Fedora 27 talking points

These are the Talking Points for the Fedora 27 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.

Overall Release Story

Since we skipped the Alpha release for this cycle we just push out the Beta. We had some delays to grant the best stability and operability for our users. The release date is 2017-10-03.

For this cycle, the server edition won't be shipped at the same time due to big changes happening inside the edition itself. This is due to the major change of building the server edition with modularity. For more informations, please read the Fedora Magazine article

Here's the beta release announce

Here's the Documentation

Bugs

Refer to Fedora 27 Common Bugs

Fedora-Wide Changes and Improvements

All changes are listed below, ones to highlight are listed first

Changes to talk about for regular users

The Alpha release won't be shipped anymore.

All software is up to date, there are no significant improvements except:

• Fedora Workstation: LibreOffice switched to the version 5.4. In Gnome 3.26 Network and Display are simpler to configure now and in the overall Settings is now easier to find settings we need.
• Fedora KDE: switched to the version 5.9.1 of QT5

Several alternatives downloads here.

Changes affecting security

No significant improvements. Software switched to the latest releases

Changes to talk about for developers

• Fedora Atomic: changed the way of setting up containers. Kubernetes is now containerized and Cockpit includes Dashboard installation on Atomic Host via rpm package layering. The Atomic CLI is updated to version 1.19.1.

• Pipewire (http://pipewire.org/). Our new media handling deamon. It will be used in Fedora Workstation 27 to handle screen sharing and screen capture under GNOME Shell, but long term Pipewire will be in charge of almost all audio and video devices on the system.

All changes

Fedora 27 Accepted System Wide Changes Proposals

These changes have been accepted by the Fedora Engineering Steering Committee for the Fedora 27 Release as System Wide Changes.

32 bit UEFI Support

Some x86 systems ship with a 64 bit CPU, but 32 bit UEFI firmware. It is possible to use a 32 bit UEFI grub build to boot a 64 bit kernel and distribution on these systems. So far this setup has not been supported in Fedora. This feature is about adding support for installing and booting Fedora on this hardware.

Arbitrary Branching

Tooling changes to support the new way of branching for Fedora 27

Drop 256term.sh

Do not install /etc/profile.d/256term.sh and /etc/profile.d/256term.csh.

Enable TRIM pass down to encrypted disks

Override kernel default for dm-crypt mappings of LUKS1 encrypted volumes via flag put in /etc/crypttab file. This change should affect only newly created encrypted storage based on LUKS1 format during installation.

Fedora 27 Boost 1.64 upgrade

This change brings Boost 1.64.0 to Fedora 27. This will mean F27 ships with a recent upstream Boost release.

The GNU C Library version 2.26

Switch glibc in Fedora 27 to glibc version 2.26.

Host and Platform

Host and Platform is an evolution of the Base Runtime module concept introduced in Fedora 26 Boltron, splitting the minimal system further into independent modules allowing for greater flexibility when composing and maintaining the base system.

Kerberos KCM credential cache by default

Default to a new Kerberos credential cache type called KCM which is better suited for containerized environments and provides a better user experience in the general case as well.

Modular Server

The Modularity Working Group, Factory 2.0, Base Runtime, and Server Working Group would like to propose using the modular infrastructure for creating and delivering the Fedora Server Edition for Fedora 27. While we are still working through some of the kinks leading up to the release of Fedora 26, we believe that the changes to the infrastructure and technology implementations will be available with sufficient time to harden the components in time for the 27 release.

Modular Release

The build, release, distribution, and update changes associated with and required for the Changes/Modular_Server and Changes/Host_and_Platform Changes.

No More Alphas

Fedora will no longer produce Alpha releases.

• Status: 100% code completed

Node.js 8.x

Fedora 27 will be updated to Node.js 8.x, the latest LTS release of the platform built on Chrome's JavaScript runtime for easily building fast, scalable network applications.

Parallel Installable Debuginfo

debuginfo packages can be installed in parallel to make it easier to trace, profile and observe what programs are doing or to debug when they have crashed. That way debugging, tracing or profiling programs can be done independent of whether they are 32bit, 64bit, a slightly newer or older version than currently installed or even from a different architecture.

RPM 4.14

Update RPM to the upcoming 4.14 release.

Ruby on Rails 5.1

Ruby on Rails 5.1 is the latest version of well known web framework written in Ruby.

Separate Subpackage and Source Debuginfo

Allow to install just the debuginfo for a subpackage and/or without the source files. The debuginfo packages are huge because they contain debuginfo and all sources for all subpackages. Being able to install only the debuginfo for the subpackage that is installed reduces the size that needs to be downloaded to analyze, trace, profile or debug a program or core file. Some tracing and profiling tools don't need the actual source files to provide stack traces or insert probes. So installing the debugsources should be optional.

Golang 1.9

Rebase of Golang package to upcoming version 1.9 in Fedora 27, including rebuild of all dependent packages(pre-release version of Go will be used for mass rebuild).

Switch libcurl back to OpenSSL

libcurl in Fedora currently uses the NSS (Network Security Services) library for TLS and cryptography. After implementing this change, libcurl will use OpenSSL instead of NSS.

perl Package to Install Core Modules

dnf install perl will install all core Perl modules that come with Perl upstream sources.

