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How Do You Get Fedora?

Posted by ⋅ ⋅ 83 Comments

This is an informal survey, depending on the results I may or may not set up a more formal survey.

Question A: Why and when do you download Fedora?

First off, why and when do you download Fedora? Some suggestions:

  1. A new Fedora release comes out and you want a copy (release trigger.)
  2. You’ve obtained a new piece of hardware and want to put Fedora on it (hardware trigger.)
  3. You’re at a friend’s house and you’re helping them install Fedora (spread Fedora trigger.)
  4. You’re grabbing a copy of Fedora to burn onto several disks to bring to your LUG meeting (f2f event trigger.)
  5. You or someone you know has massive HW failure and you want to make a LiveMedia disc or USB key so they can still use their computer while waiting on parts (solution trigger.)
  6. Another reason?

Why and when else do you download Fedora?

Question B: How do you get Fedora?

So you need to get a copy of Fedora and install it. How do you do this? Some suggestions:

  1. Pick up a hard copy of a disc (live media or DVD?) at an event.
  2. Click a link in the release announcement or in FWN
  3. Don’t download, use PXE boot.
  4. Kickstart using some other management service other than PXE boot.
  5. Go to http://www.fedoraproject.org, and click on download
  6. Go straight to get.fedoraproject.org
  7. Go straight to mirrors.fedoraproject.org
  8. Go straight to torrent.fedoraproject.org
  9. Go straight to spins.fedoraproject.org
  10. Through the Fedora Unity project
  11. Look up Fedora on a bittorrent tracker that is NOT torrent.fedoraproject.org
  12. Don’t download, preupgrade.
  13. Get a copy / usb key from a friend
  14. Download or obtain copy from local source (e.g., university student gets a copy from university help desk, employee at a company gets it from internal mirror)
  15. Purchase physical media from an online store
  16. Free Media Program
  17. Some other method?

Question C: What Fedora do you get?

When you ‘download Fedora’, what is it you’re actually downloading?

  1. The Fedora DVD iso
  2. A LiveMedia spin iso (any spin)
  3. boot image to do a net install
  4. Nothing, I use preupgrade.
  5. Some other type of Fedora?

Thanks in advance for your help! If you want to keep your answer short & sweet, that’s cool, you can use a format like this:

A: 3
B: 2
C: 5 – I download blah blah

Please note, I’m interested in how YOU personally would answer them, only; your thoughts on how other people would answer will not help.

About Máirín Duffy

Máirín is a principal interaction designer at Red Hat. She is passionate about software freedom and free & open source tools, particularly in the creative domain: her favorite application is Inkscape. You can read more from Máirín on her blog at blog.linuxgrrl.com.

Discussion

83 thoughts on “How Do You Get Fedora?”

  1. A: 1, 6 (Download updated Unity images for LUG meetings)
    B: 5 mostly and sometimes 2
    C: 1

    Posted by Syam | August 23, 2009, 8:00 pm

  2. A:1 sometimes 5
    B:5
    C:1

    Posted by luzem | August 23, 2009, 8:24 pm

  3. A. It is usually 1 or 5. The 6 is that I used Fedora to preview what RHEL-(n+1) would be like.

    B. 17. I normally just go directly to mirrors.kernel.org and download the DVD there. Trying to go through the webpages is a pain and I usually find it easier to drill down on mirrors than figure out where the page has gone to this time :/

    C. 1. I rarely get the Spins as what I want is on the DVD and then net access. If I am using a spin.. its one I am building myself for a project that has no net access.

    Posted by Stephen Smoogen | August 23, 2009, 8:24 pm

  4. A : 1- but generally I switch to rawhide ~ 3 months before the release is out. 3- for new users, two or three times a year
    B : 5 for new users, but I generally have a iso on my hard disk, ready to burn. 13 : yum upgrade for myself
    C : 2- for new users

    Posted by Adrien BUSTANY | August 23, 2009, 8:33 pm

  5. A: New release. Though I only upgrade my desktop (primary desktop systems) after a few months. I may also download copies for various reasons related proof of concepts or other uses almost entirely in guests that are only up temporarily. For work related installs I do it on demand when the need comes up.

    B: Normal use case is via netinst.iso though I have started pre-upgrades. (that’s for personal use). For work it’s almost entirely pxeboot or virt-install

    C: Pretty much only net-install.iso or vmlinuz+initrd.img except for one-offs or when the need isn’t one I choose.

