From Fedora Project Wiki

Fedora Weekly News Issue 250

Welcome to Fedora Weekly News Issue 250[1] for the week ending November 3, 2010. What follows are some highlights from this issue.

For our 250th issue, we're very pleased to provide in-depth coverage of the release of Fedora 14. Starting with announcements, Fedora 14's official release from Fedora Project Leader Jared K. Smith

An audio version of some issues of FWN - FAWN - are available! You can listen to existing issues[2] on the Internet Archive. If anyone is interested in helping spread the load of FAWN production, please contact us!

If you are interested in contributing to Fedora Weekly News, please see our 'join' page[3]. We welcome reader feedback: news@lists.fedoraproject.org

FWN Editorial Team: Pascal Calarco, Adam Williamson

Announcements

In this section, we cover announcements from the Fedora Project, including general announcements[1], development announcements[2] and Events[3].

Contributing Writer: Pascal Calarco

Fedora Announcement News

The announcement list is always exclusive for the Fedora Community. Please, visit the past announcements at[1]

Announcing the release of Fedora 14

Fedora Project leader [User:jared|Jared K. Smith] announced[1] the release of Fedora 14:

"It's here! It's here! It's really here! Fedora 14 has been officially released! Fedora is a leading edge, free and open source operating system that continues to deliver innovative features to many users, with a new release approximately every six months.

Fedora 14, codename Laughlin, is now available for download. Join us and share the joy of free software and the community with friends and family.

We know you can't wait to get started with Fedora 14, so simply follow this link to download it today:

http://get.fedoraproject.org?anF14

If you want a quick tour of highlights in this release, check out:

http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Fedora_14_Talking_Points?anF14

For more information including common and known bugs, and tips on how to report bugs, please refer to the release notes[2]

You can also find this announcement text[3]

What's New in Fedora 14?

For desktop users

A universe of new features for end users:

  • libjpeg-turbo: Users can load and save images faster in Fedora 14 than in previous releases.
  • Spice: Spice (Simple Protocol for Independent Computing Environments) provides users with an enhanced remote desktop experience. Currently, it provides the rudimentary foundation to take advantage of things like Accelerated 2D graphics, encryption, and hardware cursor support.
For developers

For developers there are all sorts of additional goodies:

  • D: Fedora 14 introduces support for D, a systems programming language combining the power and high performance of C and C++ with the programmer productivity of modern languages such as Ruby and Python.
  • Python 2 upgrade: The system python 2 stack has been upgraded to 2.7.
  • GNUStep: A GUI framework based of the Objective-C programming language which is part of the gcc.
  • Memory Debugging Tools: The new "gdb-heap" package adds a new "heap" command to /usr/bin/gdb which allows you to get a breakdown of how a process is using dynamic memory.
  • Rakudo Star: An implementation of Perl version 6, based on the Parrot VM.
  • Support for Milkymist: Developers can enjoy developing for Milkymist, an open hardware embedded board, on Fedora 14. Thanks to the Fedora Electronic Lab for their work in this regard.
For system administrators

And don't think we forgot about the system administrators:

  • Fedora is now available for users of the Amazon Elastic Computing Cloud service, released concurrently with the traditional release.
  • virt-v2v assists in the easy migration of Xen virtual machines to KVM virtual machines.
  • A Virtualization Technology Preview Repo allows users to test the very latest developments in virtualization related packages.
  • Varnish has been updated and includes improved scalability and a new log function.
  • Apache has been updated and includes a number of module and security fixes.

And that's only the beginning. Updated versions of many packages, as usual, will be available in Fedora 14. A more complete list with more details of the new features on board Fedora 14 is available at:

http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Releases/14/FeatureList?anF14

OK, so what are you waiting for? Go download it! You know you can't wait.

http://get.fedoraproject.org/?anF14

If you are upgrading from a previous release of Fedora, refer to

http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Upgrading?anF14

In particular, Fedora has made preupgrade a more robust solution and pushed several bug fixes to older releases of Fedora to enable an easy upgrade to Fedora 14.

