Fedora 22 walk through: The first major Linux distro with GNOME 3.16

Low-key installer

The installer is very low-key, with most of the relevant details auto-filled. It requests user verification that automatic partitioning is desired.

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Root password and main user account options

As Fedora is being installed, you can configure the root password and main user account information. Other installers (Ubuntu comes to mind) request this information before installation begins. By doing so during installation, the time spent in the installer is reduced somewhat.

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Menu includes notifications and installer

In GNOME 3.16, the notifications panel and the installer are merged into one menu, which is far more convenient and less visually busy than having notifications at the bottom, as in GNOME 3.14 on Fedora 21. World clocks can be configured by the user, with Tokyo used here as an example.

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Program selection menu

The Program selection menu and the default programs are shown here. A fresh installation of Fedora 22 Workstation is a relatively lightweight 4.1 GB after installation.

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Firefox 38

Firefox 38 is the only included browser in Fedora 22, though alternatives are available in the repositories.

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Firefox 38 with the GNOME Theme

This is Firefox 38 with the GNOME Theme installed, which makes Firefox more accurately match the global theming of GNOME 3.16. Additional options can be configured in GNOME Theme Tweak.

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LibreOffice 4.4.3.2

Fedora 22 ships with LibreOffice 4.4.3.2 as the default productivity suite, though individual replacements for these programs, such as AbiWord for LibreOffice Writer, are available in the repositories.

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Nautilus file manager

Copying a folder from a USB flash drive to the system drive using the Nautilus file manager.

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Rhythmbox music player and manager

Fedora 22 ships with the Rhythmbox music player and manager, which automatically looks for files in the user's /home/user/music/ folder and adds it to the library. It can automatically fetch album art from the internet, and can integrate with your Last.fm account. (Disclaimer: Last.fm and TechRepublic are CBS Interactive properties.) When a new track starts, this information is placed in the notification bar (see the dot by the time). Note that displaying Unicode characters (in this case, Hiragana, Katakana, and Kanji from the Japanese language) is handled perfectly without any additional configuration. These characters are anti-aliased, in contrast to the aliased rending found in Windows.

Fedora does not ship with nonfree codecs, though these can be added by the user with the addition of the third-party RPM Fusion repository.

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Selection menu

The selection menu is invoked when the Super (Windows) key is pressed. From here, you can switch easily between open programs, open a program from the left sidebar, or switch desktops on the right sidebar.

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GNOME Software default screen

The GNOME Software program is used to install programs and their dependencies. The default screen rotates between various default applications.

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Installed apps in GNOME Software

Viewing installed applications in GNOME Software, certain vital but less-often used programs such as Character Map can be bundled into folders in the program selection menu. Ubuntu GNOME, which uses the Ubuntu Software Center to install programs, does not have the GNOME Software package, which forces users to edit configuration files to achieve the same effect.

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All Settings menu

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Add accounts

You can add your online accounts for a variety of integrations with the OS, such as your Google Calendar or ownCloud storage system.

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Input Method Editors

Out of the box, you can enable an Input Method Editor (IME) here called Input Source to the system, which can be switched using a keyboard shortcut or the menu bar at the top. The Kana Kanji IME for Japanese performs better than the Microsoft IME on Windows because it provides more relevant results (for me).

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GNOME Tweak Tool

The GNOME Tweak Tool serves roughly the same function as Tweak UI from older versions of Windows. From this screen, you can turn off the Fedora logo that sits on the bottom right corner.

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Swell Foop

The usual GNOME desktop games can be installed from the Software package. Swell Foop is the GNOME version of Same Game, a puzzle game that originated on the Fujitsu FM-7 home computer.

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System resources utility

Helpfully, the utility shows how much data has been transferred since the session started, among other things.

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Shutdown screen

The shutdown screen allows the user to select if software updates should be installed.

Also see

Hands-on review: Lenovo ThinkPad W550s running Fedora 22 Beta

Fedora 22: Cloud, desktop, and server innovation (ZDNet)

Innovation: How to be a World-Changer (ZDNet/TechRepublic)

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