Fedora/Redhat has always sorta been my standard Linux distro. I've used others, but if I ever just wanted to slap Linux on something at work or home to just get up and start using, I just sorta defaulted to Redhat. And ever since I got a decent internet connection and discovered yum, the main reason to consider switching to Debian has kinda vanished.
But, there were still a number of things that annoyed me - things such as installing the nVidia drivers. Pain in my behind, that. MP3 and DVD support don't work out of the box, and I haven't even tried my encoded anime collection. Basically, the things that would be basic requirements for regular desktop usage, while perhaps available, were still a huge pain and time investment to figure out how to get working.
But I decided to try to tackle at least at least the nVidia driver aspect. Sure, they're available for download from nVidia's website but I've never had luck with them - usually I require some sort of tweaking. So I decided to pke around Google and see what I could find to help guide me through the process in regards to the particulars of Fedora Core 5.
Then, I hit the jackpot.
Through the wonderful web-like nature of the . . . well Web, I went down through several layers of links and discovered
Fedora Helper. Now, for those that don't know, the folks at Fedora don't include a number of things we take for granted on Windows - things such as mp3 support and Java - due to the nature of the licenses involved. You can't even install them through yum. But, as I found out, there are
third party repositories that keep those goodies up-to-date and available. And Fedora Helper automagically sets it up and downloads everything you need. What's more, it integrates it with all the associated applications you installed when you first setup Redhat (that means Totem now can play real DVDs).
The useful quotent of Fedora just shot way up. Still not quite to Windows level as a desktop, but it's no longer just something to mess around with or require a large investment of time to get working. Now it's just point, click, download, stuff works.