Fedora Xfce Live

Fedora Xfce Live is an open source operating system that uses the lightweight Xfce desktop environment on top of the latest upstream Fedora release, providing users with a low on resources distribution of Linux that can be used on older computers.

Distributed as 32-bit and 64-bit Live CDs

You can download this custom Fedora distribution through Softoware’s secure servers or from its official website (see link above) as two Live CD ISO images, one for each of the supported hardware platforms (64-bit and 32-bit). Please note that you must burn the ISO image onto CD discs or write them on USB flash drives of 1GB or higher capacity in order to boot them from the BIOS of a computer.

Boot options

The Live CDs use a standard boot menu that can also be found on many other official or unofficial Fedora spins. The main emphasis is on starting the live environment without too much fuss. For more advanced options, such as the ability to test the RAM, boot an existing operating system from the first disk drive or start the live session in safe graphics mode, you can access the Troubleshooting entry.

A lightweight and easy to use desktop environment powered by Xfce

As its name suggests, the default and only desktop environment of the Fedora Xfce Live CD distro is Xfce, a lightweight graphical desktop interface that comprises of a top panel (taskbar) and a bottom dock (application launcher).

Includes a lightweight set of open source applications

As expected from a lightweight distribution, the default applications are carefully selected to also be lightweight for the system. Among some of the most important ones, we can mention Claws Mail email client, Liferea news reader, Midori web browser, Pidgin IM client, Transmission torrent downloader, Parola media player, Pragha audio player, and AbiWord word processor.

Bottom line

Summing up, the Xfce edition of Fedora Linux is a very stable and fast operating system suitable for low-end machines and computers with old and semi-old hardware components.

What is new in this release:

• The Xfce spin has been updated to Xfce 4.12. This release has an enormous number of improvements, including HiDPI support, improvements to window tiling, support for Gtk3 plugins, and many improvements for multi-monitor support.

What is new in version 22 Beta:

• The Xfce spin has been updated to Xfce 4.12. This release has an enormous number of improvements, including HiDPI support, improvements to window tiling, support for Gtk3 plugins, and many improvements for multi-monitor support.

What is new in version 19:

• Make new things:
• Would you like to play? Whether you're a developer, maker, or just starting to learn about open source development, we have what you need to bring your ideas to reality. Here's a peek at some of our new tools:
• Developer's Assistant is a tool for new developers that helps you to get started on a code project by offering templates, samples, and toolchains for a variety of languages. And when you're finished, you can publish directly to GitHub!
• 3D modelling and printing are supported with OpenSCAD, Skeinforge, SFACT, Printrun, RepetierHost, and other tool options. Get printing without having to download binary blobs or run Python code from git.
• OpenShift Origin makes it easy for you to build your own Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) infrastructure, allowing you to enable others to easily develop and deploy software.
• node.js is a popular Javascript-based platform for those building scalable network applications or real-time apps across distributed devices.
• Ruby 2.0.0, moves into Fedora but keeps source-level backwards compatibility with your Ruby 1.9.3 software. We're also giving you a custom Ruby loader to use to easily switch interpreters.
• MariaDB offers a truly open MySQL implementation and is now the default MySQL option in Fedora.
• Deploy, Monitor, and Manage:
• You don't have to work so hard when your machines are doing it for you. Regardless of how many you have, Fedora 19 helps you boot-manage your systems and gives you the tools you need for diagnosis, monitoring, and logging.
• systemd Resource Control is one of many systemd enhancements in this release. It lets you modify your service settings without a reboot by dynamically querying and modifying resource control parameters at runtime.
• Kerberos administrators no longer need their clients to sync their clocks or to have reverse DNS records carefully setup for services. Fedora 19 also includes Kerberos-enabled, LDAP replicated, two-factor authentication for FreeIPA.
• Checkpoint & Restore lets you checkpoint and restore a process. It is useful for issues like process failure or moving a process to another machine for maintenance or load balancing.
• OpenLMI' is a common infrastructure for the management of Linux systems that makes remote management of machines much simpler.
• Desktop Environments and Spins:
• GNOME 3.8:
• GNOME 3.8 brings new applications such as clock and improvements to the desktop including privacy and sharing settings, ordered search, frequent applications overview, and additionally provides the ability to enable GNOME Classic ("classic mode") for a user experience similar to GNOME 2 built out of a collection of GNOME Shell extensions. Refer to https://help.gnome.org/misc/release-notes/3.8/ for more details.
• KDE Plasma Workspaces 4.10:
• A modern, stable desktop environment, KDE Plasma Workspaces 4.10 includes new features for printing and screenlocking, better indexing of files, and improved accessibility features. Refer to http://www.kde.org/announcements/4.10/ for more details.
• MATE Desktop 1.6:
• The MATE 1.6 Desktop introduces a large number of improvements to this traditional, GNOME 2-like desktop interface. Refer to http://mate-desktop.org/2013/04/02/mate-1-6-released/ for more details.
• Spins;
• Spins are alternate versions of Fedora. In addition to various desktop environments for Fedora, spins are also available as tailored environments for various types of users via hand-picked application sets or customizations.
• Interest-specific Spins include the Design Suite Spin, the Robotics Spin, and the Security Spin, among others. Other available desktop environments, in addition to the GNOME 3.8 desktop which is shipped in the default version of Fedora 19, as well as those highlighted above, include Xfce, Sugar on a Stick, and LXDE.