    Posted by Mike McGrath | August 23, 2009, 8:36 pm

    • I completely didn’t follow the rules, correcting now. Talking specifically from a work role (not personal)

      A: 6 – Usually a new business need comes up and we need a new Fedora install.
      B: 7 – (I do this even though I have access to the master mirror… go figure 🙂
      C: 3(ish) I download the vmlinuz + initrd and do network installs or virt-installs

      Posted by Mike McGrath | August 23, 2009, 8:43 pm

  6. A: 1,2,3,5,6(Windows virus infected machine, and the owner can’t take it anymore)
    B: 1,2,5,6,7,8,9,10,12
    C: 1,2,3,4,5:(manual yum upgrade)

    Various situations, various reasons and methods.

    Posted by Mace Moneta | August 23, 2009, 8:44 pm

  7. A: 1 (usually download with the Preview release is out)
    B: 5 (and then choose torrents)
    C: 1

    Posted by James Rankin | August 23, 2009, 8:53 pm

  8. A: 1
    B: copy off of a personal Fedora mirror
    C: 3

    Posted by Ricky Zhou | August 23, 2009, 9:47 pm

  9. A: 1, 6 – 1 for primary computer, 6 (installed version no longer supported) for other computers.
    B: 7 – Sort of. I usually use a mirror I know is local and fast.
    C: 1

    Posted by Stephen Moehle | August 23, 2009, 10:04 pm

  10. A.1
    B.5
    C.1 & 2, 3 when necessary, 4 for a particular machine

    Posted by Eric Moreau | August 23, 2009, 10:06 pm

  11. A. 1
    B. 5
    C. 1 sometimes 2 also (for usb)

    Posted by Andy York | August 23, 2009, 10:13 pm

  12. A: 1,(2,4) – Usually grab all images once and carry on my main laptop though.
    B: 7, (6, 14)
    C: 1, 2

    Posted by Chris Tyler | August 23, 2009, 10:24 pm

  13. A – 1
    B – 8
    C – 1

    Posted by Dexter Ang | August 23, 2009, 10:25 pm

  14. A: 1
    B: 5
    C: 2

    Posted by Marc | August 23, 2009, 10:32 pm

  15. A – 1
    B – 6
    C – 1

    Posted by jmrodri | August 23, 2009, 10:51 pm

  16. A: 1

    B: 8 and I seed it till the next release 🙂

    C: 1

    Posted by Paul Lipps | August 23, 2009, 11:18 pm

  17. 1
    5
    1

    Posted by jim | August 23, 2009, 11:36 pm

  18. A1 – I download latest dvd iso and keep the image on hard disk for future use
    B14 – get it from the university mirrors
    C1+2 – the dvd gets all the packages and is for the installation. I also get the live iso to put it on usb and fix friends’ computers, or maybe use it to install fedora in case the dvd fails as happened in F11

    Posted by well wisher | August 23, 2009, 11:36 pm

  19. A: 1
    B: 5
    C: 1

    Posted by Ruslan Rudenko | August 24, 2009, 1:16 am

  20. A: 1
    B: 5
    C: 2 – Installable Live CD

    Posted by Podróżnik | August 24, 2009, 1:18 am

  21. A.1
    B.5
    C.2

    Posted by Piotr Pyclik | August 24, 2009, 1:53 am

  22. A 1 – for the last release cycles I did this around Beta for my desktop and laptop and then tracked Rawhide until the release. Sometimes also download the final release only to seed the torrent, give away a burned disk, play with LiveUSB
    B 2/17 – when using torrents (i prefer to download using BT not because of speed, is the same as using a nearby mirror, but for bandwidth control and easy pause/resume) I honestly don’t remember: the fp.o/get-prerelease link is posted in many places (including announcements I wite), so just click one of those. when downloading from a mirror, I usually go directly to one of the two local (.ro) mirrors
    C 1/2 – for my own use, always the install DVD. also a Live image for sharing/playing with

    Posted by Nicu | August 24, 2009, 1:53 am

  23. A 1
    B 15, due to isp limits
    C 1

    Posted by Jim | August 24, 2009, 2:22 am

  24. A:1
    B:5
    C:1

    Posted by sojourner | August 24, 2009, 2:28 am

  25. A: 1 and 6 (or 3?): to get it into Spacewalk to allow Sysadmins of the departments of our university install it everywhere
    B: 8 and 9, sometimes 6 and 12 (preupgrade mostly fails for me and I often prefer fresh installations)
    C: 2, sometimes 1 or 4

    Posted by red | August 24, 2009, 2:44 am

  26. I’m an Ubuntu user, but I keep a VM with Fedora around to see what’s new on the other side and test various projects on it.

