Talking points for F10

Technical

• NetworkManager - Connection sharing makes it possible for one Fedora system to become a collaboration hub for everyone. With a single wired or mobile broadband connection, and a few mouse clicks, the user can create a new wireless ad-hoc network on a separate wireless network interface, which other nearby machines can use for Internet access.
• PackageKit - PackageKit has taken the next step on its development roadmap, with the first in a series of features that will enhance the free software desktop experience. PackageKit can now use a set of dependency information provided in RPM packages to search for codecs for supported media. PackageKit uses the repository configuration on the host machine to determine search locations, and after authorization by the user, installs and plays the media. In the Fedora 11 timeframe and beyond, PackageKit will develop additional capabilities for installing fonts and applications in the same fashion. These changes will give Fedora users an experience that surpasses every other operating system thanks to the openness of free software.
• Plymouth/faster boot - Starting the legacy RHGB takes quite a bit of time, memory and disk activity. It requires numerous graphical user interface pieces to load just a few messages and a progress bar and slows down booting significantly. The kernel’s new mode setting capability makes it possible to speed up the boot process, and offer a pleasant visual experience with crossfading. The full beauty of the loader in its initial Fedora 10 release will be best appreciated by people with recent ATI video cards, but Plymouth is being actively improved to extend the experience for even more users.
• RPM 4.6 - The first major update to RPM in a number of years, this upgrade contains an enormous number of bug fixes, enhancements, and new features such as much larger package sizes, better error handling and syntax checking, and experimental handling of more tightly compressed LZMA payloads.
• Virtualization improvements - This release features substantial improvements in remote installation and management of virtual hosts, and enhancements to storage provisioning. These new features enable centralization, automation and delegation in environments that rely heavily on virtualization.
• Appliance tools - The Appliance OS (AOS) and the Appliance Creation Tool (ACT), combined with the new "FEDORA REMIX" mark, allow OEMs, developers, and ISVs to create new and exciting offerings using comfortable and well-documented Fedora tools as a baseline. Users can combine outside technologies with Fedora's enormous universe of free and open source software to build innovative and useful appliances. The Fedora Remix mark allows appliance builders to credit and drive interest in the Fedora Project, which helps advance the infrastructure on which they base their creations. More information is available at the Thincrust site.
• SecTool - This release of Fedora includes a new security auditing system that you can use to detect problems on your system before they become an even bigger problem. SecTool comes with a variety of tests to run against your system in text or graphical modes to assess security, but it is also incredibly modular so you can write tests to accommodate your special needs.

Full list of technical features appears here.

New Hotness

• "Solar" Theme - Created by the Fedora Artwork team, this fresh and exciting new look for Fedora generates as much buzz energy as the nuclear furnace of a blue supergiant star. As with Waves and other previous Fedora themes, Solar has been created with free and open source tools and sources by a partnership of artists and designers in the community.
• GNOME 2.24 - Refer to the GNOME 2.24 release notes for complete information. Among the highlights:
  • New applets like the time tracker and a more powerful deskbar
  • A compact list view and tabbed browser support in the Nautilus file manager
  • The all-new Ekiga 3.0 telephony and videoconferencing application, which is built to be presence-aware and a better way to reach people using voice-over-IP protocols such as SIP.
• KDE 4.1.2 - Refer to the KDE 4.1.2 release announcement and the original KDE 4.1 announcement for complete information. Highlights include:
  • Restored and integrated KDE-PIM for complete personal data organization
  • New features in the Dolphin file manager and Konqueror web browser
  • Improvements to the compositing window manager
  • A globe application that interfaces with OpenStreetMap
• Glitch-free audio - PulseAudio is a sound system that handles multiple sources and destinations including over networks. PulseAudio in Fedora 10 is now more responsive due to its new low-latency design, but also consumes less power.

Community

• It's now as easy to join Fedora as any social networking site. Just click to http://join.fedoraproject.org/ and become part of the free software movement that is changing the world. Thousands of people are already members of Fedora. Why not join, and use your account to get involved in free software through one of our many community-powered groups?
  • Translation - bring Fedora to communities in other languages
  • Documentation - write helpful guidance to help people get the most from Fedora
  • Artwork - make Fedora beautiful with art and design
  • Marketing and Ambassadors - help spread Fedora to your local community
  • Infrastructure - help run the systems that power the Fedora Project
  • Packaging - help keep software free and easy to use for everyone
  • Websites - help design and set up effective web presence for Fedora
• We've gone from under 2,000 to over 17.500 project members in the last 8 months, since making the joining process dead-simple on the web site.
  • Project members immediately get an SSH account and free web space, and can immediately help write or edit on our wiki.

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