lot of free development time to the ideal of a free Linux were very concerned. Actually the Linux Kernel is still free and open source but the support and custom coding of Red Hat commercial applications is not.
The solution was the forming of Fedora, still a hat but not red. Fedora is the totally free open source Linux path that Red Hat once trod. However, the continued obvious association with Red Hat has created some software legal issues for both brand names.
Fedora abides by a standard of only supplying totally free open source software in its distribution so that excludes any software that may have what Red Hat/Fedora considers restrictive license requirements on its free and open use.
That means a lot of special drivers and many programs are not available in the official Fedora software support channels.
One area I found frustrating (among others) was the drivers needed to view commonly available Internet video formats and standard video camera files. They are simply not provided by Fedora and any source goes unmentioned in official Fedora help and support files. Standardizing sound and video drivers have always been a major proprietary issue and purest open source Linux users wanting only free and open drivers just made it more difficult. Linux applications like Gnome Totem and GStreamer have suitable drivers available but not from Fedora. Another solution is to install one of the most popular free players called VLC Media Player from VideoLAN.
The Ubuntu distro on the other hand has no qualms about automatically providing the required drivers as Ubuntu is not associated with a commercial product. That has driven Ubuntu very high on the friendly user scale ease of use and satisfaction. Ubuntu is truly a plug and Play Linux while Fedora and others like openSuse still flail around with burdensome proprietary license restrictions. That doesn’t make Ubuntu a “better” operating Linux, just a lot easier to install and maintain. For some Linux hard core open source advocates, that makes Ubuntu stray from being a pure open Linux distro.
Personally I have no feeling of purity and veracity by running a totally open Linux. I want a Linux distribution that can do its job in a real world. Viewing all video standards is one of those wants.
Here is one solution for Fedora advocates to break the barrier. Go to this site and follow the directions. http://rpmfusion.org/ What I needed was the latest “gst-ffmpeg” drivers for GStreamer. How’s that bit of sequestered knowledge measure up for being user friendly?
There are others, but I have used this source with success. Web Searches will lead to the others. The frustration I feel is that I have to do this at all to produce a truly functional system. Maybe it is a bit dirty as “GStreamer” uses words like “bad and Ugly”. That’s the way it is in a world of free and open source software. (Except it seems for Ubuntu…)
Yeah, I still like Fedora. I also like openSuse and Ubuntu but I don’t need to run them all…