We have also substantially rewritten several chapters and introduced new ones, such as Chapter 4, "Command-Line Quick Start," and others. This book also looks at the three main ways in which you can obtain Fedora: by using the DVD, Live CD, and KDE Live CD media. There are many changes to this book, and it's taken a long time to come to fruition.

An important thing to consider, given Linux's unique place in the market, is the licensing situation surrounding Fedora. Believe it or not, the software that you are about to install is 100% free in every sense of the word. You may have handed over your money for this book, but you can download the software itself for free from the Internet, or you can purchase a CD for a small price (usually to cover postage and packaging). Not only that, but you are able to examine the code behind all the packages and make changes yourself, if you want to. This is in stark contrast to other vendors, who charge you for the operating system and then prevent you from making any changes at the code level. It is this key difference that makes Linux into an open source operating system. Surprisingly enough, these vendors never actually sell you the software for you to own; rather, they give you only the right to use the software. As mentioned before, this is certainly not the case with the software included with this book. You are entirely free to make copies of the DVD, share them with friends, and install the software on as many computers as you want — we encourage you to purchase additional copies of this book to give them as gifts, however. Be sure to read the Read Me file on the DVD included with this book for important information regarding the included software and disc contents. Look under the /usr/share/doc/fedora-release-8 directory after you install Fedora to find a copy of the GNU GPL (along with copies of other software licenses). You will see that the GPL provides unrestricted freedom to use, duplicate, share, study, modify, improve, and even sell the software.