Fedora 25 talking points

DISCUSSION DRAFT
This is a draft only for discussion. This is not a final set of talking points, nor are all of the features listed here complete at the time of this draft. Please do a reality check before using these talking points as anything other than a discussion draft!

These are the Talking Points for the Fedora 25 release. For information on how these talking points were chosen, see Talking Points SOP. They are intended to help Ambassadors quickly present an overview of highlighted features when talking about the release, and to help drive content for the release, etc.

The talking points are based in part on the Change Set for this release.

Fedora-Wide Changes and Improvements

• Docker updated to version 1.12
• Support for weaker certificate authorities (i.e. 1024-bit) has been removed
• Node.js updated to version 6.x
  • New and great version of the popular server-side JavaScript engine
• "Secondary architectures" now "Alternate architectures"
• Rust: Fedora 25 brings the support for the Rust programming language. Rust is a system programming language which runs blazingly fast, and prevents almost all crashes, segfaults, and data races.
• Pythons: Alongside the "standard" Python versions included in Fedora 25 (3.5 and 2.7), Python programmers can now install Python 3.4, 3.3 and 2.6 from the repositories to help them run test suites on multiple Python versions, as well as on PyPy, PyPy3 and Jython, which were already there.
• systemd places a limit on the number of processes that can be running inside of a single service to 15% of the total number of processes allowed by the kernel. Similarly, each user is allowed a maximum of 33% of the total number of processes allowed by the kernel. This effectively results in a limit of 4915 processes per service and 10813 processes per user. Those settings can be adjusted using the kernel.pid_max sysctl, and the DefaultTasksMax=, UserTasksMax= global settings, and the TasksMax= per-service setting.
  • systemd also places limits on the maximum number of user sessions and the maximum number of active inhibitors, see SessionsMax= and InhibitorsMax= settings in logind.conf.
  • Together, those limits add additional protections for the system in case of a (accidental or malicious) run-away process creation and resource exhaustion.
• The GHC Haskell compiler has been updated to version 7.10.

Fedora Cloud

Fedora cloud comprises a base image suitable for creating virtual machines, an Atomic host images for creating hosts for container deployment and a docker image.

Fedora cloud images have new persistent download points (last one for atomic_iso latest still needs confirmation as awaiting deployment):

   https://getfedora.org/atomic_qcow2_latest
   https://getfedora.org/atomic_raw_latest
   https://getfedora.org/atomic_vagrant_libvirt_latest
   https://getfedora.org/atomic_vagrant_virtualbox_latest
   https://getfedora.org/atomic_iso_latest 

"We chose to use Fedora Atomic as the base for our Navops Launch - Kubernetes cluster provisioning solution because our customers trust and already run Red Hat operating systems. We love the immutable aspect of Fedora Atomic which is perfect for containerized environments." Cameron Brunner, Chief Architect, Navops by Univa

Fedora Atomic has a two week refresh release cycle with major releases every six months. It has an easy upgrade path to accomodate rapid development for supporting the latest applications. It can also be run as a desktop for those requiring a lightweight and highly re-configurable environment.

The typical Fedora user should find it easy to use to migrate provision cloud services. User contributions and experience reports are welcome.

Fedora Server

Cockpit

• SELinux Troubleshooter module: Cockpit now has a SELinux Troubleshooter module similar to Fedora Workstation
  • If system encounters an SELinux denial, will display information about the issue as well as suggestions for correcting the issue if it was unexpected
  • Without the module, an administrator has to notice a denial occurred, dig through log files for the denial, and search for workarounds – the SELinux Troubleshooter presents information clearly and to the point all from the convenience of Cockpit
• Displays host SSH keys in the system dashboard: Easy to see and understand what SSH keys are added to the system for connecting to the machine
• Includes support for network teaming, Docker volume and storage management as well as the creation of systemd timer units
• Supports multi-step (incl. 2FA) authentication

Fedora Workstation

• GNOME 3.22: Fedora 25 includes GNOME 3.22 in its pre-release and in the Final version coming soon. Helpful new features include multiple file renaming, a redesigned keyboard settings tool, and many other UI improvements across the environment. For full details, refer to the GNOME 3.22 release notes.
• New Fedora media writer: The new Fedora Media Writer is a tool that downloads the latest stable Fedora for you. It then helps you write it to media such as a USB stick, so you can take Fedora for a spin on your system. If you like what you see, you can install to your system from the live environment. The Fedora Media Writer is available for Windows, Mac OS, and Linux.
• Wayland by default:
  • Wayland is the replacement for the legacy X11 display system. Wayland has been under development for several years. While like most software it still has some bugs, we believe it's ready to serve as a default that works for many users.
  • Users can still select the old X11 system if necessary to avoid a problem that affects them.
• Improved Flatpak support in the Software tool: The Software tool has the ability to install, update, and remove Flatpak software where a Fedora system is configured to point to a repo that offers it.
• GNOME Shell extensions are no longer checked for compatibility with the current version of the Shell. This was originally required because the GNOME interfaces were changing rapidly during the early days of GNOME 3. Now these interfaces have stabilized, and extensions can generally be expected to work with new releases. Any problems with an extension should be reported to the author through the homepage, as listed on the Extensions site.
• Emoji input for ibus users is now easy and enabled by default. Just press Keys Ctrl+Shift+'e' and type your Emoji names and you're done. Emoji typing is also supported in IBus typing booster.
• Unicode 9.0 is supported. Unicode 9.0 released on 21th June 2016 adds 7,500 characters, including six new scripts and 72 new emoji characters.

Spins

KDE Desktop

New packages

• Minuet: Utility for learning music
• KRDC: Remote desktop client
• KMahjongg: Solitaire mahjongg

Improvements

• Kontact suite: Improved feature set
• Kdenlive: Better video edits

Usage instructions

To try out KDE instead of the default GNOME desktop environment, see the KDE wiki page. More information is on the KDE announcements page.

Xfce

• xfce4-terminal:
  • Ported to gtk3 and vte291
  • Lots of bugfixes
  • Support for unlimited scrollback buffer
  • Support for magnet links, zooming
  • Tons of translation updates
• xfce4-power-manager:
  • Bunch of bugfixes and translation updates.
• xfce4-notifyd:
  • Ported to gtk3
  • Better theming capabilities.
• Xfce live image now contains Firefox

Mate-Compiz

• MATE-1.16

• complete switch to GTK+-3 toolkit version

• More details about changes with Mate-1.16 at http://mate-desktop.org/blog/2016-09-21-mate-1-16-released/

Labs

Design Suite

• Named Best of the Basics by MakeUseOf
• Inherit batch renaming for Nautilus file manager: a welcome feature for photographers
• Inclusion of fonts like Molot and Grand Hotel (needed for Fedora Magazine)
• GNOME Photos available as a preview

Upgrading to the Latest Release

To learn how to upgrade to the latest release from a recent Fedora release using DNF, see here.

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