Fedora 14 full release notes and guides for several languages are available[4]

Fedora 14 common bugs are documented[5]

Fedora Spins

Fedora spins are alternate version of Fedora, tailored for various types of users via hand-picked application set or customizations. They can be found at http://spins.fedoraproject.org/?anF14

Contributing Back to Fedora

There are many ways to contribute beyond bug reporting. You can help translate software and content, test and give feedback on software updates, write and edit documentation, design and do artwork, help with all sorts of promotional activities, and package free software for use by millions of Fedora users worldwide. To get started, visit http://join.fedoraproject.org/?anF14 today!

Fedora 15

Even as we continue to provide updates with enhancements and bug fixes to improve the Fedora 14 experience, our next release, Fedora 15, is already being developed in parallel, and has been open for active development for several months already. We have an early schedule for an end of April 2011 release[6]

Contact information

If you are a journalist or reporter, you can find additional information[7]

Jared Smith

Fedora Project Leader"

ATrpms for Fedora 14; upcoming EOL for Fedora 12

Axel Thimm announced[1]:

"ATrpms is officially launching Fedora 14 support[2]

  • "stable", "testing" and "bleeding", the three subrepos per distribution are not cumulative inclusive on the server side. E.g. you need to add "stable" for "testing", and both "stable" and "testing" for "bleeding".

ATrpms is a 3rd party general purpose package repository. It currently supports

  • F14/i386, F14/x86_64, F13/i386, F13/x86_64, F12/i386, F12/x86_64
  • RHEL6beta/i386, RHEL6beta/x86_64, RHEL5/i386, RHEL5/x86_64, RHEL4/i386, RHEL4/x86_64, RHEL3/i386, RHEL3/x86_64

F12 support will be EOL'd once the Fedora Project drops support for it (e.g. in about a month's time).

Installation instructions can be found under[4]

As a quickstart here are common configuration settings for various package resolvers (replace i386 with x86_64 as needed). Installing via the atrpms-repo package method is recommended, though.

  • yum

[atrpms] name=Fedora 14 - i386 - ATrpms baseurl=http://dl.atrpms.net/f14-i386/atrpms/stable

  • smart

[atrpms] name=Fedora 14 - i386 - ATrpms baseurl=http://dl.atrpms.net/f14-i386/atrpms/stable type=rpm-md

  • apt

repomd http://dl.atrpms.net f14-i386/atrpms/stable

you can provide feedback or request support on the ATrpms lists[5], or the common bug tracker[6].

Enjoy! Axel Thimm"

Cooperative Bug Isolation for Fedora 14

Ben Liblit announced[1]:

"The Cooperative Bug Isolation Project (CBI) is now available for Fedora 14. CBI[2] is an ongoing research effort to find and fix bugs in the real world. We distribute specially modified versions of popular open source software packages. These special versions monitor their own behavior while they run, and report back how they work (or how they fail to work) in the hands of real users like you. Even if you've never written a line of code in your life, you can help make things better for everyone simply by using our special bug-hunting packages.

We currently offer instrumented versions of Evolution, The GIMP, GNOME Panel, Gnumeric, Liferea, Nautilus, Pidgin, Rhythmbox, and SPIM. Download[3]. We support PackageKit, yum, apt, and many other RPM updater tools[4] for customized configuration help for any of our supported distributions and updater tools. Or just download and install[5] to automatically configure most popular RPM updaters to use the CBI repository.

It's that easy! Tell your friends! Tell your neighbors! The more of you there are, the more bugs we can find.

We still offer CBI packages for earlier releases as well, going all the way back to Fedora 1. When and if you decide to upgrade to Fedora 14, we'll be ready for you. Until then, your participation remains valuable even on older distributions.

-- Dr. Ben, the CBI guy"

Fedora 15 Release Name

Fedora Project Leader [User:jsmith|Jared K. Smith] announced:

"The voting has concluded for the Fedora 15 release name, and the results are in! Thank you to the Fedora community members who made name suggestions and participated in the voting.

The Fedora 15 release name is: Lovelock

Voting period: Tuesday 2010-10-26 00:00:00 to Monday 2010-11-01 23:59:59

Number of valid ballots cast: 296

Using the range voting method, each candidate could attain a maximum of (296*5) = 1480 votes.

