General Information
To download Fedora 18 Beta, visit http://fedoraproject.org/get-prerelease. Download options are available for BitTorrent and direct download. This release is available for all 32-bit and 64-bit Intel-compatible platforms. Note that Fedora uses SHA256 instead of MD5 or SHA-1 to verify images in a more secure way.
Filing Bug Reports
Please file bug reports on this beta release if you find any problems.
Known Issues
Refer to the Common F18 bugs page for a listing of issues, and any known resolutions, commonly found with this release. This page is maintained throughout the Fedora 18 developmental cycle.
What's New in Fedora 18 Beta
We can't go round all of Spherical Cow's new features as it is too big, but here is an overview of what you're going to find.
To begin small, terminals can now use 256 colors instead of the old 8 colors. It is an improvement for your eyes. Desktops have their share of new, new upstream version of Gnome version: 3.6. For those you prefer old, venerable Gnome at version 2, your call has been heard with integration of MATE desktop. Students and schools have now their own desktop, too, with integration of Sugar learning environment.
firewalld is now the default firewall software, replacing iptables. There's no more need to restart your firewall to make rules changes. Fedora will now discover printers and other mDNS devices. Also, a preview of next generation Yum packet manager with DNF providing new API definition and performance improvements solving dependencies using libsolv via hawkey for backend.
Sysadmins will find some tasted features with the final release of Samba 4 and possibility to join an Active Directory domain out of the box. Know even more about your servers with management agents that let you access vital and useful information about your hardware's health. Fedora brings you an integrated and unified way to access to that data and manage yours servers with unique native management software instead of the different proprietary software. And as cream hazelnut, Storage System Management CLI tools simplify the user interface by providing unified abstraction and interface for multiple storage technologies, like lvm, btrfs and md raid while implementing set of commands with the same syntax regardless of the technology used.
And developers aren't forgotten with an updated D environment, latest Fedora Haskell packages as well as the latest stack of Perl and Python.
Additional Information
How to Try Beta
This release is accompanied by installable live media of both the GNOME and KDE desktops. With live media users can perform testing and demonstration without installing any software to the hard disk. As this release is largely targeted at developers and contains many bleeding edge packages, this is the best method for less experienced users who want to get involved with testing. The Live media also have an option to install Fedora to an hard disk for the more intrepid users.
The best way to download this release is through BitTorrent -- visit the Fedora torrent server for a listing of available images. Release images can also be downloaded from any of our mirrors. Remember that live images can be used on USB media via the livecd-iso-to-disk utility available in the livecd-tools package on existing Fedora systems. Refer to the USB How-to for more instructions.
Verify Fedora
Fedora does not publish MD5 or SHA1 hashes to verify images since they are not secure enough. Instead we have been using SHA256 since Fedora 11. In Linux, you can use sha256sum command (part of coreutils and installed by default) to verify the Fedora image:
sha256sum -c *-CHECKSUM
Windows users can use the free to download utility HashCalc.
Mac OS X users can use the free to download utility hashtab.
Fedora GPG signatures can be verified following the instructions here.
Debugging Information And Performance
Fedora kernels have many extensive debugging options during the developmental cycle that have a negative impact on performance but provide developers with more information automatically, in the case of bug reports. If you are running performance analysis on Rawhide or test releases such as Alpha or Beta, make sure you take this into account.
Fedora 18 Release Schedule And Feature Details
Development continues on Rawhide during and after this release, leading to the beta, then the final release. The links below provide the release schedule for both the pre-releases and the final release, as well as the wiki's pages for tracking the various features planned for inclusion in Fedora 18.
How to get started
Intrigued? Want to give Spherical Cow a spin?
HOW TO DL LiveDVD, 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.
Want an even more enjoyable way to use Fedora, risk-free? Try the Live USB option. You can create a bootable USB stick so you can take Fedora with you anywhere you go or on a netbook/laptop without a CD/DVD drive. Check out the instruction page here:
How to create and use Live USB
And if you're running Fedora 17, it is possible to upgrade. Refer to our documentation for help.
Help make Fedora!
Want to join the Fedora community and help us make the best Linux distribution even better? Join the Fedora project. 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, you too can get involved. Share what you know or help with something you've always wanted to learn; mentors are always available to help you get started. Any help is appreciated!
We'd love to hear your thoughts on Fedora 18. Have a suggestion? Find a bug? Start by taking a look at the Common F18 bugs to see if it's something we know about. (That page has information on what to do if you don't find your bug, too.)
Further reading
Want more? Here are some further resources on Fedora 18, or you talk with a community member in our live chat 24/7.