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Looking forward to Fedora 11

The Fedora 11 Preview release became available April 28th, right on schedule. There is one release candidate planned (sort of) before the final version of Fedora 11 "Leonidas" (slogan "Reign") which is due on May 26, 2009. Let's take a look at some of the highlights in this release.

The release notes tout several major features, including automatic font and mime-type installation and Intel, ATI and Nvidia kernel mode setting. Also, the Nouveau drivers are now the default for Nvidia chipsets. Fingerprint makes fingerprint readers easy to use. The IBus input method system has been rewritten in C and is the new default input method for Asian languages. It should be noted that not everyone is happy with the new unified volume control.

Some other features in this release include the Virt Improved Console which allows the virtual guest console to have the screen default to at least 1024x768 resolution out of the box. MinGW, the Windows cross-compiler, makes its debut. Also, the ext4 filesystem becomes the default for new installations, although the boot partition will still need to be something more old-fashioned, like ext3. Btrfs will also be available for testing.

The feature list is showing that all the planned features are complete and all packages have been rebuilt with GCC 4.4. Fedora 11 targets 20 second startup and improved power management.

In the package management space, RPM has been updated to v4.7 and the presto plugin for yum adds support for downloading deltarpms. Deltarpms may also be used to generate new packages.

Besides MinGW there are some new and improved development tools. Archer is a gdb development branch focusing on better C++ support which also includes Python scripting capabilities. Linux Tools, OProfile, and Valgrind integration have been added to the Eclipse IDE profiling tools. NetBeans IDE 6.5 is a significant update over v6.1 in F10. Python 2.6 is now the default for Python programmers.

TigerVNC (Virtual Network Computing) is now the default for both client and server. We've already mentioned the Improved Virt Console with better screen resolution for clients. Also for new installations of F11 you'll have the ability to use other interface devices in the virtual guest, such as a USB tablet.

Available desktops include Xfce 4.6, KDE 4.2 and GNOME 2.26. There are plenty of interesting applications too. The ABRT (Automatic Bug Reporting Tool) helps non-power users with bug reporting. OpenChange provides native access to Microsoft Exchange. Also shipped are Thunderbird 3, and Firefox 3.1.

There are some security improvements as well. The System Security Services Daemon provides a set of daemons to manage access to remote directories and authentication mechanisms. sVirt integrates SELinux with the Fedora virtualization stack to allow Mandatory Access Control (MAC) security be applied to guest virtual machines. Support for hashes stronger than MD5 and SHA-1 will be available. DBusPolicy has been tweaked to increase the security settings of DBus. DNSSEC (DNS SECurity) provides a mechanism to prove the integrity and authenticity of DNS data.

Fedora 11 supports PowerPC, pSeries and Cell Broadband Engine machines and Sony PlayStation 3, in addition to x86 and x86_64. 32-bit x86 systems will be built for i586 by default. The plan was to install an x86_64 kernel on compatible hardware, even if a 32-bit system is installed. That feature didn't make it in though, so all 32-bit installs will have a 32-bit kernel, regardless of your architecture. The PAE kernel will be used on 32-bit hardware, where appropriate.

For those who want a minimal install, try the text-mode installation option. This streamlined install now omits the more complicated steps that were previously part of the process, and provides you with an uncluttered and straightforward experience. Package selection is now automated in text mode, providing just enough to ensure that the system is operational at the end of the installation process, ready to install updates and new packages.

There are some changes in some of the spins (specialized Fedora installs). Mathematics has freefem++, a finite element analysis package which has been updated to 3.0. In Chemistry there is gabedit, a GUI for a number of computational chemistry packages. The Fedora Electronic Lab (FEL) is Fedora's high-end hardware design and simulation platform. The Perl modules included for F11 bring a new methodology for FEL and extend vhdl and verilog support.

Amateur radio operators also have their own spin, including version 3.10 of fldigi, a digital modem program. Version 1.9 of xfhell includes some improvements in handling the PTT line and additional flexibility in adjusting window sizes, as well as some bug fixes. soundmodem is now back in Fedora 11. soundmodem 0.10 provides a way to use your sound card as a modem for digital applications such as AX.25. HamFax 0.54 is new in F11 as is wxapt, a console application for decoding and saving weather images transmitted in the APT format of NOAA and METEOR satellites.