Results:

Votes :: Name

729 :: Lovelock 701 :: Asturias 673 :: Blarney 633 :: Sturgis 558 :: Pushcart

Jared Smith

Fedora Project Leader"


Fedora Events

Fedora events are the exclusive and source of marketing, learning and meeting all the fellow community people around you. So, please mark your agenda with the following events to consider attending or volunteering near you!

Upcoming Events (Sept 2010 - November 2010)

  • North America (NA)[1]
  • Central & South America (LATAM) [2]
  • Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA)[3]
  • India, Asia, Australia (India/APJ)[4]

Past Events

Archive of Past Fedora Events[1]

Additional information

  • Reimbursements -- reimbursement guidelines.
  • Budget -- budget for the current quarter (as distributed by FAMSCo).
  • Sponsorship -- how decisions are made to subsidize travel by community members.
  • Organization -- event organization, budget information, and regional responsibility.
  • Event reports -- guidelines and suggestions.
  • LinuxEvents -- a collection of calendars of Linux events.

Fedora In the News

In this section, we cover news from the trade press and elsewhere that is re-posted to the Fedora Marketing list[1]

http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Marketing

Contributing Writer: Pascal Calarco

Cloud and Virtualization Features Set Fedora 14 Apart - (PC World)

Kara Schiltz forwarded[1] a brief article on new cloud computing and virtualization features in Fedora 14:

"Fedora 14, or "Laughlin," made its official debut on Tuesday, and it's packed with a raft of new features designed to enhance the experience for users of the open source desktop operating system.

Usability has been a key focus in the past few releases of Red Hat-sponsored Fedora, which is the second most popular Linux distribution[2], behind only Ubuntu[3], according to DistroWatch. Significant improvements in networking, software management, hardware support, and other functionality have resulted, so much of the work on this latest release has concentrated instead on providing bug fixes and increased stability."

The full article is available[4]

Fedora 14: haven for Ubuntu's homeless GNOMEs - (Channel Register - UK)

Kara Schiltz forwarded[1] another review of Fedora 14:

"Fedora 14, released Tuesday, has quite a bit of new stuff under the hood - things you probably won't notice most unless you're a systems admin or use Fedora for development.

For Fedora this is business as usual and, many would argue, the way it should be. After all, the latest UI bling is useless if the underlying system isn't delivering the tools you need on a rock solid foundation.

It also makes a nice contrast to Canonical's Ubuntu, which has a habit of taking Fedora's upstream contributions, wrapping them in a prettier package and stealing the limelight. There's nothing wrong with that, it's the nature of open source software - you can do what you want with it. It's just that Fedora rarely ends up getting the credit it deserves for making desktop Linux as usable as it has become over the years."

The full article is available[2]

Unter der Haube tut sich was...Die wichtigsten Neuerungen von Fedora 14 (Linux Community Germany)

German readers will enjoy an article Michael Kappes forwarded[1] an article in Linux-Community.de on Fedora 14:

"Fedora 14 alias "Laughlin" steht zum Download bereit. Die immer wieder als Vorreiter bezeichnete Distribution. hat sich auch diesmal wieder viel Mühe gegeben ihrem Ruf gerecht zu werden. Doch die Neuerungen brauchen auch etwas mehr Speicherplatz. Die aktuelle Distribution hat eine Größe von gut 5 GByte."

The full article is available[2].

Four Favourite Fedora 14 Free Features (ComputerWeekly.com)

Kara Schiltz forwarded[1] a perspective on four fave features of F14:

"So here are four favourite features in free Fedora 14:

  • Framework software for Spice, a rapidly advancing infrastructure for desktop virtualisation
  • New debugging features for developers, such as support for dynamic/unplanned memory usage tracking and faster launch thanks to pre-generated indexes
  • Updated tech preview of the GNOME shell environment, part of the upcoming GNOME 3.0 release
  • A subset of new and innovative software from the MeeGo community for an enhanced experience on netbooks and small devices"

The full article is available[2].

Fedora 14 (Laughlin) Released (ZDNet UK)

Kara Schiltz forwarded[1] another review of Fedora 14:

"Yesterday afternoon, right on schedule, the Fedora Project[2] released Fedora 14, aka "Laughlin". The Release Announcement[3] gives a quick "What's New" look at the release (which saves me having to repeat it here), and the Release Notes[4] provide extensive details on this release.

