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
There were no announcements on the announce@lists.fedoraproject.org last week.
Fedora Development News
Google Summer of Code proposal: Better iptables management
Zubin Mithra[1] invited comments[2] on a Google Summer of Code proposal to improve iptables in Fedora:
"My name is Zubin Mithra and I am aspiring to get into GSoC on behalf of Fedora. I wish to work on making a library for better iptables management. Details can be viewed in the proposal which I have attached along with the email.
I would love to hear your views on it."
A PDF[3] of the proposal is available.
Note: comps moved to Fedora Hosted git
Bill Nottingham announced[1]
"As discussed both on-list, and at this week's FESCo meeting[2] the 'comps' module used for mapping packages to package groups in Fedora has moved from CVS to Fedora Hosted git.
You may view the module at: http://git.fedorahosted.org/git/?p=comps.git and check it out at any of: http://git.fedorahosted.org/git/comps.git (r/o) git://git.fedorahosted.org/comps.git (r/o) ssh://git.fedorahosted.org/git/comps.git (r/w, for packagers)
Access control and policies remain the same. The old comps module in CVS will remain in a read-only state while users of it upgrade their scripts.
If you have any issues with the new location, please file a ticket in release-engineering trac[3]
Thanks, Bill Nottingham"
Release Notes Wiki Freeze
John J. McDonough reminded[1] the community that:
"Next week is the wiki freeze for Fedora 13 Release Notes.
If you have something important that needs to be in the release notes, update the appropriate wiki beat[2].
Go above and select the appropriate beat. Then add a note to that beat.
Your update need not be polished prose; if you can summarize the key points that need to be documented and perhaps include a link to more details, the Docs Project can take it from there.
As in Fedora 12, we are not looking to document every little change. The release notes will highlight significant changes, and include a link to the upstream page for all changes. If your component is hosted by Fedora, please consider enhancing the information pointed to by the yum link, which is what will appear in the release notes.
Thanks for your help --McD"
Announcing the release of Fedora 13 Alpha!
Jesse Keating announced[1] the availability of Fedora 13 Alpha:
"The Fedora 13 "Goddard" Alpha release is available! What's next for the free operating system that shows off the best new technology of tomorrow? You can see the future now[2]
What is the Alpha release?
The Alpha release contains all the features of Fedora 13 in a form that anyone can help test. This testing, guided by the Fedora QA team, helps us target and identify bugs. When these bugs are fixed, we make a Beta release available. A Beta release is code-complete, and bears a very strong resemblance to the third and final release. The final release of Fedora 13 is due in May.
We need your help to make Fedora 13 the best release yet, so please take a moment of your time to download and try out the Alpha and make sure the things that are important to you are working. If you find a bug, please report it -- every bug you uncover is a chance to improve the experience for millions of Fedora users worldwide. Together, we can make Fedora a rock-solid distribution. (Read down to the end of the announcement for more information on how to help.)
Features
Among the top features for end users, we have:
* Automatic print driver installation. We're using RPM and
PackageKit for automatic installation of printer drivers, so when you plug in a USB printer, Fedora will automatically offer to install drivers for it if needed.
* Automatic installation of language packs. Yum language packs
plugin support makes software installation smarter and easier for everyone worldwide, by automatically downloading language support for large suites of Fedora software when the user's environment requires it.
* Redesigned user management interface. The user account tool has
been completely redesigned, and the accountsdialog and accountsservice test packages are available to make it easy to configure personal information, make a personal profile picture or icon, generate a strong passphrase, and set up login options for your Fedora system.
* Color management. Color Management allows you to better set and
control your colors for displays, printers, and scanners, through the gnome-color-manager package.
* NetworkManager improvements include CLI. NetworkManager is now a one stop shop for all of your networking needs in Fedora, be it dial-up, broadband, wifi, or even Bluetooth. And now it can all be done in the command line, if you're into that sort of thing.
* Experimental 3D extended to free Nouveau driver for NVidia cards. In this release we are one step closer to having 3D supported on completely free and open source software (FOSS) drivers. In Fedora 12 we got a lot of ATI chips working, and this time we've added a wide range of NVidia cards. You can install the mesa-dri-drivers-experimental package to try out the work in progress.
