F21 Alpha release announcement

Mon Sep 22 18:33:18 UTC 2014

Here is a draft. Feel free to make any changes!

Zacharias

The Fedora 21 alpha release has arrived, with a preview of the latest 
free and open source technology under development. Take a peek inside!

http://fedoraproject.org/get-prerelease

*** What is the Alpha Release? ***

The Alpha release contains all the exciting features of Fedora 21's 
products 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 21 is expected in November.

We need your help to make Fedora 21 the best release yet, so please take 
some 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. Together, we can make Fedora 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. At the end of 
this announcement you can find more information on how to help.

== Changes ==

Fedora prides itself on bringing cutting-edge technologies to users 
ofopen source software around the world, and this release continues 
thattradition. No matter what you do, Fedora 21 has the tools you need 
tohelp you get things done.

To see how Fedora 21 is evolving from Fedora 20, see the acceptedchanges 
here:

http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Releases/2 
<http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Releases/21/ChangeSet>1 
<http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Releases/21/ChangeSet>/ChangeSet 
<http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Releases/21/ChangeSet>

== Fedora.Next and Fedora 21 Products ==

As part of the Fedora.next initiative, Fedora 21 will boast three 
products: cloud, server, and workstation.

=== Fedora 21 Base ===

Each of the products will build on the "base" set of packages for 
Fedora. For instance, each product will use the same packages for the 
kernel, RPM, Yum, systemd, Anaconda, and so forth.

The Base Working Group develops the standard platform for all Fedora 
products, which includes the installer, compose tools, and basic 
platform for the other products. Base is not a full product intended for 
use on its own, but to be kept as a small, stable platform for other 
products to build on.

=== Fedora 21 Cloud ===

The Fedora Cloud Working Group and Special Interest Group (SIG) has been 
busy leading up to Fedora 21. Cloud is now a top-level product for 
Fedora 21, and will include images for use in private cloud environments 
like OpenStack, as well as AMIs for use on Amazon, and a new image 
streamlined for running Docker containers.

==== Modular Kernel Packaging for Cloud ====

Space is precious, and there's little reason to include any kernel 
modules that aren't used in the cloud. As part of the work for Fedora 
21, the cloud SIG and kernel team split the kernel into two packages. 
One package contains the minimum modules for running in a virtualized 
environment, the other contains the larger set of modules for a more 
general installation.

==== Fedora Atomic Host ====

In early April, Red Hat announced Project Atomic, an effort to provide 
the tools and patterns for a streamlined operating system to run Docker 
containers. The Fedora 21 release will be the first to offer an "Atomic" 
host for Fedora, which includes a minimal set of packages and an image 
composed with rpm-ostree.

While using the same RPMs as other Fedora offerings, the Atomic host 
will allow users to roll back updates (if necessary) as one atomic unit 
-- making update management much easier.

For users and organizations looking to run Docker containers, the Atomic 
host will be ideal.

=== Fedora 21 Server ===

The Fedora Server product is a common base platform that is meant to run 
featured application stacks, which are produced, tested, and distributed 
by the Server Working Group. Want to use Fedora as a Web server, file 
server, database server, or platform for an Infrastructure-as-a-Service? 
Fedora 21 Server is for you.

==== Fedora Server Management Features ====

The Fedora Server product introduces new Server management features 
aimed at making it easier to install discrete infrastructure services. 
The Fedora Server will introduce three new technologies in Fedora to 
handle this task, rolekit, Cockpit and OpenLMI.

* Rolekit is a Role deployment and management toolkit that provides a 
consistent interface to administrators to install and configure all the 
packages needed to implement a specific server role.

* Cockpit is a user interface for configuring and monitoring your server
or servers. It is accessible remotely via a web browser.

* OpenLMI is a remote management system built atop DMTF-CIM. It can be 
used for scripting management functions across many machines as well as 
querying for capabilities and monitoring for system events.

==== Domain Controller Server Role ====

As part of the server role offerings available for Fedora 21, the server 
product ships with a role deployment mechanism. One of the roles offered 
in 21 is the Domain Controller Service.

* The Domain Controller Service packages up the freeIPA integrated 
Identity and Authentication solution for Linux/UNIX networked 
environments. A FreeIPA server provides centralized authentication, 
authorization and account information by storing data about user, 
groups, hosts and other objects necessary to manage the security aspects 
of a network of computers.

=== Fedora 21 Workstation ===

The Fedora Workstation product is a reliable, user-friendly, and 
powerful operating system for laptops and PC hardware. Fedora 21 
Workstation is aimed at providing a platform for development of server 
side and client applications that is attractive to developers of all 
stripes. Whether you're a student or hobbyist, or a developer working in 
a corporate environment, Fedora Workstation is for you.

==== Latest GNOME ====

Fedora 21 Workstation includes the latest GNOME desktop. Fedora 21 is 
tracking GNOME 3.14, which is due to be released in late September. 
GNOME 3.14 includes many new features such as integration of Picasaweb 
and DNLA media server support in GNOME Photos, a new game called Hitori 
similar to Sudoku, and much more.

==== DevAssistant ====

Fedora 21 Worsktation includes the new DevAssistant tool by default. 
DevAssistant helps developers set up environments for their projects, so 
they can concentrate on writing code. For more information on 
DevAssistant, visit the website at http://devassistant.org 
<http://devassistant.org/>.

== Issues and Details ==

This is an alpha release. As such, we expect that you may encounter bugs 
or missing features. To report issues encountered during testing, 
contact the Fedora QA team via the test mailing list orin #fedora-qa on 
freenode.

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

For tips on reporting a bug effectively, read "How to File a BugReport:" 
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/How_to_file_a_bug_report .

You can join the Fedora QA team mailing list here:
https://lists.fedoraproject.org/mailman/listinfo/test

== Note on performance ==

Fedora development releases use a kernel with extra debug informationto 
help us understand and resolve issues faster; however, this can havea 
significant impact on performance. Refer to the kernel debug 
strategypage for more details:

https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/KernelDebugStrategy

You can boot with slub_debug=- or use the kernel from nodebugrepository 
to disable the extra debug info.

*** Contributing ***

There are many ways to contribute beyond bug reporting. You can 
helptranslate software and content, test and give feedback on 
softwareupdates, write and edit documentation, design and do artwork, 
help withall sorts of promotional activities, and package free software 
for useby millions of Fedora users worldwide. To get started, visit:
http://join.fedoraproject.org <http://join.fedoraproject.org/>
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