Naming: Fedora / Red Hat Linux (RHL) / Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)

Since 2003, open source "Red Hat Linux" has discontinued in favour of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), and Fedora is developed by the community-supported by Red Hat. Thus, "Red Hat Linux 9" is the final release and 2004-04-30 is the end-of-life.

* Red Hat Linux 6.2 (RHL 6.2) ---> Red Hat Linux 6.2E
* Red Hat Linux 7.2 (RHL 7.2) ---> Red Hat Enterprise Linux 2.1
* Red Hat Linux 9 (RHL 9) ---> Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3
[ Fedora Project started in late 2003, when Red Hat Linux was discontinued ]
* Fedora Core 3 ---> Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4
* Fedora Core 6 ---> Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5
[ Core & Extras repositories merged & the word 'core' is dropped ]
* Fedora 7 released on 31-May-07
* Fedora 8 released on 08-Nov-07
* Fedora 9 released on 13-May-08 ---> Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 (projected)

Fedora is about the community, about cool new technologies, and extending existing Red Hat tools in a collaborative community.

Before Fedora 7, there were two main repositories – Core and Extras.
(1) "Fedora Core" contained all the base packages that were required by the operating system, as well as other packages that were distributed along with the installation CD/DVDs, and was maintained only by Red Hat developers. (2) "Fedora Extras", the secondary repository that was included from Fedora Core 3, was community-maintained and not distributed along with the installation CD/DVDs.

Starting Fedora 7, the Core and Extras repositories have been merged, hence the distribution's dropping the word 'Core' from its name. That also allowed for community submissions of packages that were formerly allowed 'only' by Red Hat developers.