What is new in version 18:

• For desktop users:
• Gnome 3.6 The newest version of the Gnome desktop provides an enhanced Messaging Tray, support for Microsoft Exchange and Skydrive, and many more new features. For more information visit the Gnome release notes. http://library.gnome.org/misc/release-notes/3.6
• KDE Plasma Workspaces 4.9 KDE Plasma Workspaces has been updated with many new features and improved stability and performance, including updates to the Dolphin File Manager, Konsole, and KWin Window manager.
• MATE Desktop The MATE desktop provides users with a classic GNOME 2.x style user interface. This desktop is perfect for users that have been running Gnome Classic, or other window managers like XFCE.
• Cinnamon Fedora users now have the option of using Cinnamon, an advanced desktop environment based on GNOME3. Cinnamon takes advantage of advanced features provided by the GNOME backend while providing users with a more traditional desktop experience.
• Improved storage management SSM (System Storage Manager) is an easy to use command-line interface tool that presents a unified view of storage management tools. Devices, storage pools, volumes, and snapshots can now be managed with one tool, with the same syntax for managing all of your storage. (It's great for systems administrators, too!)
• For developers:
• Fresh versions of programming languages Using Perl, Rails, or Python? All three of these languages are updated in Fedora 18 -- with Rails 3.2, Python 3.3, and Perl 5.16 now on deck.
• Clojure Clojure gets more love with the addition of tooling packages, including the Leinengen build tool, as well as Clojure libraries and frameworks, including Korma and Noir.
• DragonEgg optimizes GCC DragonEgg is a plugin for the GCC compilers to allow use of the LLVM optimization and code generation framework. DragonEgg provides software developers with more optimization and code generation options for use with the GCC compilers. DragonEgg also allows GCC to be used for cross-compilation to target architectures supported by LLVM without requiring any special cross-compilation compiler packages.
• For system administrators:
• Offline System Updates Systems can now be upgraded offline, allowing for a more stable upgrade of critical system components.
• Storage enhancements StorageManagement is a collection of tools and libraries for managing storage area networks (SAN) and network attached storage (NAS).
• Samba 4 This popular suite of tools has long provided file and print sharing services in heterogeneous operating system environments. The long-awaited Samba 4 introduces the first free and open source implementation of Active Directory protocols, and includes a new scripting interface, allowing Python programs to interface to Samba's internals.
• Riak A fault-tolerant key-value store, Riak provides easy operations, and predictable scaling as a NoSQL database.
• For clouds and virtualization:
• Eucalyptus Eucalyptus makes its first appearance in Fedora, with their 3.2 release included in F18. This platform for on-premise (private) Infrastructure as a Service clouds uses existing infrastructure to create scalable and secure AWS-compatible cloud resources for compute, network and storage.
• OpenStack With the Folsom release in Fedora 18, OpenStack continues to have the newest releases in Fedora. This open source cloud computing platform enables users to deploy their own cloud infrastructure, for private or public cloud deployments. Heat, an incubated OpenStack project, is also available in F18, providing an API that enables the orchestration of cloud applications using file or web based templates.
• oVirt Engine The management application for the oVirt virtualization platform, oVirt Engine, is updated to the newest version, 3.1. This release includes extensive new features, including support for live snapshots, cloning virtual machines from snapshots, quotas, and more.
• Suspend and resume support for virt guests Virtual machines get love with this feature, enabling the ability to suspend and resume guests, with the close of a laptop lid or menu option - or via the command line.