Perl 5.26

A new perl 5.26 version brings a lot of changes done over a year of development. Perl 5.26 was released 5/31/2017. See 5.26.0 perldelta for more details about preparing release.

Fedora 27 Accepted Self Contained Changes Proposals

These changes have been accepted by the Fedora Engineering Steering Committee for the Fedora 27 Release as Self Contained Changes.

Bodhi Non-RPM Artifacts

Bodhi, the Fedora Updates System, should be able to process more than just RPMs.

Chinese Serif Fonts

Fedora already provides default Chinese Sans fonts, now Fedora 27 will also provide default Chinese Serif fonts.

Decouple system java setting from java command setting

By default, Java applications installed from RPMs are run with JVM found on PATH. We propose to run them with default system JVM, not considering PATH. Users will still be able to override the default using JAVA_HOME environment variable as before.

Improved Bay- and Cherry-Trail device support

Improve support for hardware using Intel Bay Trail and Cherry Trail SoCs.

Java 9

Add a tech preview preview of the the upcoming version of Java (OpenJDK9) to Fedora 27

Making sudo pip Safe (Again)

At the present time, running sudo pip3 in Fedora is not safe. Pip shares its installation directory with dnf, can remove dnf-managed files and generally break the Python 3 interpreter. We propose a series of measures that will make it safe to use.

New default cipher in OpenVPN

Since the discovery of the SWEET32 flaw, ciphers using cipher-blocks smaller than 128-bits are considered vulnerable and should not be used any more. OpenVPN uses Blowfish (BF-128-CBC) as the default cipher, which is hit by the SWEET32 flaw. This proposal changes the default cipher to AES-256-GCM while in parallel allowing clients to connect using AES-256-CBC, AES-128-CBC or the deprecated BF-CBC,

OpenSSH Server Crypto Policy

OpenSSH clients follow the system-wide crypto policy since Fedora 26. This F27 change modifies the openssh server configuration to adhere to the system-wide policy. That will allow openssh server configuration to adapt to the multiple security levels offered system-wide.

Platform Python Stack

A revisit of the System Python change from Fedora 24. It has been renamed from System Python to Platform Python not to collide with upstream PEP 432.

Remove SSH-1 from OpenSSH clients

Upstream removes support for SSH-1 protocol and we plan to do the same in Fedora. The protocol is years obsolete and not even supported in current default binaries (only in openssh-clients-ssh1 subpackage).

Remove krb5-appl

Remove src:krb5-appl (produces packages krb5-appl-clients and krb5-appl-servers) from the distribution.

Replace Yumex-DNF with dnfdragora

Replace the current alternative graphical package manager.

Samba AD

Samba AD is an open source implementation of an Active Directory set of tools and protocols. It allows Windows clients to be enrolled and managed using native Windows tools. In addition, Samba AD can serve as a domain controller for Fedora workstations and servers utilizing DCERPC, LDAP and Kerberos.

aarch64 SBC (Single Board Computer) Disk Images

We will deliver the first supported SBC disk images for aarch64.

libpinyin 2.1

libpinyin 2.1 will merge libzhuyin code and replace the package

Editions

Fedora Atomic

• Multi-Architecture Availability: Fedora 27 Atomic is now also available for 64-bit ARM (AArch64) and Power8 (ppc64le) architectures. Atomic provides both regular ISOs and cloudImages, and Atomic OSTree updates will be available for all three architectures.
• Consolidated Storage Setup based on OverlayFS: Fedora Atomic 27 now defaults to a more simple container storage setup. Fedora 26 Atomic switched to OverlayFS2 as the default driver, but still had a separate volume for container storage. While the project does recommend a separate volume for production deployments, the new setup provides a simpler out-of-the-box experience. In Fedora 27 Atomic Host the default will be a large root filesystem, shared with the container storage.
• Containerized Kubernetes by Default: Fedora Atomic 27 no longer includes Kubernetes, etcd, or flannel in the base OSTree. We offer containerized Kubernetes, flannel and etcd. This allows flexibility for users to choose different versions of Kubernetes, or to not use Kubernetes at all. If having Kubernetes installed via RPM is a requirement, then package layering is still an option.
• Improvements in Package Layering: Version 27 includes the latest rpm-ostree, with support for base package overrides (removes and replaces). This builds on top of the previous features including support for direct RPM install, and experimental LiveFS layering, which allows layering without a reboot.
• System Containers in the Fedora Registry: System Containers are a way of installing system infrastructure software as a container. Since the last release, the project has polished the System Container technology and now offers System Containers for Docker, Kuberetes, flannel, and etcd. These are all available in the Fedora Layered Image Registry.
• "Atomic Workstation", the experimental RPM-OStree build of Fedora Workstation, will start getting regular, automated updates with Fedora 27. This supports developer, particularly Fedora contributors, who want to experiment with Fedora Atomic on their laptop.
• atomic 1.19.1: An updated to Atomic CLI version 1.19.1, with enhancements/bugfixes to system container support.
• Cockpit 149-1: The latest version of Cockpit, including support for Cockpit Dashboard installation on Atomic Host via rpm package layering.

