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The Fedora Project is an independent project to co-ordinate the development of
Fedora Linux Fedora Linux is a Linux distribution developed by the Fedora Project. Fedora contains software distributed under various free and open-source licenses and aims to be on the leading edge of open-source technologies. Fedora is the upstream source ...
, a
Linux Linux ( or ) is a family of open-source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged as a Linux distribution, w ...
-based
operating system An operating system (OS) is system software that manages computer hardware, software resources, and provides common services for computer programs. Time-sharing operating systems schedule tasks for efficient use of the system and may also i ...
, operating with the vision of "''a world where everyone benefits from free and open source software built by inclusive, welcoming, and open-minded communities.''" The project's mission statement is to create "''an innovative platform for hardware, clouds, and containers that enables software developers and community members to build tailored solutions for their users''". The project also oversees Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux, a special interest group which maintains the eponymous packages. The project was founded in 2003 as a result of a merger between the
Red Hat Linux Red Hat Linux was a widely used commercial open-source Linux distribution created by Red Hat until its discontinuation in 2004. Early releases of Red Hat Linux were called Red Hat Commercial Linux. Red Hat published the first non-beta rele ...
(RHL) and Fedora Linux projects. It is sponsored by Red Hat (an IBM subsidiary) primarily, but its employees make up only 35% of project contributors, and most of the over 2,000 contributors are unaffiliated members of the community.


History

The Fedora Project was founded in November 2003 when Red Hat decided to split
Red Hat Linux Red Hat Linux was a widely used commercial open-source Linux distribution created by Red Hat until its discontinuation in 2004. Early releases of Red Hat Linux were called Red Hat Commercial Linux. Red Hat published the first non-beta rele ...
into
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) is a commercial open-source Linux distribution developed by Red Hat for the commercial market. Red Hat Enterprise Linux is released in server versions for x86-64, Power ISA, ARM64, and IBM Z and a desktop ...
(RHEL) and a community-based operating system, Fedora. Red Hat Professional Workstation was created at this same time with the intention of filling the niche that RHL had once filled but it was created without a certain future. This option quickly fell by the wayside for non-enterprise RHL users in favor of Fedora.


Fedora operating system

The first edition of the Fedora operating system—then known as Fedora Core 1—was released on November 6, 2003. Fedora Core 1 was released on a fixed schedule, every four to six months. The Fedora distribution has a reputation as being a
FOSS Fos or FOSS may refer to: Companies * Foss A/S, a Danish analytical instrument company *Foss Brewery, a former brewery in Oslo, Norway * Foss Maritime, a tugboat and shipping company Historic houses * Foss House (New Brighton, Minnesota), Unite ...
distribution that focuses on innovation and close work with upstream Linux communities. In November 2021, the company announced the release of Fedora Linux 35. Fedora 36 was released the following year in May 2022.


Security intrusion

In August 2008, several Fedora servers were compromised. Upon investigation it was found that one of the compromised servers was used for signing Fedora update
packages Package may refer to: Containers or Enclosures * Packaging and labeling, enclosing or protecting products * Mail, items larger than a letter * Chip package or chip carrier * Electronic packaging, in electrical engineering * Automotive package, ...
. The Fedora Project stated that the attacker(s) did not get the package signing key which could be used to introduce malicious software onto Fedora users' systems through the update process. Project administrators performed checks on the software and did not find anything to suggest that a
Trojan horse The Trojan Horse was a wooden horse said to have been used by the Greeks during the Trojan War to enter the city of Troy and win the war. The Trojan Horse is not mentioned in Homer's ''Iliad'', with the poem ending before the war is concluded, ...
had been introduced into the software. As a precaution the project converted to new package signing keys. Fedora published the full details on March 30, 2009.


Governance

The Fedora Project is not a separate legal entity or organization; Red Hat retains liability for its actions. The Fedora Council is currently the top-level community leadership and governance body. The Council is composed of a mix of representatives from different areas of the project, named roles appointed by Red Hat, and a variable number of seats connected to medium-term project goals. The previous governance structure (Fedora Board) comprised five Red Hat appointed members and five community-elected members. Additionally, Fedora Project leader had a veto power over any board decision; in the current model, all voting members can block on issues, with a valid reason. Red Hat at one point announced intentions to create a separate ''Fedora Foundation'' to govern the project, but after consideration of a variety of issues, canceled it in favor of the board model currently in place. The community is also involved in organizing lower levels of leadership, both the Fedora Engineering Steering Committee (FESCo) and the Mindshare Committee (responsible for technical and community oversight, respectively) are community-elected bodies which manage significant portions of the project. The project facilitates online communication among its developers and community members through public mailing lists and wiki pages. It also coordinates two main events, known as the Fedora Users and Developers Conference (FUDCon) and Flock (or Flock to Fedora). FUDCon is a free software event held at different locations in the two designated regions of Latin America and Asia/Pacific. Typically, it revolves around some combination of conferencing, social events, and a hackathon. Flock is a similar event which replaced FUDCon in North America and Europe/the Middle East. Task-specific, flexibly scheduled events known as Fedora Activity Days also gather many project contributors together in various regions.


Sub-projects


Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux (EPEL)

EPEL is a repository of extra packages published by the Fedora project, which can be expected to work in RHEL and RHEL-compatible systems. EPEL is organised by
Fedora Special Interest Group
EPEL packages are usually based on their Fedora counterparts and will never conflict with or replace packages in the base Enterprise Linux distributions. EPEL uses much of the same infrastructure as Fedora, including buildsystem, bugzilla instance, updates manager, mirror manager and more.


See also

*
Fedora Linux Fedora Linux is a Linux distribution developed by the Fedora Project. Fedora contains software distributed under various free and open-source licenses and aims to be on the leading edge of open-source technologies. Fedora is the upstream source ...
* Fedora Linux Rawhide *
389 Directory Server The 389 Directory Server (previously Fedora Directory Server) is a Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) server developed by Red Hat as part of the community-supported Fedora Project. The name "389" derives from the port number used by LD ...


References


External links

* {{Authority control *