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I'm proud to announce the release of Fedora 12, the latest innovative
Linux distribution from the Fedora Project, a global, collaborative
partnership of free software community members sponsored by Red Hat.
If you can't wait to get the distribution, simply visit:
http://get.fedoraproject.org
If you want a quick tour of highlights in this release, check out:
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Fedora_12_one_page_release_notes
You can also find this announcement text at:
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Fedora_12_Announcement
Or read on for loads of information about the new release and all the
leading edge technologies we've packed into it. More links are
available at the end of this message, too. Enjoy!
* * *
Fedora is a leading edge, free and open source operating system that
continues to deliver innovative features to many users, with a new
release about every six months. We bring to you the latest and
greatest release of Fedora ever, Fedora 12! Join us and share the joy
of Free software and the community with friends and family. We have
several major new features with special focus on desktops, netbooks,
virtualization and system administration.
== What's New in Fedora 12? ==
* Optimized performance - All software packages on 32-bit (x86_32)
architecture have been compiled for i686 systems, with special
optimization for the Intel Atom processors used in many netbooks,
but without losing compatibility with the overwhelming majority of
CPUs.
* Smaller and faster updates - In Fedora 11, the optional yum-presto
plugin, developed by Fedora contributor Jonathan Dieter, reduced
update size by transmitting only the changes in the updated
packages. Now, the plugin is installed by default. Also, RPMs now
use XZ rather than gzip for compression, providing smaller package
sizes without the memory and CPU penalties associated with
bzip2. This lets us fit more software into each Fedora image, and
uses less space on mirrors, making their administrators' lives a
little easier. Thanks to the Fedora infrastructure team for their
excellent work in setting up the infrastructure to generate delta
RPMs on the fly for all the updates.
* NetworkManager broadband and other enhancements - NetworkManager,
originally developed by Red Hat's Dan Williams, was introduced in
Fedora 7 and has become the de facto network configuration solution
for distributions everywhere. Enhancements to NetworkManager make
both system-wide connections and mobile broadband connections easier
than ever. Bluetooth PAN support offers a simple click through
process to access the Internet from your mobile
phone. NetworkManager can now configure always-on and static address
connections directly from the desktop. PolicyKit integration has
been added so configuration management can be done via central
policy where needed. IPv6 support has also been improved.
* Next-generation (Ogg) Theora video - For several years, Theora, the
open and free format not encumbered by known patents has provided a
way for freedom-loving users to share video. Fedora 12 includes the
new Theora 1.1, which achieves very high quality comparable to
H.264, meeting the expectations of demanding users with crisp,
vibrant media in both streaming and downloadable form. Thanks to the
work of the Xiph.Org Foundation's Christopher "Monty" Montgomery,
sponsored by Red Hat, other Xiph developers and the contribution of
Mozilla.org, Theora videos now deliver much better quality primarily
via enhancements in the encoder without any change in the format,
making it available to all Theora users. Using Theora video and
Vorbis audio formats, Firefox 3.5 and applications using the
Gstreamer multimedia framework can deliver free media on the web out
of the box even better than the previous release of Fedora. Theora
is being rapidly adopted by several popular websites including
Wikipedia, VideoPress and DailyMotion. Fedora Project is proud to
support communities of free culture and open content as part of our
mission. More details at
http://hacks.mozilla.org/2009/09/theora-1-1-released/
* Graphics support improvements - Fedora 12 introduces experimental 3D
support for AMD Radeon HD 2400 and later graphics cards. To try it
out, install the mesa-dri-drivers-experimental package. On many
cards, this support should allow desktop effects to be used. Kernel
mode setting (KMS) support, which was introduced on AMD hardware in
Fedora 10 and extended to Intel hardware in Fedora 11, is now
extended to NVIDIA hardware as well, meaning the great majority of
systems now benefit from the smooth, fully-graphical startup
sequence made possible by KMS. The Fedora graphical startup sequence
now works better on systems with multiple monitors. Also on multiple
monitor systems, the desktop will now automatically be spread across
all monitors by default, rather than having all monitors display the
same output, including on NVIDIA chips (where multiple monitor
spanning was not possible without manual configuration changes in
Fedora 11). Systems with NVIDIA graphics chips also gain initial
support for suspend and resume functionality via the default Nouveau
driver. Initial support for the new DisplayPort display connector
has been added for Intel graphics chips. Support for Nvidia and ATI
systems is already under rapid development and will be included in
the next release of Fedora. Thanks to the Red Hat Xorg team
including Adam Jackson (X server), Kristian Høgsberg (Intel driver),
Dave Airlie and Jerome Glisse (Radeon driver for AMD), and Ben
Skeggs (Nouveau driver for NVIDIA).
