Fedora: Open-source repository for long-term digital preservation

(fedorarepository.org)

79 points | by cernocky 6 hours ago

10 comments

  • fodmap 6 hours ago
    To avoid misunderstandings, this repository is about a project at Cornell University named the Flexible Extensible Digital Object Repository Architecture (FEDORA), not a Red Hat one.
    • jasoneckert 5 hours ago
      It took me far too long to figure this out from their site, but when I did, the project looked far less interesting.

      For a while there, I thought the "been in existence for 20+ years and our users represent an engaged, supportive and invested global community of users focused on sustainability and growth" was the Fedora Project extending their expertise in file organization and distribution to other use cases.

      But on the bright side, I now have a link I can use to confuse my students with (to keep them out of their comfort zone and promote deep research).

    • macintux 6 hours ago
      And predates Fedora by about 6 years.
      • cevn 6 hours ago
        I was ready to be mad in the comments, now I'm mad but in the other direction.
        • stronglikedan 2 hours ago
          Don't be mad, they are clearly distinct — one is FEDORA and the other is Fedora!
      • phkahler 6 hours ago
        Right or wrong, who owns the trademark?
        • fodmap 6 hours ago
          Both. '...all parties settled on a co-existence agreement that stated that the Cornell-UVA project could use the name when clearly associated with open source software for digital object repository systems and that Red Hat could use the name when it was clearly associated with open source computer operating systems.'

          https://fedorarepository.org/about/our-history/

          • notpushkin 5 hours ago
            > The transferable agreement stipulated that each project must display the following text on their web site: [...]

            Looks like Cornell-UVA satisfied this by placing it on their about page. Red Hat on the other hand hid it on a dedicated legalese page nobody will read: https://docs.fedoraproject.org/en-US/legal/

            Not a good look IMO.

            • Andrex 2 hours ago
              Due to their comparative popularity, it makes complete sense to me. You don't have people in HN comments for a new Fedora release going "Wait is this about the Digital Access Project?"

              What does "not a good look" even mean in this context? Getting tired of this phrase's overuse tbh. "Think of the optics" fell into disuse and I can't wait for this one to join it.

              • supercheetah 2 minutes ago
                Red Hat is the bigger party here. Their minimization of this issue seems a little like bullying.
          • t90fan 5 hours ago
            > associated with open source software for digital object repository systems and that Red Hat could use the name when it was clearly associated with open source computer operating systems.'

            If it's as worded, I'm surprised Fedora Directory Server didn't end up being a problem for RedHat, as its not an OS, and you could call it a digital object repository system, I guess.

            Or maybe thats why they re-branded it as 389 Directory Server?

        • tsak 6 hours ago
          The hat!

          > The term fedora was in use as early as 1891.

          (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fedora#History)

    • actionfromafar 4 hours ago
      And they have Fedora Slack(ware)!
      • iNate2000 2 hours ago
        Wait - I saw a link to a Slack chat workspace. Do they have something for Slackware Linux as well?
        • actionfromafar 2 hours ago
          No, sorry it was that I meant. Also confusing when you are primed to think RedHat -> Fedora -> Slackware :)
    • RickJWagner 6 hours ago
      Thanks for that explanation. Totally threw me for a minute.
  • ThinkingGuy 3 hours ago
    Are there any images (or actual demos) of the actual user interface? Every variant of search for "Fedora repository screen shot" just brings back instructions for taking a desktop screen shot on the Fedora operating system.
  • Yehoshaphat 1 hour ago
    It is interesting to me that I came across this project earlier this week (MLS student, procrastinating via browsing Awesome-Lists), and now it's here on YN.

    Maybe some stoner can vibe-rebase this with Rust.

  • sitta 3 hours ago
    Perhaps also of interest is the storage format that Fedora 6/7 uses.

    https://ocfl.io/

  • zoobab 6 hours ago
    FTP was better.
    • Dwedit 5 hours ago
      FTP is great for the hackers who want to sniff cleartext user passwords over insecure public wifi.
      • economistbob 5 hours ago
        FTPs used to have anonymous logins unless one was on a LAN, so sniffing passwords was not very relevant.
  • moron4hire 4 hours ago
    Do they have a separate website for a git repo, e.g. Github? Between me reading the page in bed this morning and then driving to work, the website seems to have gone down.
    • Dwedit 4 hours ago
      • Kwpolska 1 hour ago
        Were they so unoriginal that they had to steal the "fc" abbreviation from the Linux distro as well? (In the Linux distro, it comes from the original name "Fedora Core"; the abbreviation is most visible in package versions.)
      • moron4hire 3 hours ago
        Thank you. Have a specific project at work that it might be relevant towards.
  • cramcgrab 5 hours ago
    Wow. Java 11. Looks like a great project for an update. Anybody know where we can get a group of CS students to update the code with a modern toolset? Used to be MIT, Clarkson, Cornell, Berkeley, RIT, etc cranked this stuff out.
    • treesknees 5 hours ago
      https://fedorarepository.org/232540-2/

      > Upgrades for over 40 dependency libraries, including upgrading Java 11 to Java 21.

    • jjice 5 hours ago
      Total tangent from the OP, but neat to see RIT listed here (among some excellent universities)! What kind of things has RIT done like this? Just a curious alum.
      • nticompass 3 hours ago
        Hello fellow RIT alum! :-D
      • cramcgrab 4 hours ago
        They were big in software for the one laptop per child project:

        https://www.rit.edu/news/rit-class-develops-applications-sup...

        And, while not open source, built this: https://dirsig.cis.rit.edu/

        Also, I remember some kind of early realtime music accompaniment software, the guy played trumpet and the software played realtime accompaniment.

        Also, MIT built X11, which later turned into a bureaucratic exercise instead of software project.

        Berkeley, well BSD Unix.

        Early web projects came out of Michigan, like gopher.

        Not much lately though.

        • billdueber 4 hours ago
          Gopher came out of the U of Minnesota. Their teams are the “Golden Gophers.”
  • economistbob 5 hours ago
    [flagged]
    • jbstack 3 hours ago
      Wrong Fedora
    • esseph 4 hours ago
      It's not RH/IBM, but you wouldn't know that because you didn't read anything about it.

      https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46244011

      From the website;

      Name History

      In 1997 a research project at Cornell University was named the Flexible Extensible Digital Object Repository Architecture (FEDORA). In 1998, Payette and Lagoze published an article about their work referencing Fedora, and later that year software with the same name was released to the public.

  • linhns 4 hours ago
    How to not name your project, exhibit 1