    A: 1
    B: 5
    C: 3 – and the desktop live cd, which is not on your list?

    Posted by Stéphan K. | August 24, 2009, 2:51 am

  27. A: 1
    B: 5
    C: 1

    Posted by Steven | August 24, 2009, 2:54 am

  28. A – 1
    B – 5
    C – 1

    Posted by Jeff Walden | August 24, 2009, 3:09 am

  29. A: 1 – New release and I’d like to try it
    B: 8 – Always torrent download 🙂
    C: 3 – It’s better. I download only the package I need and not all. Sometime I did the DVD Download (1)

    Posted by innovatel | August 24, 2009, 3:25 am

  30. A:1
    B:4,5
    C:2,3
    I would like to add a thought: This last release was the first one I used liveCD to disk install and it is amazingly fast, unfortunately it didn’t play well on keeping other OSes on the hard drive (I was too exhausted to even report this one I just live with it) and I ended up with only f11 after the install, but still I think I will be using this from now on, otherwise I use network install directly from fedora mirrors, but it takes about an hour, with liveCD – 10 minutes or less.

    Posted by Peter | August 24, 2009, 3:29 am

  31. A: 2 — mostly that, I usually loose the CD after installing it or whatever 🙂
    B: 5
    C: 3 — at work, but 1 from home

    Posted by Juanjo | August 24, 2009, 3:46 am

  32. A: 1 and 3
    B: 10 or 5
    C: 3 for new installations, 2 for showcasing and testing

    Posted by Henning | August 24, 2009, 3:54 am

  33. A – 1
    B – 5
    C – 2 (generally one each of Gnome and KDE)

    Posted by Andy Ferguson | August 24, 2009, 4:04 am

  34. A: 1 (or 3 sometimes)
    B: 5 (or 12 if I feel brave enough)
    C: 2 (4 if I’m preupgrading)

    Posted by cosimoc | August 24, 2009, 4:46 am

  35. Normally either:

    A: 1 – Release trigger
    B: 12: Don’t download – preupgrade (most machines already have Fedora installed).
    C: 4: Preupgrade!

    or:

    A: 2 – Hardware trigger.
    B: 5 – Goto fedoraproject.org
    C: 3 – Net install (but sometimes I seem to not be able to find that and go for 2 – live media).

    And from time to time I want to help out, check, build on, rawhide to see whether my projects work, can be adapted, trigger bugs, etc. on new kernels, gcc, other toolchains changes. This is often a bit of a pain (maybe I am just really unlucky though) . Because none of the above paths give you a really nice “this is how you get current rawhide” option. Either there is no rawhide install media yet, or there is but it will not install because it is so fragile. And preupgrade or yum upgrade will not work because of dependency or other package problems. It would be really nice if there was a simpler, more robust, way to satisfy the “want to help out with rawhide/new stuff” trigger. (If you are already running Fedora on modern kvm enabled hardware, then it would be really nice if virt-manager came with a “install current (or last know working) rawhide in a virtual box” option.)

    Posted by Mark Wielaard | August 24, 2009, 5:31 am

  36. A:1
    B:8
    C:1

    Posted by Nenad | August 24, 2009, 5:57 am

  37. A: 1
    B:
    8: because delicious makes it breezy to keep track of URLs
    12: done preupgrade before
    17: … or even upgrading via yum. especially if upgrading from stable to anything before beta. why risk getting bitten by an Anaconda bug?
    C: mostly 2. 1 if I plan to lend the DVD to someone, but otherwise, nowadays I have more thumbdrives lying around than blank DVDs.

