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Red Hat Releases Fedora 18 Beta

Posted by bob on · 16 comments
Red Hat; By Anna Eusebio 		Mail this story
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The Fedora Project team is excited to announce the beta release of its free, fully functional Linux operating system, Fedora 18, code-named “Spherical Cow.” Fedora continues to enable users to experience the latest in free and open source technology, integrated into a Linux distribution and ready for free download, use, modification and redistribution.

FEDORA BETA RELEASE FOR VERSION 18, “SPHERICAL COW”, NOW AVAILABLE

by: The Fedora Project Team

The Fedora Project team is excited to announce the beta release of its free, fully functional Linux operating system, Fedora 18, code-named “Spherical Cow.” Fedora continues to enable users to experience the latest in free and open source technology, integrated into a Linux distribution and ready for free download, use, modification and redistribution.

The Fedora Project worldwide community works to advance the cause of software freedom. These contributors hail from a variety of industries and educational backgrounds, and are dedicated to creating a vibrant, growing community to advance free and open source software. The most anticipated result of this community is the Fedora distribution itself, the open operating system released by the project approximately every six months. Each Fedora release represents the culmination of work by hundreds of engineers and thousands of contributors from many different locations and many different walks of life.

New releases of Fedora represent the upstream for Red Hat Enterprise Linux, the enterprise operating platform delivered by Red Hat that includes ongoing support and a broad certified ecosystem. Fedora serves as a community research and development lab, where code changes and innovations often form the basis for other Red Hat open source projects. While not every alteration will make it from Fedora to the corresponding release of Red Hat Enterprise Linux, Fedora’s role as a rapidly moving platform for future development allows it to provide important, community-driven updates.

Software enthusiasts are encouraged to download the beta release of Fedora 18, take it for a test drive and help identify items that need attention before Fedora 18 is delivered for general availability. With the beta release, the software is relatively stable, but real-world use and reports from users helps identify any lingering bugs so they can be addressed before it is more widely distributed.

Explore what’s new in the Fedora 18 beta, including these highlighted release features:

For users everywhere

Fedora 18 offers a brand-new version of the Gnome desktop, version 3.6, straight from the upstream development process. Updates have also been made to the KDE, XFCE and Sugar desktop environments; additionally, the MATE desktop is available for the first time in Fedora. Fedora's new installer user interface enhances the anaconda installer with improvements in ease of use and installation.

For developers

This release includes several language updates, including the move to Perl 5.16, updating the Python 3 stack from 3.2 to 3.3, Rails 3.2 and updated D and Haskell programming environments.

For system administrators

Fedora 18 includes the final release of Samba 4, and can be used on an Active Directory domain out of the box. An integrated, new native management software allows you to access data and server information easily. OpenStack in Fedora 18 has been updated to Folsom, the most recent release by the OpenStack community. This Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) platform enables the creation and management of cloud infrastructure. Eucalyptus 3.1, another IaaS platform, is available in Fedora for the first time, and includes the major components of Eucalyptus. Storage System Management CLI tools simplify the user interface by providing unified abstraction and interface for multiple storage technologies, including lvm, btrfs and md raid.

Download the Fedora 18 beta here and please give us your feedback. The final release of Fedora 18 is expected later in the year. For more information on these and other Fedora 18 features, click here.

The Fedora Project is a Red Hat-sponsored community project. For more information about Fedora, please visit http://www.fedoraproject.org.

Red Hat, Inc, 1801 Varsity Drive, Raleigh, NC 27606 United States

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Comments (16)

bsjones ·
Headline should read "Fedora Releases Fedora 18 Beta" or something rather than Red Hat.

bob Story submitter ·
Red Hat itself made the press release announcement this time, and the attribution on the headline goes to them.

I know, usually the Fedora project itself makes the release announcement to the fedora-announce list, but this time it came directly from Red Hat and the headline is correct.
Fettoosh ·
One wonders if Red Hat is re-entering the Linux personal desktop Arena!

Red hat has been successful in the server market, may be they see an opportunity for the desktop.

bsjones ·
Red Hat may have announced it but they didn't release it. Fedora did
caitlyn ·
Splitting hairs, much? Fedora is, in large part, a test bed for Red Hat Enterprise Linux. Red Hat funds the development of Fedora and pays the full time employees. Yes, there is community input and participation, perhaps to a greater extent than a popular desktop distro I could name. That doesn't change the fact that the Fedora Project, despite all protestations to the contrary, is there for the benefit of Red Hat, the company.
Steven_Rosenber ·
It's all semantics, but it would be nice if Red Hat at least pretends there is more separation than in this release.
caitlyn ·
Why, Steven? Why not admit what Fedora really is for once.
penguinist ·
And let's not forget that before this distro was called "Fedora" it was called "Red Hat Linux".
Steven_Rosenber ·
Who's a better steward, and who treats its community better, Red Hat or Canonical?

Go!
caitlyn ·
From my perspective that's a no-brainer, Steven. I've not been happy with what's been coming out of Canonical for some time.
Steven_Rosenber ·
One of the blockers in Fedora 18 is a new upgrade mechanism. Red Hat Enterprise and Fedora distributions have never had as robust an upgrade system from release to release as Debian and Ubuntu. If they get this working, and upgrading from release to release is as reliable in Fedora as it is in Debian, that will be a significant leveler between the two projects.
slacker_mike ·
@Steven for what it is worth I did a yum upgrade from F17 to F18 and had no problems. I was curious how it would work and was pleased to say it was basically trouble free. I used the following instructions http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Upgrading_Fedora_using_yum.
Steven_Rosenber ·
I'm still not over my Fedora 13-to-14 upgrade. It did not go well.

My understanding is that F18 will have a completely new upgrade tool.
slacker_mike ·
Yeah funnily enough called fedup if I am not mistaken.
lcafiero ·
"The Fedora Project is a Red Hat-sponsored community project" <---- from the press release, sent by the Red Hat PR department, which is something they've been known to do. Historically, this has always been inserted in any release sent by Red Hat. Don't know if that's unclear to anyone, but if anyone needs clarification, I think I can help there.

Also, Steven_Rosenber -- thanks for the laugh.

caitlyn ·
It is, indeed, called fedup.

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