The Fedora 18 "Spherical Cow" alpha release is plumping up! This release offers a preview of some of the best free and open source technology currently under development. Model a glimpse of the future:
http://fedoraproject.org/get-prerelease
Warning: The Anaconda installer for Fedora 18 Alpha will format the entire disk unless custom partitioning is selected. See Bugzilla: #855976.
What is the alpha release?
As if Fedora 17 wasn't beefy enough, the alpha release of Fedora 18 is even meatier. Anyone can help test this release, guided by the Fedora QA team, which helps us identify and target bugs. When these bugs are fixed, we make a Beta release available. A beta release is code-complete, and bears a very strong resemblance to the third and final release. The final release of Fedora 18 is due in early November.
Fedora 18 will be the best release ever--but only with your help. Please take a moment of your time to download and try out the Fedora 18 alpha. Make sure the things that are important to you are working. If you find a bug, please report it--every bug you uncover is a chance to improve the experience for millions of Fedora users worldwide. Together, we can make Fedora a well-rounded distri-moo-tion. (Read down to the end of the announcement for more information on how to help.)
Features
Fedora 18 adds many new and improved features for a variety of audiences. A small sample is included below.
On the desktop
- NetworkManager Hotspots improve the ability to use a computer's WiFi adapter to create a network hot spot.
- The redesigned installation system adds flexibility to the installation process while simplifying the user interface.
- Desktop updates galore: Gnome 3.6, KDE Plasma Workspace 4.9, Xfce 4.10, Sugar 0.98, and the introduction of the MATE Desktop in Fedora.
For sysadmins
- Fedora 18 is the first Linux distribution to include the Riak NoSQL database, a fault-tolerant and scalable database system.
- Samba 4 adds SMB3 support and support for FreeIPA trusted domains.
- Offline system updates adds support for installing OS packages at boot. This gives systems administrators the ability to upgrade important libraries in a controlled manner.
- Fedora 18 will be able to easily join an Active Directory domain or FreeIPA realm.
For developers
- The Python 3 stack is upgraded to version 3.3.
- Rails is upgraded from version 3.0 to version 3.2.
- Perl 5.16 adds Unicode 6.1 support.
- Power7 optimized ppc64p7 is added as a supported platform for Fedora 18 packages.
Cloud and Virtualization
- OpenShift Origin brings Platform as a Service (PaaS) infrastructure to Fedora.
- Eucalyptus gives Fedora the ability to support private, AWS-compatible Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) clouds.
- Fedora 18's OpenStack packages are upgraded to "Folsom", the latest upstream release.
- Heat improves the cloudiness of Fedora by providing a stronger OpenStack feature set.
- Virt Live Snapshots adds the ability to perform snapshots of QEMU and libvirt virtual machines without having to stop the guest.
- The oVirt Engine is upgraded to version 3.1 and adds GUI tools.
Contributing
Great releases like Fedora 18 don't get made in a vacuum. We can't do it without you! Bug reports are especially helpful as we move from the theory to the applied physics. If you encounter any issues, please report them!
Fedora is a fantastic, friendly community, and we have many ways in which you can contribute, including Documentation, Marketing, Design, QA, Development, and more.
To learn how to help us, visit: http://join.fedoraproject.org/
Thank you, and we hope to see you in the Fedora Project!