From Newsgroup: alt.os.linux.fedora

This article provides a short overview and history of the Fedora
Project.

Introduction

The Fedora Project has become known for Linux innovation. Since its
inception in 2003, Fedora has been a proving ground where new ideas in
Linux are tested and refined by a global community of contributors. Its creation sprang from Red Hat Linux's transformation into Red Hat
Enterprise Linux. This move required a separate open-source
distribution to remain on the leading edge. Over the years, this
approach has nurtured developments like Wayland, rpm-ostree, and many
more spin-off editions, each having its own use case. As a result,
Fedora has become a cornerstone for the broader open-source world,
inspiring many other models.

Prior to Fedora Linux

The beginning of Fedora starts the same as many other systems, with the development of Unix and the GNU/Linux. Unix was conceived in the late
1960s at Bell Labs. The technicalities it offered, like emphasizing
modularity and portability, proved influential to future systems. The
GNU Project, which contributed a key ideological foundation, urged
programs to be published under the GNU General Public License. This
license gave end users the freedom to modify and redistribute given
software, as long as they extended the same rights downstream. In the
early 1990s, Linus Torvalds released the Linux kernel. The GNU
Project's userland software and Torvalds's kernel gave birth to
"GNU/Linux" (usually abbreviated simply to Linux). Gradually
distributions such as Debian, Slackware, and Red Hat Linux emerged to
package these elements conveniently.

Red Hat and the transition

Red Hat Linux rose to prominence in the mid-1990s by combining RPM (Red
Hat Package Manager) with a systematic method for creating,
distributing, and updating packages. Its user and corporate
friendliness made it stand out among other distributions. Yet as the
2000s approached, Red Hat faced opportunities with bigger commercial
and governmental institutions. These organizations were attracted by
Linux's stability and cost-effectiveness, and sought multi-year support guarantees and formalized maintenance models. Red Hat began to pivot to
a subscription-based enterprise solution known, thereafter, as Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL). This business strategy aligned with demands
for predictable release cadences and dedicated security patches.
However, it also introduced a new question: what would happen to the fast-paced development tradition that had existed under Red Hat Linux?

To answer this, Red Hat attempted to continue open development under
the banner of the "Red Hat Linux Project". But that model created a lot
of confusion for customers. The result was a decisive move, in 2003, to discontinue the classic Red Hat Linux brand and unveil two new
branches. These were RHEL and an openly developed community
distribution. The community-based operating system took the name
Fedora. This was in collaboration with Warren Togami's Fedora Project,
an external repository of add-on software for Red Hat Linux. Fedora
quickly coalesced as the new "upstream" community layer. Now emerging technologies could be introduced, refined, and tested by a global
volunteer network before eventually being integrated into Red Hat's
enterprise offerings.

Naming the Project

In its initial phase, Fedora was referred to as "Fedora Core" with
"Core" denoting the central packages curated by Red Hat employees. A
separate repository, known as Fedora Extras, captured
community-maintained software. Over time however, the artificial
boundary between Red Hat-maintained packages and community-contributed packages became increasingly frustrating to everyone working on the
project. Red Hat engineers and volunteers alike recognized that the distribution would benefit from a single, unified development process.
By the mid-2000s, community leaders pressed for the elimination of
Fedora Core and Fedora Extras as separate entities. This became reality
with the release of Fedora 7. In this release "Core" and "Extras"
became unified ensuring that all packages would be maintained under
shared infrastructure and open governance. This shift definitively set
Fedora on a path toward greater inclusivity, allowing volunteers and
Red Hat employees to collaborate as equals.

The Fedora Project Editions, Spins, Labs, CentOS, ....

Since Fedora Linux 21, the distribution has maintained a set of
"editions", each targeting a particular environment.

Fedora Workstation is designed for desktops and laptops, shipping with
GNOME as the default interface. With Fedora Linux 42, KDE was added as
another desktop and laptop option.

Fedora Server focuses on server environments, offering packaging for
critical server applications.

Fedora Cloud is Fedora Server optimized to run on cloud platforms like
AWS, Azure, etc.

Fedora CoreOS is "atomic" and uses rpm-ostree to provide an atomic
means of upgrading the operating system.

Fedora IoT addresses Internet of Things deployments. It ensures that
Fedora's security and update mechanisms can be extended to small-scale
or embedded hardware.

Over time, the distributions have been joined by specialized "Labs".
These are curated sets of packages aimed at gaming, design, robotics,
and scientific computing.

Concurrent with these developments, Red Hat began rethinking the role
of CentOS. This distribution had historically been a rebuild of RHEL's
source packages. Instead of simply mirroring RHEL, Red Hat inaugurated
"CentOS Stream" as a midpoint between Fedora and RHEL. Under this
arrangement, Fedora remains the upstream integration point,
incorporating the newest features, libraries, and subsystems, under a community governance model. In CentOS Stream, Red Hat engineers refine
the result into a near-final pipeline for the next RHEL release. Thus,
in effect, Fedora not only drives RHEL but also aids in CentOS Stream's progression. This intricate relationship shows Fedora's status as a
proving ground of enterprise-ready Linux technology, albeit governed by
a global collective of paid and volunteer contributors.

Future goals of the Fedora Project

The Fedora Project sees continued expansion in contributor counts and
new technical vistas. The project aims to remain at the forefront of
container orchestration, edge computing, Internet of Things
deployments, and imaginative spins such as Sway Atomic or Budgie
Atomic, which repackage the immutable model for other user interfaces.

One can regard Fedora's twenty-year saga as a success in technological progress and community organization. Tracing its lineage through Unix,
GNU, Linux, Red Hat Linux, and into RHEL, Fedora endures its legacy of
shared knowledge. By preserving its guiding principles of transparency, inclusive governance, and rapid iteration, with its dedication to open
source, Fedora remains poised to continue as a locus of innovation,
shaping the paths of CentOS Stream, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, and many
other distributions. In so doing, it carries forward the spirit of Unix
and GNU, that advanced operating systems share their combined efforts,
all striving toward accessible and empowering computing for everyone.

https://fedoramagazine.org/the-fedora-project/
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Eduardo.M - Brasil
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