* Virtualization improvements - Not content with all the improvements
in Fedora 11, we've kicked virtualization based on KVM up another
notch in Fedora 12. There are extensive improvements in performance,
management, and resource sharing, and still more security
enhancements. A new library (libguestfs) and an interactive tool
(guestfish) are now available for directly accessing and modifying
virtual machine disk images. Richard W.M. Jones from Red Hat's
virtualization team has a list of extensive virtualization tools
available and coming up for Fedora at
http://rwmj.wordpress.com/2009/10/20/fedora-virt-commands/
* Automatic reporting of crashes and SELinux issues - Abrt, a tool to
help non-power users report crashes to Bugzilla with a few mouse
clicks, is now enabled by default. Abrt collects detailed
information automatically and helps developers identify and resolve
issues faster, improving the quality of individual upstream
components and Fedora. The SELinux alert monitoring tool has also
added the ability to report SELinux issues to Bugzilla quickly and
easily with just a couple of clicks.
* New Dracut initrd generation tool - Up until Fedora 11, the boot
system (initial ram disk or initrd) used to boot Fedora was
monolithic, very distribution specific, and didn't provide much
flexibility. This has been replaced with Dracut, an initial ram disk
generation tool with an event-based framework designed to be
distribution-independent. Dracut has been also adopted by OLPC which
uses Fedora; OLPC modules for Dracut are available in the Fedora
repository. Thanks to the Dracut team, including Harald Hoyer,
Jeremy Katz, Dave Jones, and many others.
* PackageKit plugins - PackageKit now has a plugin which can install
an appropriate package when a user tries to run a command from a
missing package. Another new plugin allows installation of software
packages from a web browser. Thanks to Red Hat's Richard Hughes and
the PackageKit team.
* Bluetooth on-demand - Bluetooth services are automatically started
when needed and stopped 30 seconds after last device use, reducing
initial startup time and resource use when Bluetooth is not in
active use. Thanks to Red Hat's Bastien Nocera.
* Moblin graphical interface for netbooks - In additional to special
compiler optimization for netbooks in this release and the continued
integration of Sugar interface, the Moblin graphical interface and
applications are fully integrated thanks to Peter Robinson, a Fedora
Project volunteer, and others. Collaboration between the Moblin
project and Fedora was accelerated since Moblin itself is largely
based on Fedora. To use it, just install the Moblin Desktop
Environment package group using yum or the graphical software
management tools, and choose Moblin from the login manager. A Moblin
Fedora Remix (installable Live CD) for Fedora 12 will also be
available.
* PulseAudio enhancements - Red Hat's Lennart Poettering and several
others have made significant improvements to the PulseAudio
system. Improved mixer logic makes volume control more fine-grained
and reliable. Integration with the Rygel UPnP media server means you
can stream audio directly from your system to any UPnP / DLNA
client, such as a Playstation 3. Hotplug support has been made more
intelligent, so if you configure a device as the default output for
a stream, unplug that device -- causing the stream(s) to be moved to
another output device -- and later reattach it, the stream is moved
back to the preferred device. Finally, Bluetooth audio support means
pairing with any Bluetooth audio device makes it available for use
through PulseAudio.
* Lower process privileges - In order to mitigate the impact of
security vulnerabilities, permissions have been hardened for many
files and system directories. Also, process privileges have been
lowered for a number of core components that require super user
privileges. Red Hat's Steve Grubb has developed a new library,
libcap-ng, and integrated it into many core system components to
improve the security of Fedora.
* SELinux sandbox - It is now possible to confine applications' access
to the system and run them in a secure sandbox that takes advantage
of the sophisticated capabilities of SELinux. Dan Walsh, SELinux
developer at Red Hat, explains the details at
http://danwalsh.livejournal.com/31146.html
* Open Broadcom firmware - The openfwwf open source Broadcom firmware
is included by default. This means wireless networking will be
available out of the box on some Broadcom chipsets.
