Getting started with Fedora on your VPS

Fedora is a free, open-source Linux distribution that serves as the upstream testing ground for Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) and CentOS. It features the latest software, shorter release cycles (new major version every 6 months), and is ideal for developers who want cutting-edge tools and technologies.

When to use Fedora

Fedora is best suited for:

• Development servers: Testing new software and frameworks
• Learning Linux: Understanding modern Linux systems
• Cutting-edge projects: Requiring the newest versions of development tools
• Temporary/experimental environments: Short-lived servers where stability is less critical

Connect via SSH

ssh root@your-server-ip

Your root password is in your VPS welcome email. Fedora uses standard RHEL/CentOS command-line tools and utilities.

Update packages

Always update immediately after provisioning:

dnf update -y

Fedora uses dnf as its package manager, which is the modern replacement for yum. It is significantly faster and more intelligent about dependency resolution.

Configure firewalld

Fedora uses firewalld by default for firewall management:

# Check status
systemctl status firewalld

# Allow web traffic
firewall-cmd --permanent --add-service=http
firewall-cmd --permanent --add-service=https
firewall-cmd --permanent --add-service=ssh

# Apply changes
firewall-cmd --reload

# List active rules
firewall-cmd --list-all

Install development tools

Fedora includes the "Development Tools" group with compilers and build tools:

# Install development tools
dnf groupinstall "Development Tools" -y

# Install Node.js (latest stable)
dnf install nodejs npm -y

# Install Python 3 and development headers
dnf install python3 python3-devel -y

# Install Git, wget, curl
dnf install git wget curl unzip htop -y

# Install Ruby (if needed)
dnf install ruby ruby-devel -y

# Install Nginx and PHP
dnf install nginx -y
dnf install php php-fpm php-mysqlnd php-gd php-xml php-mbstring -y

Create a non-root user

Running as root all the time is risky. Create a standard user with sudo access:

adduser developer
passwd developer
usermod -aG wheel developer

Members of the wheel group can use sudo. SSH in as developer for daily operations.

Related: Getting started with AlmaLinux on your VPS | How to choose the right operating system for your VPS | Linux and Windows operating systems for VPS-which to choose | Manage VPS

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