See the Custom Spins wiki site for more available spins.

Whether your needs are large or small, general or specialized, Fedora 11 brings the latest applications together in one great distribution.

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Distribution News

Fedora

Frields: Is this your stop?

Fedora project leader Paul Frields has a blog posting about the upcoming Fedora repository switch for Fedora 11. In it, he points to some helpful advice from Jesse Keating on how to remain on rawhide or move to Fedora 11. "Some people are trying a test release, liking it, and wanting to get off the Rawhide train for Fedora 11. Others want to stay on the train past the junction and be around for the inevitable jumble of falling luggage and bruised elbows when the floodgates open with all-new development heralding the Fedora 12 development cycle. In either case, you’ll want to be aware of how the junction works."

Comments (6 posted)

Deltarpms back in for Fedora 11

The on again, off again status of deltarpms in Fedora 11 has changed again. As reported on Josh Boyer's blog, various technical problems have been dealt with and deltarpms will be available for Fedora 11. "Oh, yeah. That's right. What you see there is indeed deltarpms for the first Fedora 11 updates push. So Paul, you can un-edit your blog post now because we should be ready to go for Fedora 11 GA. We'll probably still have a few hiccups here and there, but the infrastructure is now in place."

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The Fedora Directory Server project is now called 389

The Fedora Directory Server Project is now called "389". "We're still in the process of rebranding, re-skinning the web site, etc. In the coming weeks you will see new packages with the 389 branding. Everything else is the same - the team, our mission, only the name has changed. We apologize if this change is disconcerting to some of you, we thank your for your support, and we hope to continue to make the 389 project a success."

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Fedora Board Public IRC meeting, 2009-05-05

Click below for a summary of the May 5, 2009 public meeting of the Fedora advisory Board. Topics include Export restrictions and PPC as a primary or secondary architecture.

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Slackware Linux

Slackware has KDE 4.2.3 and new xz compression

The Slackware-current changelog for May 8, 2009 mentions the availability of KDE 4.2.3. It also marks a departure from gzip. "Hello folks! This batch of updates includes the newly released KDE 4.2.3, but more noticeably it marks the first departure from the use of gzip for compressing Slackware packages. Instead, we will be using xz, based on the LZMA compression algorithm. xz offers better compression than even bzip2, but still offers good extraction performance (about 3 times better than bzip2 and not much slower than gzip in our testing). Since support for bzip2 has long been requested, support for bzip2 and the original lzma format has also been added (why not?), but this is purely in the interest of completeness -- we think most people will probably want to use either the original .tgz or the new .txz compression wrappers."

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New Distributions

Kongoni GNU Linux

Kongoni GNU Linux takes its name from the Shona word for Gnu (also known as a Wildebeest). The name represents the spirit and history of Kongoni, a GNU/Linux operating system of African origin. Kongoni 1.12.2-alpha, based on Slackware 12.2, with significant inspiration from the BSD-Unix systems has been released.

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Distribution Newsletters

DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 302

The DistroWatch Weekly for May 11, 2009 is out. "With mobile computing being the next operating system battleground, it's hardly surprising that many industry players are focusing on these increasingly popular devices. One of the most promising among them, Moblin, has been through some major changes recently, both in terms of ownership and development goals. Read our feature story for the roundup of its recent past and probable future to learn more about the project. In the news section, Debian ditches the GNU C Library in favour of the more flexible Embedded GLIBC, Fedora finalises all features for the upcoming Leonidas release which includes delta support for RPMs, Slackware switches to packages compressed with LZMA compression mechanism, and the Ubuntu community looks to create yet another derivative based on the LXDE. Finally, don't miss our tips and trick section which provides a step-by-step guide of upgrading a stable Mandriva Linux 2009.1 to the latest Cooker, Mandriva's bleeding-edge development branch. Happy reading!"

