Fedora Workstation is a Linux distribution, an operating system with the Linux kernel at its core plus the software you need to install it, manage it, and the applications that you want to use for daily work.

  Fedora is one of many Linux distributions, and includes a lot of software you'll find in many Linux distributions.

  == Understanding Linux

  === The command line/terminal

  Benefits to using the command line include the ability to give multiple commands on one line, but it requires greater knowledge of Linux commands.

  Documentation published on this site, as well as various tutorials and guides on the internet and elsewhere, often makes use of these terminal commands.

  === GNOME

  It provides a visual front-end using a desktop analogy.

  When you log into Fedora, GNOME is started with a predefined set of icons and menus on the desktop.

  === The internet

  Firefox is also available on other platforms such as Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X.

  === E-mail

  Evolution is similar in functionality to Microsoft Outlook.

  It is a popular email client on multiple operating systems.

  It is used for handling email and newsgroups without the calendaring functions that Evolution provides.

  === Instant messaging

  The instant messaging protocols that Pidgin supports include MSN, AIM, IRC, and Yahoo.

  === Music & audio

  Applications to import audio from CDs and manage music files are available.

  Extracting audio from CDs and storing it in compressed format on the hard drive is one way to manage a music collection.

  By default, Sound Juicer encodes music files to the free and open OGG Vorbis format.

  In addition to playing audio file formats, Rhythmbox is also used for streaming media from Internet radio stations.

  === Productivity tools

  == Moving further

  //* Linux Games - included with Fedora

  * Configuring graphics cards / video drivers

  == Cool things to do with Fedora

\ No newline at end of file

  For stable releases, _fedora_ represents the frozen release state. It is a part of the frozen tree that is created by https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/ReleaseEngineering[Release Engineering] when a release is approved at a https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Go_No_Go_Meeting[Go/No-Go Meeting]. The package set it contains never changes after that time. It represents the _stable_ state of a stable release in conjunction with _updates_ repository.

  [[the-fedora-repository-in-branched-releases]]

  === The _fedora_ repository in Branched releases

  In Branched releases - the state a release is in between branching from Rawhide and stable release, see https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Releases/Branched[Branched] for more details - the fedora repository alone represents the release's stable state. The _updates_ repository for Branched releases is not used until they become stable. Before the https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Updates_Policy#Bodhi_enabling[Bodhi enabling point], package builds for the Branched release are sent directly to this repository. After the _Bodhi enabling point_, package builds that pass the https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Updates_Policy[Updates Policy] move from _updates-testing_ repository to this repository.

  [[the-updates-repository]]

  == The _updates_ repository

  For stable releases, _updates_ together with _fedora_ represents the current _stable_ state of the release. Package builds that pass the https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Updates_Policy[Updates Policy] move from the _updates-testing_ repository to this repository. This difference from Branched is a result of the need to maintain a precise representation of the initial, 'frozen' state of a stable release.

  [[the-updates-testing-repository]]

  === The _updates-testing_ repository

  The _updates-testing_ repository is enabled by default for Branched releases, but disabled by default for stable releases. The switchover is made around the time of the https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Milestone_freezes[Final Freeze] for each release. Testers moving from Branched to stable may encounter errors running updates around this time, caused by dependency mismatches between packages already installed from the now-disabled _updates-testing_ repository. Running `dnf distro-sync` or re-enabling the _updates-testing_ repository will both usually alleviate the issue; it is up to the individual user whether they wish to continue using the _updates-testing_ repository after the stable release or not.

  [[the-rawhide-repository]]

  === The _rawhide_ repository

  The repositories referred to above are neither associated with a specific https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Fedora.next[Fedora.next] _Product_, nor part of an installable tree (a tree containing the necessary files to be used as a base repository by https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Anaconda[Anaconda], the Fedora installer). Specialized repositories exist for these purposes.

  These repositories are frozen (new packages are not pushed to them) and are created at various points in the https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Fedora_Release_Life_Cycle[Fedora Release Life Cycle]. A new installation tree (containing a repository) is built for several Products for https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/QA:SOP_compose_request[each test compose or release candidate build], and the trees for the Alpha and Beta releases are made available on the mirrors in the directory (see above). They contain a subset of the full package set that is considered to define each Product.

  For this and other less important functions, we need as much feedback as possible, so it makes sense to have all pre-release testers have _updates-testing_ enabled by default, and encourage them to provide feedback through Bodhi.

\ No newline at end of file