Fedora Core 5 was released on March 20, 2006. I have been testing FC5 since the initial release of test 1 and seen the release date slip (with good reason) and I think for the better. I have already written about my installation and testing of the beta (see resources).
I did not download FC5 the day it came out. I waited till the initial rush was over and the download process was a little more sane compared to when it just came out. I did try a couple of times over the week, but stopped it when it became apparent the mad rush to get it was not over. Finally, I tried again yesterday to see if I was going to be successful this weekend in trying to install it. I headed over to Fedora download page (see resources) and chose on the mirrors to download. I tried a couple and when I saw the download speed drop like a rock, simply canceled the download. Finally I hit pay dirt at one of the .gov sites which allowed me to download the dvd in about 2 hours and 20 minutes. I was willing to wait that long for the download or I could always try next week.
This morning I noticed that the download was ready and waiting for me. So, using nautilus, I burnt the dvd image onto a DVD-R disc using the maximum speed possible setting and had the disk all set in about 15 minutes. I tested the disc out on a Windows XP PC, figuring that if windows can read it, it must have been burnt correctly. I was gratified to see that the disc had indeed burnt correctly.
I then backed up my /etc and /lib/firmware directories and shut down the machine with the next FC5 DVD in the bay. I rebooted and was greeted with the familiar (new to people who have not been testing the beta releases - in other words anyone using earlier versions of Fedora or other OSs) fedora logo and asking me to select an install method. I selected the graphics (default) installation method and away we went. It did ask me to test the CD image (Why can't it say CD or DVD??) which I did. Once we are past that, we get to the installation method. Do I want to upgrade or do a fresh install. I always do a fresh install! Note that my disk is already partitioned so that all the data is on a separate partition. This way I can always change the OS without harming the data. Thus, I selected a fresh install, and then got the option to partition / wipe the hard drive. I selected the option to format some partitions and to review it. Once I got to the next screen, I elected to mount my /home drive where it was before and elected to reformat / and /boot. I then proceeded to install FC5. It gave me the option to select my software suite or customize. I decided to customize from the get go so that I do not have to hassle with it later when I am installing other software.
I selected everything that I use and need. I checked off Openoffice.org, Thunderbird as my email, deselected evolution, deselected totem etc. and all the development tools and libraries since you are going to need them if you ever want to install and source package from scratch. Once, I was done with this, I clicked next, the installation took over - it did a number of things like reformatting the partitions I wanted it to, checked dependencies etc. Fedora told me that it would take 20 minutes to install. I was impressed that it only took 19 minutes! Having a DVD writer and using to install has its advantages. :)
During installation, I saw that despite having deselected evolution and totem they got installed anyway. I am not sure why this behavior continues. Oh well, as long as I can delete them with yum I am OK with it. The installation finished smoothly, the disc was ejected and Fedora Core 5 was installed.