    Posted by Michel | August 24, 2009, 6:14 am

  38. A: 1,2 and 6 simply to get the new version of some apps.
    B: 5 and 12 (just once for preupgrade).
    C: 2 and 4

    Posted by -Stéph- | August 24, 2009, 6:15 am

  39. A: 1 – also software trigger when they “need” the new version of some software which is only available in a new version (e.g. today it was Python 2.6). Also routine upgrades of any machines which slip behind (about 50 machines so only once every 2 years or so).
    B: 8
    C: 1 and 2 for netbook usb installs

    Posted by Charlie Brej | August 24, 2009, 6:36 am

  40. A: 1
    B: 8
    C: 2

    Posted by Gian Mario Tagliaretti | August 24, 2009, 6:45 am

  41. Hi Mairin!

    A: 1
    B: 6
    C: 1

    Best regards,
    Pedro

    Posted by Pedro Silva | August 24, 2009, 7:00 am

  42. A: 1
    B: 5
    C: 2

    Posted by carl | August 24, 2009, 7:01 am

  43. A:1
    B:5
    C:3,4

    Posted by Martin | August 24, 2009, 7:15 am

  44. A: 1
    B: 5
    C: 2

    Posted by jb | August 24, 2009, 7:16 am

  45. A1, occasionally 5 (although usually it’s a diagnostic tool rather than a replacement OS in this case)
    B17: I’ll usually start at fp.org to find torrent.fp.org or mirrors.fp.org, then find the 64 bit version.
    C2,1,3 (in order)

    Posted by James | August 24, 2009, 7:33 am

  46. I would like to add a comment related to the survey, and what I’ve answered to the first question.
    One of the main reason to upgrade to the next Fedora release (for me), is because I want to use new versions of some applications.
    However I know several people who are reluctant to use Linux (here Fedora) as their main OS, because of the need to upgrade the whole system (and potentially break it), in order to get new versions of some applications.
    I think this is here a major hurdle for a wider Linux adoption, and we really need to address it.

    Posted by -Stéph- | August 24, 2009, 7:53 am

  47. A: 1
    B: 5, 2
    C: 1

    Posted by John Margaritopoulos | August 24, 2009, 8:22 am

  48. A: 1
    B: 5
    C: 1

    Posted by Stoffe | August 24, 2009, 8:23 am

  49. 1, 12, 4

    Posted by M | August 24, 2009, 9:06 am

  50. A: 1
    B: 6 (because of the lack of KDE spin at 5)
    C: 2

    Posted by Christian | August 24, 2009, 9:15 am

  51. A: 3
    B: 3 and 12
    C: 1 and 4

    Posted by Rabin | August 24, 2009, 10:15 am

  52. A:6, To get a preview of fedora in Virtualbox. My ubuntu installation serves me nice, but
    time to time, I like to check in VBox if fedora has something revolutionary.
    B:5
    C:2

    Posted by MJ | August 24, 2009, 10:28 am

  53. A:1
    B:8
    C:1

    Posted by MEC | August 24, 2009, 10:47 am

  54. A:1,2,3,5
    B:5,12
    C:1,2,4

    Posted by Richard | August 24, 2009, 11:07 am

  55. A: 1 and 4
    B: 8
    C: 1 and 2

    Posted by Heherson Pagcaliwagan | August 24, 2009, 11:08 am

  56. A: 1
    B: 5, 4 and 12
    C: 4 (for VMs) or 5 (my own LiveCD/DVD spin)

    Posted by Michael | August 24, 2009, 11:11 am

  57. A: 1
    B: 12
    C: 4

    Posted by dmaphy | August 24, 2009, 12:48 pm

  58. A: 1
    B: 5
    C: 1

    Posted by Alexey | August 24, 2009, 1:04 pm

  59. A: all 5
    B: 4, 6, 12
    C: all 4

    Posted by Ian Weller | August 24, 2009, 2:20 pm

  60. Here’s mine.

    A-
    1. releases and pre-releases as well, mostly for testing and seeing what the future will look like
    2. of course 🙂
    3. at a friend house, or at an event, release party,…
    4. we (the french Fedora NPO) burned 1000 copies of Fedora 11 to distribute at events 🙂

    B-
    1. I usually distribute them, but I also take some sometimes. But shhhh, don’t tell anyone 😛
    6. that’s what I almost always do
    7. for downloading the Rawhide boot.iso
    9. when I want to try some more exotic spins

    C-
    1. that’s what I do most often
    3. when installing Rawhide
    5. I downloaded some spins from spins.fp.o, and tested the KDE spin I took at FUDCon. those were only one shot tests, they never got installed

