Fedora 20 for Power Beta Released

[David Aquilina]

Greetings Fedora for Power fans, 

There's no uncertainty about this: The Fedora 20, "Heisenbug" beta
release is here and is a fantastic sneak peek into the final Fedora 20
release. It's jam packed with fantastic free and open source software,
lovingly configured and ready to use.

The most recent and up-to-date version of this announcement can be found
online at
https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/PowerPC/F20_PPC_Beta_release_announcement

== What is the Beta Release? ==

The beta release is the last important milestone before the release of
Fedora 20. A Beta release is code-complete and bears a very strong
resemblance to the third and final release. Only critical bug fixes will
be pushed as updates up to the general release of Fedora 20. The final
release of Fedora 20 is expected in early December. Meanwhile, download
the beta of Fedora 20 and help us make it even better:

https://mirrors.fedoraproject.org/publiclist/Fedora/20-Beta/ppc64/

We need your help to make Fedora 20 the best release yet, so please take
some time to download and try out the beta and 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 20 a rock-solid
distribution. We have a culture of coordinating new features and pushing
fixes upstream as much as feasible and your feedback will help improve
not only Fedora but Linux and free software on the whole. (See the end
of this for more information on how to help.)

Since it's a beta release, some problems may still be lurking. A list of
problems that we already know about can be found at the Common F20 bugs
page, found at http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Common_F20_bugs.

==10 Years of Fedora==

The Fedora 20 release coincides nicely with the 10th anniversary of
Fedora. The first Fedora release (then called Fedora Core 1) came out on
November 6, 2003. 

Since then, the Fedora Project has become an active and vibrant
community that produces nearly a dozen "spins" that are tailor made for
desktop users, hardware design, gaming, musicians, artists, and early
classroom environments.

== Power-Specific Features == 

In addition to all of the standard Fedora 20 features, Fedora 20 for
Power also has the following changes: 

* grub2 has replaced yaboot as the DVD bootloader. yaboot is now
  completely deprecated. 

* All 32-bit packages have been removed from the install media. They are
  still available online.


== Issues and Details ==

Heisenbug Alpha is a testing release. To report issues encountered
during testing, contact the Fedora QA team via the test
mailing list or in #fedora-qa on freenode.

As testing progresses, common issues are tracked at https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Common_F20_bugs

For tips on reporting a bug effectively, read http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/How_to_file_a_bug_report
.

Please also be aware of the following Power-specific issues: 

* When using the netinst ISO or installing from the network, you may
  have to specify the installation repository manually (e.g.
  http://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/fedora-secondary/releases/test/20-Beta/Fedora/ppc64/os/
  )  or you will receive a xulrunner-related dependency error. 

* When using Gnome via VNC for the first time, you may see a blank
  screen. Press Escape to dismiss the blank window and access the
  desktop.

== Note on performance ==

Fedora development releases use a kernel with extra debug information to
help us understand and resolve issues faster; however, this can have a
significant impact on performance. You can boot with slub_debug=-
or use the kernel from nodebug repository to disable the extra debug
info.


== Contributing to Fedora for Power == 

More information on Fedora for Power can be found at
https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Arch:PPC. To get involved in testing and
development of Fedora for Power, join us on IRC in #fedora-ppc on
Freenode.

== Contributing to The Fedora Project ==
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, design and do artwork, 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!

On behalf of the Fedora for Power team, 
David