From what I can tell so far it is, as expected and as usual, a very good distribution. I have downloaded the 32- and 64-bit versions, and installed it without problem so far on systems with Intel, AMD/ATI and VIA cpus and graphic controllers, and Intel, Broadcom and Atheros wired and wireless network interfaces. The only special requirement I have run into so far is that the Broadcom WiFi adapter has to be downloaded from the Fedora Unity[5] web site. This is a very simple procedure, which I described previously in a post about Fedora 14 Beta[6]."

The full post is available[7].

Fedora 14 released with new features for developers (Ars Technica)

Kara Schiltz forwarded[1] a feature on Fedora 14 for developers:

"The Fedora development community announced on Tuesday the official release of Fedora 14, codenamed Laughlin. The new version is a bit light on user-facing changes, but adds some useful features for developers. Fedora typically issues a new release every six months and is loosely aligned with the GNOME development cycle. Each release brings updated software and some new packages."

The full post is available[2].

Fedora 14 freigegeben (Pro-Linux.de)

[User:wonderer|Henrik Heigl] forwarded[1] another review of Fedora 14 in German:

"Zu den Neuerungen in Fedora 14, Codename »Laughlin«, gehören Desktop-Virtualisierung mit Spice, die schnellere JPEG-Bibliothek libjpeg-turbo, bessere Unterstützung für das Statistikpaket R, die Datenerfassungsplattform ROOT, vollständige Server-Verwaltung über IPMI mit ipmiutil und Unterstützung für das Security Content Automation Protocol (SCAP)."

The full post is available[2].

Fedora 14 Linux Heads to the Cloud (ServerWatch.com)

Kara Schiltz forwarded[1] an article highlighting Fedora 14's cloud features:

"The Red Hat sponsored Fedora Linux distribution is out today with its second release of 2010. Fedora 14, codenamed "Laughlin," introduces new security, virtualization[2] and developer features as well as the first Fedora release for the Amazon EC2 cloud in years.

Fedora release comes as Red Hat is gearing up for the release of Red Hat Enterprise[3] Linux 6 and the company continues to push forward on cloud foundation technologies[4]."

The full post is available[5].

Fedora gets nips and tucks with 14 release (The Register)

Kara Schiltz forwarded[1] a review of Fedora 14 from the UK's The Register:

"The Fedora Project, the open source community that creates the Linux variant that eventually becomes Red Hat's commercial-grade Enterprise Linux distro, has kicked out the "Laughlin" Fedora 14 release. Jared Smith, who took over as Fedora Project Leader in June[2], has one notch on his belt now.

You can see the release notes for Fedora 14 here[3] and you can check out /El Reg/'s review of the beta of the Laughlin release back in September here[4]. You can get the Fedora 14 code and look at the new community site at fedoraproject.org[5].

Fedora 14 is based on the Linux 2.6.35 kernel. Perhaps the most important change with Fedora 14 is that it is now concurrently available out on Amazon's EC2 compute cloud on launch day."

The full post is available[6].

Open source software receives a boost with new Fedora release (LocalTechWire)

Kara Schiltz forwarded[1] a brief post from LocalTechWire on Fedora 14:

"Fedora 14[2], the latest version of the free open source operating system from the Fedora project, is now available for download.

Raleigh-based Red Hat (NYSE: RHT[3]), the world’s top Linux open source developer and services provider, sponsors the Fedora project.

Code named “Laughlin,” Fedora 14 runs on Linux and is a free, community supported project that can replace or run along side proprietary operating systems such as Microsoft Windows and Mac OS."

The full post is available[4].

Fedora 14 vs. Ubuntu Maverick: Distinct Differences (Datamation)

Kara Schiltz forwarded[1] a comparative review of Fedora 14 and Ubuntu:

"Both Fedora and Ubuntu continue to be centered on GNOME. At the same time, both offer alternative interfaces. But with Ubuntu's focus on improving usability in the GNOME interface and, in the next release, defaulting to its new GNOME-based Unity desktop, alternatives like the KDE-based Kubuntu or Xfce-based Xubuntu seem to be receiving less attention. Lesser-known graphical interfaces like LXDE and Sugar are available in Ubuntu, but receive little promotion[2] in the release notes.

