9:15 a.m.
The Fedora 14 "Laughlin" Alpha release is available! This release offers a
preview of some of the best free and open source technology currently under
development. Catch a glimpse of the future:
http://fedoraproject.org/get-prerelease
== What is the Alpha release? ==
The Alpha release contains all the features of Fedora 14 in a form that anyone
can help test. This testing, guided by the Fedora QA team, helps us target and
identify 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 14 is due in November.
We need your help to make Fedora 14 the best release yet, so please take a
moment of your time to download and try out the Alpha 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 a rock-solid
distribution. (Read down to the end of the announcement for more information
on how to help.)
Fedora 14 is named in honor of distinguished physicist Robert B. Laughlin,
whose fields of research have included, among other things, the topic of
emergence. Emergence is the process by which a group of individual components
interact to produce a system that is more complex than the sum of its parts -
a perfect description of an open source community.
==Features==
This release of Fedora includes a variety of features both over and under the
hood that show off the power and flexibility of the advancing state of free
software. Examples include:
* '''System and session management.''' Fedora 14 introduces
'''systemd''', a
smarter, more efficient way of starting up and managing the background daemons
that services we all use every day - such as '''NetworkManager'''
and
'''PulseAudio''' - rely on.
* '''Desktop virtualization'''. High-quality access to QEMU
virtual machines
moves a step closer with the introduction of '''Spice''', a
complete open
source solution for interaction with virtualized desktops.
* '''Faster JPEG compression/decompression'''. The replacement of
'''libjpeg''' with '''libjpeg-turbo'''
brings speed improvements to a wide
range of applications when handling images in JPEG format, including photo
managers, video editors and PDF readers.
* '''New and updated programming languages'''. Fedora 14 sees the
introduction
of '''D''', a systems programming language combining power and
high
performance with programmer productivity, as well as updates to
'''Python''',
'''Erlang''', and '''Perl'''.
* '''Better tools for developers'''. Simpler, faster debugging
with '''gdb'''
indexing and new commands for finding and fixing memory leaks, as well as new
versions of '''NetBeans''' and
'''Eclipse'''.
* '''The latest desktop environments'''. '''KDE
4.5''' introduces window
tiling and better notification features, along with many stability
improvements. '''Sugar 0.90''' features major usability
improvements and
support for 3G networks.
* '''Improved netbook experience with MeeGo™'''. The
'''MeeGo™ Netbook UX
1.0''' provides a user interface tailored specifically for netbooks, building
on the foundations laid by '''Moblin''' in previous Fedora
releases.
* '''Fedora on the cloud'''. From Fedora 14 onward images for EC2
will be
provided for each new release, allowing users of Amazon's on-demand cloud
computing platform to use the latest Fedora.
* '''IPMI server management made simple'''. New to Fedora 14 is
'''ipmiutil''', an easy-to-use, fully-featured IPMI server
management utility
that allows a wide range of management functions to be performed with just a
few commands.
* '''Support for SCAP'''. Fedora 14 introduces an open source
framework for
the Security Content Automation Protocol (SCAP), allowing users to
automatically scan their system to check whether it complies with a defined
security configuration.
* '''Perl 6 support with Rakudo'''. Fedora 14 comes with Rakudo
Perl, an
implementation of the Perl 6 specification based on the Parrot virtual machine,
which enables developers to write new applications or port existing ones to
Perl 6.
* '''More powerful data analysis'''. Given that Fedora 14 is named
after one
of the giants of modern theoretical physics, it seems appropriate that
Laughlin sees the introduction to Fedora of '''ROOT''', an
obejct-oriented,
open-source platform for data acquisition, simulation and data analysis
developed by CERN. Support for the increasingly popular '''R'''
statistical
programming language is also broadened with a range of new addons.
These and many other improvements provide a wide and solid base for future
releases, further increasing the range of possibilities for developers and
helping to maintain Fedora's position at the leading edge of free and open
source technology.
A more complete list and details of each new cited feature 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/
== Issues and Details ==
For more information including common and known bugs, tips on how to report
bugs, and the official release schedule, please refer to the release notes:
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Fedora_14_Alpha_release_notes
ATI/AMD Radeon|In particular, if a blank screen is presented during
installation, especially with ATI/AMD Radeon video, please review
https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Common_F14_bugs#radeon-anaconda
== Contributing ==
Bug reports are helpful, especially for Alpha. If you encounter any issues
please report them and help make this release of Fedora the best ever.
Thank you, and we hope to see you in the Fedora project!