From FedoraProject

What is Fedora?

Fedora is all about freedom and rapid innovation.

Fedora is a Linux-based operating system that provides users with access to the latest free and open source software, in a stable, secure and easy to manage form. We strongly believe in the bedrock principles that created all the components of our operating system, and because of this we guarantee that Fedora will always be free for anybody, anywhere, to use, modify and distribute.

Fedora has long been a center for innovation in free and open source software and places high emphasis on creating a community where developers and open source enthusiasts come together to advance free and open source software. The Fedora community contributes everything it builds back to the free and open source world and continues to make advances of significance to the broader community, as evidenced by the regular and rapid incorporation of its features into other Linux distributions.

Fedora is more than just software, though. It is a community of contributors from around the world who work with each other to advance the interests of the free culture movement. Everyone is invited to join, and no matter what your skills are, we have a place for you in our community! The Fedora community includes software engineers, artists, system administrators, web designers, writers, speakers, and translators -- all of whom will be happy to help you get started.

Who uses Fedora?

Linus Torvalds, the creator and primary maintainer of Linux does

NASA systems

Roadrunner, the number one Supercomputer in the world

Wikipedia servers

Over a hundred derivative distributions including Red Hat Enterprise Linux and OLPC

Even some Robots do

Millions of other users

What makes Fedora different?

We try to always do the right thing, and provide only free and open source software. We will fight to protect and promote solutions that anyone can use and redistribute. With this in mind, all of our developers are focused on working closely with upstream , so everyone can benefit from our work and get access to our changes as soon as possible. Due to the huge amount of innovation that Fedora drives, this focus has had significant and long lasting effects. Some of the recent developments in free and open source software that Fedora has driven include:

• NetworkManager
• D-Bus
• PolicyKit
• PackageKit
• HAL
• FreeIPA
• SELinux
• PulseAudio

The reverse is also true: by sticking close to upstream development teams, Fedora often gets the latest software before anybody else. Not only does this benefit our community, but it also benefits the upstream teams by providing a much larger audience and more feedback for them.

Another striking difference of Fedora is our goal to empower others to pursue their vision of what a free operating system should be like. Fedora now forms the basis for derivative distributions such as Red Hat Enterprise Linux , the One Laptop Per Child XO and Creative Commons' Live Content DVDs.

And that's not all. It is just as easy for individuals to create their own distribution, thanks to Fedora's easy spinning tools . These tools allow you to quickly select the packages you want, and create a live CD or installation disc. Some official versions of Fedora have grown up this way, including:

• Fedora Electronic Lab
• Fedora Xfce Spin
• Fedora Developers Spin
• Fedora Games Spin

How do I get Fedora?

Easy, just visit this page and download it. You can try it without installing anything on your computer, thanks to our Live images on CD or USB - in fact, you can even create a Live USB stick from within Windows !

If you have a slow internet connection, or no internet connection at all, then you can still get Fedora thanks to our volunteer Free Media program.

How do I join Fedora?

Like what you see and want to help out? That's easy too! This page has all the information you need, and don't forget that all our contributors get access to some awesome tools to help them get their work done:

• Fedora People provides free webspace for hosting Fedora related content
• Fedora Planet is an aggregation of contributor blogs so you can see what everyone is up to
• Fedora Hosted is the perfect location for hosting your free and open source projects
• Fedora's own Gobby server , so we can collaboratively work on documents in real time
• Fedora Build System to build your software across multiple architectures
• The skills and experience of hundreds of fellow Fedora contributors!