Fedora 12 one page release notes: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 21:16, 3 November 2009

What is Fedora 12?

Fedora is a Linux-based operating system that brings the latest in free and open source software to your desktop / laptop or server.
Fedora is built by people across the globe who work together as a community: the Fedora Project. The Fedora Project is open and anyone is welcome to join and contribute or simply use it.

More information on the Fedora Project is available at the official site of the project http://fedoraproject.org .

<<IMAGE: People! Fedora community members working together, using Fedora, being happy... perhaps some of Mo's pictures from the last FUDCon that show Fedora folks interacting with Fedora stickers, etc. in hilarious ways.>>

A fully functional operating system bundled with software Free to use, Free to distribute, Free to modify, Free to enjoy even for system administrators.

Fedora 12 (Constantine) is the latest version of Fedora, released in November 2009. Fedora follows a 6-month release cycle; the next version will be Fedora 13, available in May 2010.

<<IMAGE: nice F12 screenshot>>

What's new in Fedora 12?

Fedora 12 is filled with improvements that make Linux better than ever for all types of users. Here are a few of the new things you can expect to see when you try out Fedora 12.

For desktop users, Fedora 12 is filled with features they are accustomed to in other operating systems. Desktop spanning allows multiple monitor connections to seamlessly transition windows from one monitor to another; improved webcam support means that video chat is made simpler, so users can video chat with their friends, regardless of what platform they are using. Instant messaging is available with the Empathy application, providing audio and video capabilities. For users watching video on the web, next-generation (Ogg) Theora video provides crisp, vibrant media in both streaming and download form out of the box using Firefox 3.5; audio aficionados will enjoy PulseAudio enhancements, allowing streaming from their system to other clients, as well as pairing with any Bluetooth audio device.

<<IMAGE: screenshot that shows webcam and instant messaging and audio>> <<IMAGE: happy person listening to music while talking with a friend via webcam>>>

These new features are in addition to the range of great open source desktop applications Fedora provides. No matter what you do - email, web browsing, office applications, graphic design, robotics, electronic design automation, amateur radio, webcomics - you'll find it all here.

<<IMAGE: screenshots of graphic design, electronics, etc. applications>> <<IMAGE: happy people playing with robots wearing a Fedora tshirt - Jef Spaleta?>>

System administrators also enjoy a number of improvements with the debut of Fedora 12. Boot times are improved via a number of enhancements, including the addition of GRUB with ext4 support; a new booting system called Dracut, and Kernel Mode Setting (KMS) enabled by default on systems with NVIDIA, ATI and Intel video cards for a faster and smoother graphical boot. For cluster administrators, the addition of GFS2 Clustered Samba and improvements in HA (high availability) clustering makes sharing data across machines easier and more reliable. Fedora also features constant security updates for bulletproof systems, and a number of virtualization improvements have emerged with this release that allow administrators to do things like

<<IMAGE: screenshot of multiple virtual machines and graphical VM monitors laid out, all doing different things>>

<<IMAGE: something screenshot-ish for sysadmins... not sure what we want to do here, screenshot people can get creative, maybe an SELinux screen... or even something that's not a screenshot - a diagram illustrating how much faster the boot time is, etc maybe something corny comparing old vs. new? here's a screen shot after 30 seconds before, here's a screenshot of 30 seconds now... not sure. just braindumping>> <<IMAGE: 4 or more VM monitors with different VMs -XP / Win 7 / 2003 / Fedora 11 - booting and an other window showing CPU & Memory monitor; or even better some VMs running SQL server (MySQL or whatever as long as it show the execution time) executing a query with a Task Manager CPU & Mem Utilization in first plan, while in the main Screen Fedora's system monitor will be displaying the real recourse consumption>>

<<IMAGE: screenshot of happy sysadmin sitting in front of a rack> or maybe in front of his/her single monitor / keyboard showing the cluster admin interface?>>

For developers, Fedora 12 includes a rich set of development tools, including all popular programming languages, IDEs, and an extensive set of libraries. The most recent versions of emacs, mercurial, and php are included - no need to worry about downloading the latest and greatest, we've got them all. And for developers using Eclipse, version 3.5 (Galileo) is included in Fedora 12, along with more Eclipse plug-ins than ever before.

<<IMAGE: Pretty eclipse screenshot here plz, with entertaining code>>

How to get started

Intrigued? Want to give Fedora 12 a try?

If you're running Fedora 11, upgrading is as easy as... <<LINK TO FINAL VERSION OF UPGRADE NOTEShttp://docs.fedoraproject.org/install-guide/f12/en-US/html/ch-upgrade-x86.html - whatever is linked to from the get.fp.o website on the "upgrade" section>>

Want to try out Fedora before you make a decision? You can also try out Fedora with a LiveCD regardless of what operating system you're running. This will give you a working version of Fedora, complete with common applications, all running off your CD drive - your hard drive won't be touched at all. And when you're ready, installation is just a click away. <<LINK TO LiveCD>>

<<Maybe a Live USB image for Atom??>>

Help make Fedora!

We'd love to hear your thoughts on Fedora 12. Have a suggestion? Find a bug? See <<<LINK TO BUG FILING PLACE, probably get this link from the QA team>>>

Want to join the Fedora community and help us make the best Linux distribution even better? Get started at http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Join. Our diverse community from all over the globe welcomes contributors of all types, from artists to marketers to coders to testers to writers to translators and more. Share what you know or help with something you've always wanted to learn; mentors are always available to help you get started.

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