F14 Beta announcement

This page is still in draft note. If you want to help create or further develop this page, please refer to the Beta announcement SOP.

This page needs to have all the F13 optimization links updated to F14 ones when their location is known.

Fedora 14 / Beta is for Carotene / Let's Push for Final!

Catchy intro here.

What is the Beta Release?

The beta release is the last important milestone of Fedora 14. Only critical bug fixes will be pushed as updates leading up to the general release of Fedora 14, scheduled to be released in early November. We invite you to join us and participate in making Fedora 14 a solid release by downloading, testing, and providing your valuable feedback.

Of course, this is a beta release, some problems may still be lurking. A list of the problems we already know about is found at the Common F14 bugs page.

If you find a bug that's not found on that page, be sure it gets fixed before release by reporting your discovery at https://bugzilla.redhat.com/. Thank you!

Features

Desktop enthusiasts and end users of all sorts can look forward to:

• Faster loading and saving of JPEG images. The libjpeg-turbo feature nearly halves the time to load and save JPEG images on most modern machines - meaning you'll be seeing your digital photos even faster.
• Spice.

Are you a sysadmin? Check out the new features we have for you!

• Additional IPMI support. Enjoy using IPMI (Intelligent Platform Management Interface) to manage your servers? The new ipmiutil feature adds more functionality to existing IPMI capabilities, including SOL (Serial-over-LAN) and identity LED management.
• Tech preview of systemd. Looking to the future? Check out systemd, a next-generation replacement for Upstart and SystemV init. With faster boot times, the ability to track processes, daemons, and sockets, and system state snapshotting, this preview of systemd will have you prepped for the future.

Coders have lots of new development tools to try out, including:

• D Programming. Statically typed and compiling directly to machine code, the D systems programming language combines the power and performance of languages like C and C++ with the productivity of languages like Ruby and Python.
• GNUstep is a GUI framework based on the Objective-C programming language, and is a reimplementation of the NextStep environment.
• Memory debugging tools. Unique to Fedora 14, the gdb-heap package allows developers to get a breakdown of how a process is using dynamic memory - and can do unplanned memory usage debugging by attaching to runaway memory hogs, mid-process.
• Python 2.7 capabilities increases Fedora's commitment to improving portability and migration paths for developers to move to Python 3. Enhanced debugging and integration with GCC continue to be available in Fedora 14, and Python-related enhancements such as fixing common problems with GObject introspection and SWIG are also introduced.
• Rakudo Star is the most actively developed implementation of Perl 6, and is based on the Parrot virtual machine. Perl 6 is a major revision to this sysadmin and developer toolbox standby, introducing elements of many modern and historical languages.

And that's only the beginning. A more complete list and details of all the new features onboard Fedora 14 is available here:

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

We have nightly composes of alternate spins available here:

http://alt.fedoraproject.org/pub/alt/nightly-composes/

Contributing

For more information including common and known bugs, tips on how to report bugs, and the official release schedule, please refer to the release notes:

http://docs.fedoraproject.org

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, 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 today!