The same is true to an extent in Fedora. However, in the last few years, Fedora has been giving KDE and Xfce more attention, acknowledging them more strongly as alternatives. Fedora 14 continues this tradition by promoting the MeeGo mobile interface in its release notes.

Suggesting that Ubuntu neglects alternatives would be going too far. Still, it does seem accurate to say that the latest Ubuntu release focuses on its version of GNOME, and treats other desktops[3] as secondary, particularly if they are not developed in a separate sub-project.

[clip]

By contrast, Fedora seems to retain more of the spirit of a traditional distribution, shipping a distribution that does not venture far technically from what upstream projects like GNOME offer. Nor does Fedora show many signs[4] of preferring one interface over another, aside from the fact that it defaults to GNOME.

[clip]

The message in the release notes is that Fedora is for all sorts of users, whereas Ubuntu seems focused on as straightforward an experience for new users as possible. Nothing could more indicative of the differences in the two distro's current concerns.

Which of these two approaches to distribution-building is preferable remains a matter of choice. Ubuntu's popularity and the speed of its changes suggest that there is something to be said for its commercial, centralized approach. Yet, at the same time, Fedora's more generalist approach seems more tolerant of the differences in how users work.

In the end, neither Ubuntu 10.10 or Fedora 14 are major releases. However, if you look closely, you can see the seeds of differences that might grow larger over the next few years."

The full post is available[5].

Fedora 14 is leading-edge Linux (ITWorld)

Kara Schiltz forwarded[1] a review of Fedora 14 from ITWorld:

"I like Fedora, Red Hat's community Linux distribution, a lot. But, let me warn you right now, that it's not a Linux for beginners. That's not to say that the newest version of Fedora, Fedora 14 Laughlin[2], is hard to use. It's not. But, if you need a lot of handholding as you explore Linux, I think you'll be better off with Ubuntu.

[clip]

On the other hand, there are some really neat, new features in Fedora that do work well. I have to say though that they're going to be more exiting for system administrators and developers than they are someone just running Fedora at home.

Easily the most important of these is the arrival of of Simple Protocol for Independent Computing Environment (SPICE[3]). This is a desktop presentation service protocol, like Microsoft's RDP (Remote Desktop Protocol) and Citrix's ICA (Independent Computing Architecture), that you use to run thin-client desktops.

[clip]

Fedora also includes a new interface: MeeGo[4]. This is the interface for the MeeGo operating system, which is meant for netbooks, Mobile Internet Devices (MID) and embedded devices. While not as well known or as mature as Android[5], MeeGo shows great promise. By making it available on Fedora, developers can develop applications for MeeGo.

Another interesting feature is you need not run Fedora at own on your own desktop or server. You can now run Fedora on the Amazon Elastic Computing Cloud[6] (EC2) service."

The full post is available[7].

Ambassadors

This section covers the news surrounding the Fedora Ambassadors Project[1].

Contributing Writer: Sankarshan Mukhopadhyay

Welcome New Ambassadors

This week the Fedora Ambassadors Project had a new member joining.

Fernando A. Navarro from Honduras mentored by Neville Cross

Summary of traffic on Ambassadors mailing list

Mustafa Qasim posted [1] requesting assistance in a survey on usage of popular computer software and perception of FOSS and GNU/Linux in the minds of Home Users, Students and Professionals. Salman Ullah Baig asked [2] how the survey could be conducted at SSUET, Karachi

Marcus Moeller informed [3] about adding himself to the FAmSCo nominations page. The thread [4] had a bit of conversation around Marcus's resignation as an Ambassador along with the Fedora Project involvement for Paul W Frields and Max Spevack

Robyn Bergeron posted [5] about help needed during Fedora Elections viz. Coordinators for Questionnaire and Townhalls

Joerg Simon nominated [6] a couple of Fedora Ambassadors for the FAmSCo elections providing his inputs on their nominations

Ramon Almeida provided a self introduction [7]