Infos and availability here

Fedora Server

For this cycle, the server edition won't be shipped at the same time due to big changes happening inside the edition itself. This is due to the major change of building the server edition with modularity. For more information, please read the Fedora Magazine article

Infos and availability here

Fedora Workstation

• Improved Settings - Both the Display and Network areas have been updated to make it simpler to configure these settings, and the overall Settings panel now has a tabbed appearance to make it easier to find the settings you need.
• Builder - features a lot a improvements including to the debugger, the overall design, symbol search and word completion, and inline documentation.
• System search - Has a new layout that shows more results at once -- and even includes system actions.
• System tray removal - the antiquated system tray has been removed to reduce visual clutter and confusion. The Topicons extension is available for use with any applications that have not yet updated to make use of modern GNOME 3 standards.
• Resizeable tiling - New tiling functionality in GNOME Shell that allows arbitrarily sized tiles. This is a precursor to bringing in quartile tiling in Fedora Workstation 28.
• Fleet Commander - Our new Cockpit extension that gives you a incredible tool for managing large deployments of Fedora Desktops. Check out fleet-commander.org for details.
• Boxes - Now makes it easier to consume the RHEL Developer Suite subscription directly. Screenshots
• Applications
  • LibreOffice 5.4
    • Writer improvements:
      • AutoText import from .dotx and .dotm files
      • RTF filter now supports all types of custom document properties
      • New "Edit Section" UNO command which works if cursor is in a section, has been created and added in context menu
      • New "Footnotes and Endnotes" UNO command which works if cursor is in a footnote or endnote, has been created and added in context menu.
      • Huge improvement in the export of bullets & numbering via copy & paste
      • New formatting toolbar focused on the use of styles is accessible through View ▸ Toolbars ▸ Formatting (Styles).
      • Custom Watermark inserting in Format ▸ Watermarks
      • Styles submenu was added to Context Menu, which includes basic character styles.
      • AutoCorrect options for markup strikeout and italic are added
      • Rename Moderate business letter templates to Modern business letter
    • Calc improvements:
      • Calculate with Precision as shown option now works also with raction format, raction format, engineering notation, thousands divisors
      • CSV export settings are now remembered
      • Priority of conditional formatting rules can be changed with new up/down buttons.
      • New cell comment commands added
      • While building formulas, when selecting a cell or range on another sheet with the pointer, absolute sheet references are now created instead of relative
      • Support negative year date (BCE) in cell input and date display
      • A new Cell Protection toggle command was added to Edit ▸ Cell Protection to change the protection status of the cell
      • Four new sheet protection options have been added to optionally allow insertions and deletions of rows and columns.
      • New function ROUNDSIG to round a value at a number of significant digits
      • The semantics of the COUNTIF, SUMIF and AVERAGEIF Criteria argument has been changed.
      • More detailed features list in the LibreOffice 5.4 Release Notes
  • Fedora Media Writer
    • the new version allows you to create bootable SD cards with Fedora for ARM devices such as Raspberry Pi. Support for Windows 7 and screenshot handling have been improved. The utility also notifies you when a new release of Fedora is available. There are no big changes compared to the previous version, only stability and usability fixes.

Infos and availability here

Fedora ARM

Infos and availability here

Spins

KDE Plasma Desktop

The software released by the KDE community - Frameworks, Plasma, KDE Applications, and all the other applications with independent release schedule - was updated bringing fixes and improvements. For more information, please check:

• the announcements page on KDE website, with the releases for Frameworks, Plasma and KDE Applications;
• the archives of the kde-announce-apps mailing list, where the releases of applications with independent release schedule are announced.
• Qt 5 was updated to 5.9.1 brings more stability and new features.

Infos and availability here

Xfce

The Xfce spin is running on Xfce 4.12. This cycle only brings stability improvements but no new features.

Infos and availability here

LXQt

There aren't changes from the previous release.

Infos and availability here'

Mate-Compiz

There aren't changes from the previous release.

Infos and availability here

Cinnamon

There aren't changes from the previous release.

Infos and availability here

LXDE

Infos and availability here

SoaS

Infos and availability here

Labs

Infos and availability here

Design Suite

• Blender: Updated to 2.79 with automatic support of high resolution display
• Entangle: Updated to 1.0 with improved user interface
• Gimp: included wavelet decompose add-on
• Gnome Books:A e-books manager application for GNOME
• Gnome ToDo: Personal task manager for GNOME
• Gpick: updated to 0.2.6rc1 with enabled GTK3 support. Sampling currently works on Gnome on X session
• Hugin: updated to 2017.0.0
• Inkscape: Updated to version 0.92.2. SVG format now complies to W3C standard meaning saved files handles 96dpi.

Security

The Fedora Security Lab ships the latest releases of various tools which are useful if you need to do security auditing, forensics or system rescue. The Xfce Desktop Environment and a customized menu make the access to the tool as easy as possible and due to the nature of the Labs no additional download is necessary.

Wireshark, yersinia and siege, just to name some of the tools, were updated to provide you with the newest features.

Upgrading to the Latest Release

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

---