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Fedora Weekly News #175

The Fedora Weekly News for the week ending May 10, 2009 is out. "In a small sample of this information-packed issue Announcements points to the "Fedora 11 Bug Blocker Review Day", PlanetFedora explores the relationship between cooking popcorn and releasing software, Ambassadors reports that Fedora is a star not only in Trenton,NJ but also in Jaipur, India. QualityAssurance covers the proposal to drop the production of Alpha releases by Fedora 12 and the "Fedora Bug Workflow". Developments quivers with "Presto A-Go-Go!" Translation takes a look at the "Long Release Notes". Artwork examines "Banners, Posters and T-shirts". The WebComic crowns Leonidas. SecurityAdvisories is short and sweet. Virtualization reports on "Experimental Dom0 on Fedora 11"."

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The Mint Newsletter - issue 83

This issue of the Mint Newsletter covers the release of Linux Mint 7 "Gloria" RC1 and more.

Comments (none posted)

OpenSUSE Weekly News/71

This issue of the openSUSE Weekly News covers openSUSE Community Week, Jan-Simon Möller: GSoC Introduction openSUSE @ ARM, Katarina Machalkova: Secret AutoYaST feature :), Jigish Gohil: openSUSE in Education, Linux Magazine: KDE 4.3: First Widget for Social Desktop, and more.

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Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter #141

The Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter for May 9, 2009 is out. "In this issue we cover: Monthly BugSquad Meeting: May 12th, Jaunty Jackalope Release parties, What's a build score, then?, byobu 2.0 released, In The Press and Blogosphere, Ubuntu Podcast #27, Meeting Summaries of Technical Board and Ubuntu Server Teams, and much, much more!"

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Newsletters and articles of interest

Ubuntu is the Linux Usability Leader (LinuxPlanet)

Bruce Byfield discusses the usability of Ubuntu on LinuxPlanet. "With the first release in 2004, Ubuntu established itself as one of the most user-friendly GNU/Linux distributions available. Since then, each release has reaffirmed this reputation, although recent versions have coasted a little. However, with the supposedly improved notifications system in the recently-released Jaunty Jackalope (aka 9.0.4), Ubuntu unintentionally raises a new issue in usability -- that is, whether a distribution can or should set the usability agenda by itself?"

Comments (26 posted)

The Perfect Server - Mandriva 2009.1 Free (x86_64) [ISPConfig 2]

HowtoForge sets up a server using Mandriva's 2009 Spring edition. "This tutorial shows how to set up a Mandriva 2009.1 Free (x86_64) server that offers all services needed by ISPs and hosters: Apache web server (SSL-capable), Postfix mail server with SMTP-AUTH and TLS, BIND DNS server, Proftpd FTP server, MySQL server, Dovecot POP3/IMAP, Quota, Firewall, etc. In the end you should have a system that works reliably, and if you like you can install the free webhosting control panel ISPConfig 2 (i.e., ISPConfig runs on it out of the box). This tutorial is written for the 64-bit version of Mandriva 2009.1."

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Interviews

Interview with Kubuntu developer Jonathan Thomas (Kubuntu-de.org)

Kubuntu-de.org has an interview with Kubuntu developer Jonathan Thomas. "kubuntu-de.org: We'll come back to becoming a MOTU later, now it is time to talk about Kubuntu 9.04 the "Jaunty Jackalope". How was the release cycle? Have there been special problems? Jonathan: I'd describe this release cycle as intense. We've been able to include a lot of great, updated software this cycle that include some neat features and polishes existing features at the same time. Unfortunately, this cycle the graphics drivers for Intel video cards have been a bit more problematic in the past. This is about the biggest problem I've seen with Kubuntu 9.04 so far, and I'd recommend that users who have Intel cards testdrive the live cd for a bit before deciding whether to upgrade or not. Fortunately, the nVidia drivers have gotten better, with performance being far more acceptable in KDE4 and Firefox."

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Distribution reviews

What to expect from Fedora 11 (/bin/bash)

The weblog /bin/bash has a review of Fedora 11. "This release has got me more excited than 10. The features as the wiki says it "dwarfs any other release". It looks very promising and the future for Fedora seems brighter. It is definitely a brilliant milestone after 10 releases."

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