Abdel G Martinez L asked [8] about how one can become a Mentor in the Fedora Ambassadors Project. Joerg Simon explained [9] the current process which includes new/potential mentors being introduced by existing mentors to FAmSCo and thereafter FAmSCo considering to approve them. The subsequent thread [10] had a spirited and engaging discussion about Ambassadors, Mentor Process, Mentor Selection with some specific parts for how the process functions in India. María Leandro summed it up [11] stating that 'humility is the first feature a contributor must have ... the rest will come by itself'

David Ramsey reminded [12] Ambassadors that the APAC Meeting would be held on 2010-11-07 at 0300 UTC

Zoltan Hoppar announced [13] the nomination to FAmSCo

Summary of traffic on FAmSCo mailing list

Joerg Simon asked [1] if posting a Summary Report for the period of work was a good idea since there was no reports for September. Max Spevack agreed [2] with that proposal.

Joerg Simon requested [3] María Leandro to invite the people behind the locations for FUDCon LATAM to join the upcoming FAmSCo meeting.

María Leandro posted [4] asking bidders to join the FAmSCo meeting

Paul W Frields reminded [5] the Fedora Project Leader to check if he could be present when the FUDCon LATAM bids are being discussed at FAmSCo meeting

Joerg Simon reminded [6] about the FAmSCo meeting on 2010-11-01 with the agenda item of discussing the bids for FUDCon LATAM

David Nalley posted [7] about the FUDCon LATAM 2011 decision rationale stating that it was for Panama as the location. And, also posted the meeting minutes [8]

QualityAssurance

In this section, we cover the activities of the QA team[1]. For more information on the work of the QA team and how you can get involved, see the Joining page[2].

Contributing Writer: Adam Williamson

Test Days

The Fedora 14 Test Day cycle has concluded. If you would like to propose a main track Test Day for the Fedora 15 cycle, please contact the QA team via email or IRC, or file a ticket in QA Trac[1].

Installing Rawhide

Qiang Li asked what was now the recommended method of installing Rawhide[1], given that a Rawhide installer build is now not always available. Adam Williamson recommended updating from the latest pre-release using yum[2], to which Qiang replied that he does not like doing this due to the time and bandwidth involved[3]. Later in the discussion, Christoph Frieben recommended using the latest pre-release installer and specifying Rawhide repositories during the repository selection step[4]. Rui He[5] and Jesse Keating[6] also suggested this method.

Testing updates just prior to release

Kamil Paral asked how one can test the installation of updates shortly before a release, when none are available in the official update repositories[1]. James Laska recommended downgrading an installed package such as gcalctool[2], and noted he has a repository available for this purpose.

Fedora 12 critical path testing

Adam Williamson noted a Fedora 12 updates-testing report which listed many critical path updates which had been awaiting the required proventester testing for some weeks[1]. He proposed removing the proven tester requirement for Fedora 12 critical path updates as a practical measure to allow the updates to go through before EOL. In the mean time, he reported that he had tested several of the updates in a virtual machine[2], and Gene did the same[3], allowing several of the updates to go through.

Design

In this section, we cover the Fedora Design Team[1].

Contributing Writer: Nicu Buculei

Fedora 15 Ahead

As the release cycle for Fedora 14 ended, is time to start the cycle for the next one, and Martin Sourada updated[1] the development page for Fedora 15[2] taking in the consideration the general release schedule[3] and the experiences learned from past releases "I've put together initial key milestones for schedule for f15 artwork, based on the previous schedule and proposed main f15 release schedule dates. Based on experience I've changed some details compared to last time."

One Page Release Notes

Fedora 14 is released but the One Page Release Notes[1] is still work-in-progress and Paul Frields asked[2] for an updated graphic banner "I bet that, if someone combined that template with the photo found on slide 4 of the top banner on http://fedoraproject.org/ and updated the release number to 14, you'd have a stupendous banner for our one page release notes page", task which was quickly accomplished[3] by Jef van Schendel.

Security Advisories

In this section, we cover Security Advisories from fedora-package-announce.

http://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/package-announce

Contributing Writer: Pascal Calarco

Fedora 14 Security Advisories

Fedora 13 Security Advisories

Fedora 12 Security Advisories