REVIEW: Quick Review of Fedora Core 2 Test 2

by Thomas Chung on April 6, 2004

First of all, this is not a comprehensive review but rather a quick "crash and burn" style of installation review after reading so many issues of "SELinux" and "Disc 1 Boot Failure" problem reported at Fedora Test Mailing List. I just wanted to see it myself and take some screenshots of Fedora Core 2 Test 2 for our readers who haven't seen it yet.

The Installation

The installation was surprisingly smooth despite the reported "Disc 1 Boot Failure" problem. Perhaps I was lucky but both times from Home and Work, I was able to boot FC2-Test2 Disc 1 without any problem.

During the usual installation process, I've decided to disable SELinux option since I didn't want any headache associated with.

BTW, it only asked me disc 1 and disc 2 out of four discs to install default Workstation class.

The Desktop

After the successful installation, I opened the Computer icon on desktop and I found interesting NEW icons for Hard Drive (now called Filesystem), Floppy Drive and CD-ROM Drives.

Then, I opened common default applications on the panel to see which version they are by default. They were Mozilla 1.6, Evolution 1.4.6 and OpenOffice.org 1.1.0. It was interesting to notice OpenOffice.org came with many new updated buttons and start-up image when it was opened for the first time.

The Updates

Before I install any updates, I just double-clicked on rhn-applet to see a list of updates available and noticed there were already 220 patches to download as of today. Wow!

Last Word

Overall, I liked the fact it came with the latest Kernel 2.6.3, the latest Mozilla, the latest Evolution, the latest OpenOffice.org and new X.Org X Window System from http://xorg.freedesktop.org which I can't tell any differences from previous XFree86 X Window System.

Best of all, it finally recognized my integrated soundcard on my Dell Precision 360n Workstation without installing ALSA driver.

UPDATE 2004-04-08
If you have more comprehensive review (or HOWTO or Tips) on Fedora Core 2 Test 2, please contact me.