Fedora is a powerful, fast-changing, freely available operating system. It can be used as a productive desktop or server environment. Like other Linux distributions, it’s not only an operating system like Windows or Mac OS X, but a collection of a couple thousand software packages that provide a complete working environment, including desktop productivity applications and server software. For fearless Fedora diehards, there’s also Rawhide, a nickname for the development repository where large numbers of the software packages change daily as the software is refined in preparation for the next Fedora Core release.

“Running Rawhide is an insanely wild ride,” says Chris Tyler, author of the new Fedora Linux: A Complete Guide to Red Hat’s Community Distribution. “Features will break one day and then start working again a few days later, and entire systems will suddenly change without warning. It’s truly the ‘bleeding edge’ of open source development. As release date approaches, the component packages are refined based on feedback from testing and converge to become the next release of Fedora Core.”

While Rawhide is definitely not for everyone, Fedora is one of the strongest distributions available, with wide appeal. The release of Tyler’s book, Fedora Linux, coincides with the release of the latest update to Fedora: Fedora Core 6, or FC6 (although the content of the book is applicable to FC5 and most likely to FC7 as well). Readers who are anxious to delve into FC6’s features can purchase the PDF version of the book, which is available now, at half the price of the printed version (US $19.99). Referred to as “the latest and greatest distribution from the Fedora project,” FC6 comes hardened out-of-the-box with SELinux and includes XEN3, the newest KDE and GNOME desktops, a handful of new and rewritten management tools, and much more.

Tyler bases his book on the premise that the best way to learn Linux is to use it. Accordingly, Fedora Linux is organized into a series of labs grouped into ten chapters. “Each lab identifies a particular problem, need, or challenge,” explains Tyler. “It presents the best solutions to that problem on the Fedora platform-using both GUI and command-line tools-and then technology and logic behind the solution. It also discusses related questions and shows the reader where to find additional information.”

The book is aimed at experienced computer users, regardless of their previous experience with Linux. Covering both desktop and server configurations, it’s ideally suited to an administrator or power user migrating to Fedora Linux from another environment. It will also appeal to intermediate Fedora users who want to expand their knowledge and understand the system in greater depth. Readers will learn how to:

• Install Fedora and perform basic administrative tasks
• Configure the KDE and GNOME desktops
• Get power management working on a notebook computer and hop on a wired
  or wireless network
• Find, install, and update any of the thousands of packages available for Fedora
• Perform backups, increase reliability with RAID, and manage your disks with logical volumes
• Set up a server with file sharing, DNS, DHCP, email, a Web server, and more
• Work with Fedora’s security features, including SELinux, PAM, and Access Control Lists (ACLs)

From deciding whether Fedora is the right Linux distribution for you, to learning how to run Rawhide (not for the faint-hearted), Fedora Linux: A Complete Guide to Red Hat’s Community Distribution presents the critical information you need to install, run, and master Fedora Linux.