Mark your calendars, and get ready to break out and have some fun: Fedora 14 will launch in early November. Fedora is the leading-edge, community-developed, free and open source operating system that continues to deliver innovative features to users worldwide with each new release every six months.
But... what's that, you say? November is oh so far away? Never fear - Beta is here! Checking out the latest and greatest in Fedora's cutting-edge technologies is just a click away.
Stand out from the crowd. Get your taste of Fedora 14 now, by trying out our Beta release:
http://fedoraproject.org/get-prerelease?anF14b
What is the Beta Release?
The beta release is the last important milestone of Fedora 14. Only critical bug fixes will be pushed as updates leading to the general release of Fedora 14 in early November. We invite you to join us in making Fedora 14 a solid release by downloading, testing, and providing your valuable feedback.
Of course, this is a beta release, meaning that some problems may still be lurking. A list of the problems we already know about is found at the Common F14 bugs page.
If you find a bug that's not found on that page, be sure it gets fixed before release by reporting your discovery at https://bugzilla.redhat.com/. Thank you!
Features
Desktop enthusiasts and end users of all sorts can look forward to:
- Faster loading and saving of JPEG images. The libjpeg-turbo feature nearly halves the time to load and save JPEG images on most modern machines - meaning you'll be seeing your digital photos even faster.
- Easier virtualization for end users. From the creators of KVM comes Spice (Simple Protocol for Independent Computing Environments). This framework allows end-users to enjoy the features they enjoy, such as accelerated 2D graphics, encryption, and audio playing and recording, all while working in a virtualized environment.
Are you a sysadmin? Check out the new features we have for you!
- Additional IPMI support. Enjoy using IPMI (Intelligent Platform Management Interface) to manage your servers? The new ipmiutil feature adds more functionality to existing IPMI capabilities, including SOL (Serial-over-LAN) and identity LED management.
- Tech preview of systemd. Looking to the future? Check out systemd, a next-generation replacement for Upstart and SystemV init. With faster boot times, the ability to track processes, daemons, and sockets, and system state snapshotting, this preview of systemd will have you prepped for the future.
Coders have lots of new development tools to try out, including:
- D Programming. Statically typed and compiling directly to machine code, the D systems programming language combines the power and performance of languages like C and C++ with the productivity of languages like Ruby and Python.
- GNUstep is a GUI framework based on the Objective-C programming language, and is a reimplementation of the NextStep environment.
- Memory debugging tools. Unique to Fedora 14, the gdb-heap package allows developers to get a breakdown of how a process is using dynamic memory - and can do unplanned memory usage debugging by attaching to runaway memory hogs, mid-process.
- Python 2.7 capabilities increases Fedora's commitment to improving portability and migration paths for developers to move to Python 3. Enhanced debugging and integration with GCC continue to be available in Fedora 14, and Python-related enhancements such as fixing common problems with GObject introspection and SWIG are also introduced.
- Rakudo Star is the most actively developed implementation of Perl 6, and is based on the Parrot virtual machine. Perl 6 is a major revision to this sysadmin and developer toolbox standby, introducing elements of many modern and historical languages.
And that's only the beginning. A more complete list and details of all the new features in Fedora 14 is available here:
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Releases/14/FeatureList
We have nightly composes of alternate spins available here:
http://alt.fedoraproject.org/pub/alt/nightly-composes/
Fedora 14 / Beta is for Carotene / Let's Push for Final!
Contributing
For more information on common and known bugs, tips on how to report bugs, and the official release schedule, please refer to the release notes:
There are many ways to contribute beyond bug reporting. You can help translate software and content, test and give feedback on software updates, write and edit documentation, help with all sorts of promotional activities, and package free software for use by millions of Fedora users worldwide. To get started, visit http://join.fedoraproject.org today!