* Hybrid live images - The Live images provided in this release can be
directly imaged onto a USB stick using dd (or any equivalent tool)
to create bootable Live USB keys. The Fedora Live USB Creator for
Windows and Fedora and the livecd-tools for Fedora are still
recommended for data persistence, encryption and non-destructive
writes. Thanks to Jeremy Katz.
* Better webcam support - While Fedora 11 improved webcam support, in
Fedora 12 you can expect even better video quality, especially for
less expensive webcams. Red Hat's Hans de Goede, developer of the
libv4l library, has more details on his continuous upstream webcam
support enhancements at
http://hansdegoede.livejournal.com/6989.html.
* Polished Desktop - The latest version of the GNOME desktop includes
the lighter Gnote replacement for Tomboy as the default note
application, and Empathy replaces Pidgin as the default instant
messenger. The new volume control application, first seen in Fedora
11, has been improved to cover more advanced users. There are many
nice tweaks from the desktop team for a polished user
experience. More details at
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Desktop_Enhancements_in_Fedora_12
* GNOME Shell preview - Fedora 12 includes an early version of GNOME
Shell, which will become the default interface for GNOME 3.0 and
beyond. To try it, install the gnome-shell package, and use the
Desktop Effects configuration tool to enable it. It will only work
correctly from the GNOME desktop environment, not others such as KDE
or Xfce. This is a preview technology, and some video cards may not
be supported. Thanks to Owen Taylor from Red Hat and the GNOME Shell
team.
* KDE 4.3 - The new KDE features an updated "Air" theme and fully
configurable keyboard shortcuts in Plasma, improved performance and
new desktop effects in the window manager, a new bug reporting tool,
and a configuration tool for the LIRC infra-red remote control
system.
* Cool new stuff for developers beginning with Eclipse Galileo, which
includes more plugins than ever before. Perl 6 is now included,
along with PHP 5.3. For Haskell developers, the Haskell Platform now
provides a standardized set of libraries and tools. But one of the
biggest changes for developers is that most of the nice new features
of Fedora 12, from Bluetooth to webcams, are implemented through
underlying libraries, and many of the improvements will be included
simply by relinking your application. Also available in this release
are SystemTap 1.0 for improved instrumenting and debugging of
binaries, complete with Eclipse integration, and the newest NetBeans
IDE for Java development.
* Cool new stuff for sysadmins include added functionality for
clustered Samba services (including active/active configurations)
over GFS2; and the ability to boot a cluster of Fedora systems from
a single, shared root file system.
* Multi-Pointer X - The update to X.Org server 1.7 introduces the X
Input Extension version 2.0 (XI2), with much work contributed by Red
Hat's Peter Hutterer. This extension provides a new client API for
handling input devices and also Multi-Pointer X (MPX)
functionality. MPX functionality allows X to cope with many inputs
of arbitrary types simultaneously, a prerequisite for (among others)
multitouch-based desktops and multi-user interaction on a single
screen. This is low-level work of which applications and desktop
environments will incrementally take advantage in future
releases. More details are available in the Release Notes and in the
XI2 tag of Peter Hutterer's blog at
http://who-t.blogspot.com/search/label/xi2
A full feature list is available on the wiki at:
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Releases/12/FeatureList
OK, go get it. You know you can't wait.
http://get.fedoraproject.org
Fedora 12 release notes and guides for several languages are available
at:
http://docs.fedoraproject.org/
* * *
Even as we continue to provide updates with enhancements and bug fixes
to improve the Fedora 12 experience, our next release, Fedora 13, is
already being developed in parallel, and is open for active
development now. We have an early schedule for an April 2010 release,
with many new features slated.
Refer to:
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Releases/13/Schedule
and:
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Releases/13/FeatureList
- --
Paul W. Frields http://paul.frields.org/
gpg fingerprint: 3DA6 A0AC 6D58 FEC4 0233 5906 ACDB C937 BD11 3717
http://redhat.com/ - - - - http://pfrields.fedorapeople.org/
irc.freenode.net: stickster @ #fedora-docs, #fedora-devel, #fredlug
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