    Posted by bochecha | August 24, 2009, 2:39 pm

  61. A: 1 – if I lose that copy however, it’d be 5 (solution trigger)
    B: 5 – from there, I follow links to torrents, and fall back to http/ftp mirrors if torrents are slow.
    C: 2

    Posted by Hassan Ibraheem | August 24, 2009, 3:30 pm

  62. A: 1
    B: 5 or 12 depending on whether its a fresh install or not
    C: 1 or 4 depending see above

    Posted by Matthias Adler | August 24, 2009, 4:39 pm

  63. a1
    b8 or b9
    c1 and c5 (fedora xfce)

    Posted by andrej | August 24, 2009, 4:45 pm

  64. A1 – B8 – C1 here

    Posted by Martin | August 24, 2009, 5:05 pm

  65. A: 1
    B: 12
    C: 4

    Posted by Özgür Caner | August 24, 2009, 9:12 pm

  66. A) 1, 2, 6Other – Testing regressions or when feature/bugs are introduced for backporting to RHEL.
    B) 14 Internal Red Hat mirrors.
    C) 1, 2 5 – For bugs that apply upstream, i usually test on fedora rawhide.

    Posted by Wade Mealing | August 24, 2009, 9:54 pm

  67. A -1
    B -6
    C – 2 –> kde sig ftw

    Posted by klaatu | August 24, 2009, 10:18 pm

  68. A – 1
    B – 6
    C – 2 –> kde

    Posted by klaatu | August 24, 2009, 10:30 pm

  69. A. 1
    B. 5,7,8
    C. 1

    Posted by Bob R. | August 24, 2009, 11:21 pm

  70. A: 1, 5, 3, 2
    B: 17 (download the dvd directly from a mirror of choice without going throught the mirror list)
    C: 1, 2

    Posted by drago01 | August 25, 2009, 5:09 am

  71. A: 1
    B: 5
    C: 1

    Posted by Bokal | August 25, 2009, 8:12 am

  72. A: 1 & 5 (Usually I get the net install image for new releases and then later get a Live image for the current release if I need to perform any disaster recovery actions.)
    B: 7 (Go straight to the mirrors, because I don’t know where else there is a link to the net install image.)
    C: 3 & 4 (The net install image or preupgrade.)

    Posted by mbooth | August 25, 2009, 9:08 am

  73. A: 1

    B: 17 <– usually rsync local mirror, and then use netinst ISO

    C: 5 <– rsync of new release tree

    Posted by Paul W. Frields | August 25, 2009, 9:19 am

  74. A – 1 (keep ISOs until next release)
    B – 6,17 (DVD from fast mirror)
    C – 1,2,3,5 (install fedora-release-N+1 -> yum upgrade)

    DVD for new/fast installs, Live for service/repair, netinst for server/no-X installs

    Posted by Ben Boeckel | August 25, 2009, 11:35 am

  75. A: 1 for an initial installation.

    B: 6 – 9. Not sure which I hit first. For the live CD for creating a bootable USB is preferable. On personal netbook this is quickly followed by a foray into rawhide to get niggles worked out.

    C: 2. I have used netbooks recently and so getting a live spin to USB gives me the install I need plus the added benefits of an ISO to use on my work machine or as a recovery CD. I have downloaded the DVD a couple of times for server installs but probably never used them to a full extent (i.e. used only packages that would have fitted on a spin CD).

    I guess I am used to small disk/old machines/limited use server installations so I am quite content with a small install followed by pulling in everything needed with yum. This also makes rawhide updating on a personal machine less intensive – particularly when I had an SSD. Now I have a 1008HA moving to rawhide/12 was needed to fix suspend/ath9k issues etc. So for me: small install is ideal and if I want something else then yum is there and has the benefit of getting the latest package – I don’t see the fun in installing and then updating lots of things I may not even use for months after 🙂

    Posted by vext | August 25, 2009, 3:07 pm

  76. A: 1 (since F8, before was 2)
    B: 6
    C: 1 (but after upgrading all my computers, I needed a XFCE spin for a older PC without DVD reader)

    Posted by Neville A. Cross | August 25, 2009, 4:07 pm

  77. A: 1
    B: 5
    C: 5 – I download Fedora DVD iso using jigdo

    Posted by Hedayat | August 26, 2009, 12:27 pm

  78. A: 1
    B: 5
    C: 1

    Posted by kukibl | August 26, 2009, 7:22 pm

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