Fedora Project Podcast

Fedora has a job whose entire purpose is the health of the community around the distribution, and this month a new person took it over. So we got both of them on at once.

Justin Wheeler has held the Fedora Community Architect seat since 2022 and is moving into a new role as AI Alignment Community Architect. Shaun McCance is stepping into the Fedora role while staying on as CentOS Community Architect. Noah is out this episode, so Eric hosts solo.

We get into:

Where the role came from, why Robyn Bergeron pushed for it in 2015, and how it went from community outreach and impact lead to Fedora Community Architect in January 2023

What actually lands on the desk: a Council seat, the Mindshare Committee, the Code of Conduct Committee, budget stewardship, and Flock

How Mindshare funding works for ambassadors, local organizers, and anyone who just needs a box of stickers and will write an event report

Justin's new AI Alignment role, why he wrote his own job description, and why he thinks community consent on AI has to be earned rather than assumed

This Week in Fedora, and the argument that started when a bot began ingesting messages from a public but non-indexed Matrix room

What Shaun brings from CentOS and from years as GNOME Foundation treasurer, and what he finds daunting about Fedora's breadth

Why one shared budget spreadsheet is not a merger, and what stays separate on purpose

Where to find both projects: CentOS Connect January 28 and 29 in Brussels, DevConf US September 24 and 25 in Boston, Texas Linux Fest in November, and All Things Open

There is a written companion post at https://itguyeric.com/blog/fedora-ep60-changing-of-the-guard/
Special Guests: Justin Wheeler and Shaun McCance.

A couple of episodes ago we talked to Carl George about EPEL, and half that conversation ended up being about CentOS. The questions kept coming, so we made a whole episode out of it.

This is the biggest panel the show has ever had. Amy Marrich chairs the CentOS Board and does technical marketing for OpenStack at Red Hat. Troy Dawson leads the CentOS Stream team, sits on the board, and builds CentOS Stream for RISC-V. Shaun McCance is the CentOS Community Architect, and as of two weeks ago the Fedora Community Architect as well.

We get into:

Why CentOS Linux and CentOS Stream are different projects, and why one of them retired around RHEL 9

The pipeline: Fedora, then Fedora ELN, then CentOS Stream, then RHEL, and why Btrfs is the example everyone reaches for

How Stream and RHEL now build from the same commit, on a one-week cadence versus six months

Why partners shipped on RHEL 9 launch day because they had been building against Stream 9

How the board actually works, why only one seat speaks for Red Hat, and what the SIGs and the SIG Council do

Where to file a bug (against RHEL, not at Troy)

How to contribute without writing code, and why being new makes you good at documentation

There is a written companion post at https://itguyeric.com/blog/fedora-ep59-what-is-centos/
Special Guests: Amy Marrich, Shaun McCance, and Troy Dawson.

Fedora is a huge project with a lot of doors in. In this episode Eric and Noah walk through the different ways to find your people in Fedora, from real time chat on Matrix to long form discussion on Fedora Discourse, reading Fedora Magazine, getting a friendly hand from the Join SIG, and catching up on project wide activity through This Week in Fedora. If you have ever wondered where to start, this one is for you.

Chapters

00:00 Intro

01:57 What is Matrix?

05:19 Fedora on Matrix

11:18 Matrix clients: Element and beyond

20:01 Fedora Discourse

23:14 Fedora Magazine

30:07 The Join SIG

33:22 What can I do for Fedora?

36:51 This Week in Fedora

44:56 Wrap-up

Links from this episode

Fedora Chat (Matrix): https://chat.fedoraproject.org

Fedora Discourse: https://discussion.fedoraproject.org

Fedora Magazine: https://fedoramagazine.org

Fedora Join SIG: https://docs.fedoraproject.org/en-US/fedora-join/

This Week in Fedora: https://abompard.fedorapeople.org/twif/

Fedora Community Blog: https://communityblog.fedoraproject.org

What can I do for Fedora?: https://whatcanidoforfedora.org/

New to Fedora? Get started: https://fedoraproject.org/

Follow the Fedora Podcast: https://podcast.fedoraproject.org

Join the conversation on Matrix: https://matrix.to/#/#podcast:fedoraproject.org

Become part of the Fedora community: https://docs.fedoraproject.org/en-US/project/join/

Connect with Eric the IT Guy: https://linktr.ee/itguyeric

Connect with Noah Chelliah: https://noahc.us/about

Fedora #Linux #Matrix #FedoraMagazine #OpenSource #FOSS #Community #GetInvolved #Podcast

Licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.

