Releases/8/Test/F8Test2/ReleaseNotes

= Fedora 8 Test 2 Release Notes =

This is the time for all developers, maintainers and testers to contribute to the Release Notes. See http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/DocsProject/ReleaseNotes/Process for details.

This document is a highly abridged version of the release notes used during the test1 and test2 phases of development. The full complement of release notes follow during the test3 phase, according to developer and community participation in the release notes process.

Welcome to Fedora 8 Test 2
Fedora is a set of projects sponsored by Red Hat and guided by the contributors. These projects are developed by a large community of people who strive to provide and maintain the very best in free, open source software and standards. The central Fedora project is an operating system and platform based on Linux that is always free for anyone to use, modify, and distribute, now and forever.

You can help the Fedora Project community continue to improve Fedora if you file bug reports and enhancement requests. Refer to this page for more information. Thank you for your participation.

To find out more general information about Fedora, refer to the following Web pages:


 * Fedora Overview (http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Overview)


 * Fedora FAQ (http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FAQ)


 * Help and Support (http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Communicate)


 * Participate in the Fedora Project (http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/HelpWanted)

Known Issues

 * To install from the Live image on a system that already contains a Linux swap partition, you must disable swap before starting the install. Start a terminal and run   before you start the installer.
 * If your system has more than 1 GB of RAM, you can run the Live image from memory to improve responsiveness as you test. At the boot menu, hit the Tab key to edit options, and add the parameter live_ram to the option list.

Official Announcement
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-announce-list/2007-September/msg00002.html

New in Fedora 8 Test 2
The following sections provide a brief overview of major changes from the last release of Fedora.

Spins
Fedora includes several different spins, which are variations of Fedora built from a specific set of software packages. Each spin has a combination of software to meet the requirements of a specific kind of end user. In addition to a very small  image for network installation, users have the following spin choices:


 * A regular Fedora image for desktops, workstations and server users. This spin provides a good upgrade path and similar environment for users of previous releases of Fedora.


 * Fedora Live (i686, x86_64, ppc) - A good general use Desktop live image that uses GNOME. Only the i686 version fits on a CD.


 * Fedora KDE Live (i686, x86_64) - A Desktop based on the KDE software suite. Only the i686 version fits on a CD.


 * Fedora Developer Live (i686) - A Live image designed for software developers.


 * Fedora Electronic Lab (FEL) Live (i686) - A live image designed for engineers working on electronics.  This image fits on a CD.

Remember that these Live images can be used on USB media via the 'livecd-iso-to-disk' utility available in the livecd-tools package.

Desktop

 * This test release features the GNOME 2.20 Release Candidate.


 * KDE 3.5.7 is included in this release.


 * A brand new graphical firewall configuration tool, system-config-firewall, replaces system-config-securitylevel.


 * This release includes IcedTea, a free and open source Java environment derived from OpenJDK. A browser plugin based on GCJ that takes advantage of IcedTea is available and installed by default.


 * A preview of Compiz Fusion, the compositing window manager that re-merges Compiz and Beryl, is installed by default. To enable Compiz Fusion in GNOME, use the System > Preferences > Desktop Effects tool. Ongoing, long term Xorg work continues to enable Compiz  by default.


 * This release of Fedora has a new look and feel, called Infinity, from the Fedora Art team.


 * Nodoka, a fresh new GNOME theme created specially for Fedora, is available in this release.


 * New online browser home page, http://start.fedoraproject.org

System Level Changes

 * Fedora 8 Test 2 features a 2.6.23 based kernel.


 * PulseAudio is now installed and enabled by default. Pulse'Audio is an advanced sound server compatible with nearly all existing Linux sound systems.  Pulse'Audio allows for hot-switching audio outputs, individual volume controls for each audio stream, networked audio, and more.

Test 1 Release Notes

 * http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/F8Test1/ReleaseNotes

Road Map And Release Schedule

 * http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Releases/8/

Intended Audience for Test Releases
Test 1 is targeted for developers, who use it "at your own risk", and contains many bleeding edge packages.

Test 2 is for early adopters. Most things should work and we really need your help to find what is broken.

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.

Quality Assurance for Test Releases
The Fedora Project has a process in place for ensuring the highest possible quality even in our test releases. Many bugs are identified, prioritized and fixed during the testing process. We also have a list of known bugs in this release. Refer to this page  for more details.

Translations of Release Notes
Due to the rapidly changing nature of test releases, translations of release notes for test releases are not practical. The initial goal is to have a translation of the release notes included in the third test release and to allow commun