Both Fedora and Ubuntu are operating systems that are based on Linux. Which is the kernel or kernel that allows you to operate the functions of your PC. And both for free (OpenSource).
Fedora was designed to replace other operating systems. Mainly to the 2 most popular and commercial operating systems in the world are Apple OS X and Microsoft Windows. Fedora is a very good alternative that besides being an excellent operating system is very complete.
Now on the other hand we will find Ubuntu which is an operating system that was developed with the objective of establishing both laptops, servers and desktop computers. It is an excellent operating system that allows you to work at home, at work or at school. This operating system has multiple applications that allow you to satisfy any of your needs, among which we will highlight email applications, word processors, programming tools and software for web servers.
History of both operating systems
In the technical community it is more common to hear about the history and development of the Ubuntu operating system than the Fedora. This is because Fedora has passed some events a little more complicated than Ubuntu. Ubuntu was born from a branch of unstable programming for the time (2004) while Fedora had been born a little earlier in 2003, however the composition of the first version of Fedora did not allow it to live until 2004 when the network in which there was been created had completely exhausted its useful life.
When Red Hat completely disappeared in 2004, the creation of a new operating system that could serve the two powerful communities of that program became imminent, this is when Fedora was born as such. The main objective of which was to serve the two communities of the old operating system, within which we found CORE (which belonged solely to the developers of the program) and EXTRAS (which was the one that was open to the community as such). .
These two communities were served separately for a long time. However, in 2007, when Fedora 7 was launched, these two communities joined together and the name Fedora is given as such. So far the big difference between the two programs is that Fedora emerged as a need to serve the communities of Red Hat while Ubuntu was always a separate and complete entity.
As we said, the Ubuntu platform was always financed and managed directly by Canonical. Your community has been organized in slightly larger groups. Most decisions are made by Mark Shuttleworth who is the founder of Canonical the investing company; One of the advantages that users have is that they can request a membership to be collaborators of the groups organized in the community.
Support, cycle and separation of systems
Ubuntu has a policy of making a new release every semester (6 months) they are usually launched in the months of April and October. In addition every fourth delivery of the company is considered as a long-term support "LTS" (which tells us that the LTS are launched every 2 years). Previously the versions had a support for 18 months however in recent years (as of 2013) this rule has changed and decreased to only 9 months.
For its part Fedora has no strict policy to launch. However, by the rules and marketing rules, to stay in competition it is necessary to release their versions every 6 months (their support comes for 13 months).
This is one of the points in favor of Fedora as it has a greater support than Ubuntu. However, what helps Ubuntu is that every 2 years they launch an LTS which Fedora does not do.
Environment and Desktop editions of the programs
Basically Fedora has 3 editions that are its main ones which we will find: Server, Atomic and Workstation. Each of these editions focus on different things. Many people attend Atomic and Server in a greater way since the editions of work and the illustrative reality for people is a determining factor. Currently there is also a FedoraRawhile new interface that is still in development but this version will bring the latest compilations of the 3 interface of the company (however this is still under test as it is not 100% stable)
Server:
This version of Fedora allows you to control your server with several extras. Among those that emphasize its simplicity, which is modular, it is scalable and complete.
Atomic:
Only used to make dockers. Compatible with Kubernetes and OpenShift.
Workstation (Work station):
More focused on laptops. It includes a large number of programming languages and Virtualization options.
However, when we talk about quantity, Ubuntu, it is much bigger because we can find the Cloud, Core, Server and Ubuntu Touch versions.
Desktop:
The desktop version. Includes everything necessary for our computer.
Server:
Indicated for servers or data centers. It does not need a graphic interface.
Cloud:
Perfect and optimized for virtual cloud environments. Compatible with Amazon AWS, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Platform, Oracle, Rackspace and IBM Cloud.
For IoT:
Subdivision. It includes the compatibility of this operating system with Raspbeerry pi, Intel, Orange Pi, all devices with a Qualcomm snapdragon processor, with Samsung Artik, in KVM or in UP2 IoT Grove.
Flavors:
Subdivision. More than one version, we can select several graphic environments that each have different requirements, for example Xubuntu only needs 1.4 GB to run well and features like Ubuntu Studio that is for creating multimedia content and sound. .
The good thing about both platforms is that in the desktop versions it is allowed in 64-bit and 32-bit systems, besides that the images of the servers are available in different structures such as ARM, POWER8 and LinuxON).
Repositories and packages of the programs
This is where we find the biggest difference between operating systems. And is that when we refer to package management Fedora stands out for using the .rpm format while Ubuntu for its side uses. Deb. This is what clarifies us that these can not be compatible by default and that they are in different fields. If they can be shared, but for that they must be converted through tools like ALIEN.
Final decision
As we can see both are very similar. I would currently choose Ubuntu since it is more updated and developed. It also uses the same repositories and packages as Debian (another Linux operating system). And this facilitates the migration of one to another or the use of both, with the same commands.