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Releases/8/Test/F8Test3/ReleaseAnnouncement
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Fedora 8 Test 3 Release Announcement
Fedora 8 Test 3 is here! This is the last test release before the development freeze and a great time to test all those packages that you know and love. Test 3 is for beta users. This is the time when we must have full community participation. Without this participation both hardware and software functionality suffers.
Fedora is a Linux-based operating system that showcases the latest in free and open source software. Fedora is always free for anyone to use, modify, and distribute. It is built by people across the globe who work together as a community: the Fedora Project. The Fedora Project is open and anyone is welcome to join.
Up-to-date release notes for Fedora 8 Test 3 can be found at http://docs.fedoraproject.org/release-notes.
Changes from Fedora 8 Test 2
- Online Desktop provides a desktop experience designed around online services. A preview of Online Desktop is provided via Big
Board, which is a optional sidebar in GNOME.
- KDE 3.5.7 is available in the KDE Live image as well as the regular DVD. The KDE 4 (Beta) Development Environment is available in the repository.
- Live installations are faster and require a smaller root filesystem. The file system layout has also changed somewhat. System files for the Live images are now under
LiveOS/, and a newREADMEfile has been provided as a short introduction to the live image.
- Package management now features much better performance via
yumand friends.
- The completely free and open source Java environment called Iced
Tea is installed by default. IcedTea is derived from OpenJDK, includes a browser plugin based on GCJ, and is available for both x86 and x86_64 architectures. GCJ is still the default on PPC architecture.
- CodecBuddy is now included, and promotes free, superior quality, open formats to end users trying to play multimedia content under patent encumbered or proprietary formats.
- Bluetooth devices and tools now have better graphical and system integration.
- Laptop users benefit from the "quirks" features in HAL, including better suspend/resume and multimedia keyboard support.
- There is now improved power management thanks to both a tickless kernel in
x86andx86_64architectures, and a reduction in unnecessary processor wakeups viapowertop.
- Eclipse 3.3 (Europa), a new release of the great IDE and development platform, is available as part of this release.
- The
pam_consolemodule has been removed in favor of access control via HAL, which modernizes the desktop.
- NetworkManager 0.7 provides improved wireless network management support. It includes support for multiple devices and provides the capability of system-wide configuration, among many other enhancements. This transition may induce some regressions temporarily, and more testing and feedback is appreciated.
- Secure remote management capability is now provided for Xen, KVM, and QEMU virtualization.
- Transifex provides a web-based translation interface to allow users to contribute translation work for Fedora hosted projects as well as being able to provide translations to upstream directly to any upstream project.
- Integration of unique build IDs into Fedora's software building infrastructure now provide enhanced debugging capabilities and core dumps.
- Fedora now offers easier rebranding of Fedora derivatives via a
generic-logossoftware package. Changes in Fedora's mirror structure also make creation of derivatives easier.
- Fedora now includes support for Nepali Language, extending its reach to many more users.
What's New in Fedora 8
- A major list of features is available at Releases/8/FeatureList.
Release Schedule for Fedora 8
- The Fedora 8 release schedule can be found at Releases/8/Schedule. Fedora 8 is scheduled for general release on 8 November 2007.
How to Get Fedora 8 Test 3
- Fedora 8 Test 3 can be installed via Live image, regular DVD, or via network installation. You can find the DVD images as well as the primary live images at:
http://mirrors.fedoraproject.org/publiclist/Fedora/7.92/
- You can also download the DVD and Live images via bittorrent at:
http://torrent.fedoraproject.org
- More information on the various spins available with the release of Fedora 8 Test 3 is available at:
People who are already running the rawhide (development) branch of Fedora or any of the previous test releases can simply run yum update. (Some current Rawhide packages might be newer than Fedora 8 Test 3 packages.) We also appreciate new installation testing for feedback on changes to the Anaconda installer.
- Bug 302381 If you are installing via DVD or also possibly NFS-mounted ISO images, the Add/Remove Programs application (
pirut) may crash when run, with a traceback about HAL. Runningyum updateor usingyumto update at leastpirutshould resolve the issue. - Bug 298991 The KDE NetworkManager frontend
knetworkmanager, a graphical interface for switching between networks easily, is currently broken. This is intended be fixed before Fedora 8 release. The KDE Live images havenm-applet, which works with KDE, enabled by default as a workaround. - Other Common issues can be found at Bugs/F8Common.
Bug Reporting and tracking
You can follow the procedure outlined in BugsAndFeatureRequests to report any bugs found in your testing.
The Release Engineering and QA teams keep track of bugs that are considered release blockers. To see that list, visit:
To see a list of additional non-blocker bugs that should hopefully be fixed for Fedora 8, visit:
Please check these lists before reporting new bugs!
