Fedora 11 and Ext4 = F.A.S.T.
First, boot speed.
Fedora 11 on my quad-core system boots in an amazing 15 seconds! from the GRUB boot manager to the login screen. After signing in, it takes about 1.5 seconds to open my desktop session, ready to go. This session includes opening a file manager, text editor, and a browser (Opera) with Gmail, Twitter, WordPress, and my custom start page up and running.
Second, speed.
Fedora 11 brings support for kernel-based mode setting (KMS) on Intel chip-sets with integrated graphics and almost all Radeon models. Fedora 10 was able to use this technology — which involves the kernel taking much more control of the GPU, but in 11, the drivers have been perfected for larger, newer Radeon cards. The new Ext4 filesystem is also damn fast. I poured a full 1.6Tb of data into it, and then copied it over to a second drive without a problem. My synchronizer said the drive folders were mirrors of one another. Fedora users won’t have to sit on Ext4 long, as the Btrfs filesystem is being tested for deployment in coming versions.
Third, KDE 4.2
KDE’s popularity continues to grow, and with Fedora 11, you gain an enormous number of ready-to-run apps. This has to be one of my favorite advantages of Linux over Windows — it sets up 95% of the desktop software for me, and then immediately makes sure it’s updated. Although I prefer Opera, KDE’s Konquerer browser is great.
Fourth, font rendering.
Say goodbye to the days when Linux equals Mac-like font fuzziness on too many websites. The past two versions of any Linux distro I’ve run have been crystal clear, and yes, better than Windows ClearType technology. Go see for yourself how much better readability is on a Linux system today.
If you’re looking for a Linux distro home, you won’t go wrong with Fedora. All the talk about it being more difficult to setup to play music and videos have not been true to my experience over the past three versions. Tell it what you want, download it, install, and be done. The only difference is that Fedora won’t do it automatically at installation. That’s it.