EPEL is one of those repos a lot of us turned on without thinking twice. This episode, Noah and Eric sit down with Carl George, who leads the EPEL team at Red Hat, to explain what EPEL actually is, the golden rule that gives it its reputation, and the changes Carl is proposing for EPEL 11. If you run enterprise Linux, or you have ever typed dnf install epel-release, this one is for you.

Carl is collecting feedback on the EPEL 11 idea right now, so give it a listen and jump into the thread.

Chapters

00:00 Intro

01:12 Meet Carl George

04:25 What is EPEL?

07:50 EPEL's golden rule

09:32 Getting started: CRB + epel-release

10:38 Who governs EPEL

16:08 The road to EPEL 10

21:45 Minor versions and the EPEL team

24:44 The private mirror problem

34:09 Cleaning it up in EPEL 11

40:26 Getting involved & RPM packaging

50:36 Wrap-up

Links from this episode

EPEL 11 discussion thread: https://discussion.fedoraproject.org/t/looking-back-at-epel-10-and-forward-to-epel-11/197373

EPEL branches documentation: https://docs.fedoraproject.org/en-US/epel/branches/

How to request an EPEL package: https://docs.fedoraproject.org/en-US/epel/epel-package-request/

What can I do for Fedora?: https://whatcanidoforfedora.org/

Join the Package Maintainers: https://docs.fedoraproject.org/en-US/package-maintainers/Joining_the_Package_Maintainers/

RPM packaging lab (RHDP): https://zero.rhdp.net/lab/zt-rhelbu.zt-rpmbuild.prod

New to Fedora? Get started: https://fedoraproject.org/

Follow the Fedora Podcast: https://podcast.fedoraproject.org

Join the conversation on Matrix: https://matrix.to/#/#podcast:fedoraproject.org

Become part of the Fedora community: https://docs.fedoraproject.org/en-US/project/join/

Connect with Eric the IT Guy: https://linktr.ee/itguyeric

Our guest: Carl George, EPEL Team Lead at Red Hat (https://fedoraproject.fireside.fm/guests/carl-george)

Fedora #EPEL #Linux #RHEL #CentOS #EnterpriseLinux #RPM #OpenSource #SysAdmin #Podcast

Licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Special Guest: Carl George.

The Fedora Contributor Recognition Program just wrapped its second year, and the winners were announced live at Flock. On this episode of the Fedora Podcast, we sit down with a couple of them: Ankur Sinha and Justin Forbes, to talk about the work that earned them recognition and what keeps them showing up for Fedora year after year.

We cover Ankur's long-running stewardship of the Join SIG and his work on NeuroFedora, and Justin's work keeping the Fedora kernel reliable, secure, and up to date. Two very different corners of the project, one shared thread of contribution.

If you have ever wondered what it takes to leave a lasting mark on Fedora, this episode is full of answers.

The Fedora Podcast brings you exclusive interviews and deep dives with the innovators and contributors who make the Fedora community amazing! From cutting-edge technologies to the production of the Fedora distribution itself, we chat with the minds behind it all. Whether you're a longtime user or just curious, there's always something new to discover in the world of Fedora.

🎬 New to Fedora? Get Started Here: https://fedoraproject.org/

🎙️ Follow the Fedora Podcast: https://podcast.fedoraproject.org

💬 Join the Conversation: https://matrix.to/#/#podcast:fedoraproject.org

🌐 Become Part of the Fedora community: https://docs.fedoraproject.org/en-US/project/join/

📱 Connect with Eric "the IT Guy" Hendricks: https://itguyeric.com

🔗 Episode Resources

Contributor Recognition Program 2026 Wiki: https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Contributor_Recognition_Program_2026

Announcement Thread: https://discussion.fedoraproject.org/t/meet-the-2026-fedora-contributor-recognition-program-winners/194595

Chapters

00:00 Stream start

00:36 Contributor Recognitions

01:54 Introductions

07:36 Award experience

15:56 Join SIG

28:38 Kernel team

44:00 NeuroFedora

51:38 Closing thoughts

59:30 Wrap up
Special Guests: Ankur Sinha and Justin Forbes.