For developers there are all sorts of additional goodies:
* SystemTap static probes. SystemTap now has expanded capabilities to monitor higher-level language runtimes like Java, Python and Tcl, and also user space applications starting with PostgreSQL. In the future Fedora will add support for even more user space applications, greatly increasing the scope and power of monitoring for application developers.
* Easier Python debugging. We've added new support that allows
developers working with mixed libraries (Python and C/C++) in Fedora to get more complete information when debugging with gdb, making Fedora an exceptional platform for powerful, rapid application development.
* Parallel-installable Python 3 stack. The parallel-installable
Python 3 stack will will help programmers write and test code for use in both Python 2.6 and Python 3 environments, so you can future-proof your applications now using Fedora.
* NetBeans 6.8 first IDE to support entire Java 6 EE spec. NetBeans IDE 6.8 is the first IDE to offer complete support for the entire Java EE 6 specification.
And don't think we forgot the system administrators:
* boot.fedoraproject.org. (BFO) allows users to download a single, tiny image (could fit on a floppy) and install current and future versions of Fedora without having to download additional images.
* System Security Services Daemon (SSSD). SSSD provides expanded
features for logging into managed domains, including caching for offline authentication. This means that, for example, users on laptops can still login when disconnected from the company's managed network. The authentication configuration tool in Fedora has already been updated to support SSSD, and work is underway to make it even more attractive and functional.
* Pioneering NFS features. Fedora offers the latest version 4 of the NFS protocol for better performance, and in conjunction with recent kernel modifications includes IPv6 support for NFS as well.
* Zarafa Groupware. Zarafa now makes available a complete Open
Source groupware suite that can be used as a drop-in Exchange replacement for Web-based mail, calendaring, collaboration and tasks. Features include IMAP/POP and iCal/CalDAV capabilities, native mobile phone support, the ability to integrate with existing Linux mail servers, a full set of programming interfaces, and a comfortable look and feel using modern Ajax technologies.
* Btrfs snapshots integration. Btrfs is capable of creating
lightweight filesystem snapshots that can be mounted (and booted into) selectively. The created snapshots are copy-on-write snapshots, so there is no file duplication overhead involved for files that do not change between snapshots. It allows developers to feel comfortable experimenting with new software without fear of an unusable install, since automated snapshots allow them to easily revert to the previous day's filesystem.
And that's only the beginning. A more complete list and details of each new cited feature is available[3]
We have nightly composes of alternate spins available[4]
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[5]
Thank you, and we hope to see you in the Fedora project!
-- Jesse Keating Fedora -- Freedom² is a feature! identi.ca: http://identi.ca/jkeating
- ↑ http://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/devel-announce/2010-March/000588.html
- ↑ http://fedoraproject.org/get-prerelease?anF13a
- ↑ http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Releases/13/FeatureList?anF13a
- ↑ http://alt.fedoraproject.org/pub/alt/nightly-composes/?anF13a
- ↑ http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Fedora_13_Alpha_release_notes?anF13a
F13 Release Slogan - Rock it.
Robyn Bergeron announced[1] the slogan for Fedora 13:
"For the 13th Release of Fedora, "Goddard," the Fedora Marketing team ran an open, community based process of slogan submissions,[2]. That processincluded guidelines for producing great slogans, and as a result ofour call, we received a large number of slogan contributions[3]
After an exciting and enjoyable Marketing Team meeting, the release slogan for Fedora 13 "Goddard" has been chosen and approved: "Rock it!"
We would like to thank all the contributors who have participated in this process.
Cheers!
-Robyn
Fedora Events
Fedora events are the 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 (March 2010 to May 2010)
- North America (NA)[1]
- Central & South America (LATAM) [2]
- Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA)[3]
- India, Asia, Australia (India/APJ)[4]
- ↑ http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Events#FY11_Q1_.28March_2010_-_May_2010.29
- ↑ http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Events#FY10_Q4_.28March_2010_-_May_2010.29
- ↑ http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Events#FY11_Q1_.28March_2010_-_May_2010.29_2
- ↑ http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Events#FY11_Q1_.28March_2010_-_May_2010.29_3
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.