Revision as of 00:49, 29 April 2016

The Fedora 24 Beta is here, on schedule for our planned June final release. Download the prerelease from our Get Fedora site:

What is the Beta release?

The Beta release contains all the exciting features of Fedora 24's editions in a form that anyone can help test. This testing, guided by the Fedora QA team, helps us target and identify bugs from the Alpha version. When most of 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 24 is expected in June.

We need your help to make Fedora 24 the best yet, so please take some time to download and try out the Beta 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 rock-solid. We have a culture of coordinating new features and pushing fixes upstream as much as feasible, and your feedback will help improve not only Fedora but Linux and free software on the whole.

Fedora-Wide Changes

Under the hood, glibc has moved to 2.23. The update includes better performance, many bugfixes and improvements to POSIX compliance, and additional locales. The new library is backwards compatible with the version of glibc that was shipped in Fedora 23, and includes a number of security and bug fixes. We've also updated the system compiler to GCC 6 and rebuilt all packages with that, providing greater code optimization and catching programming errors which had slipped past previous compilers.

Workstation

Workstation features a preview of GNOME 3.20.
We have decided not to make Wayland, the next generation graphic stack, the default in Fedora 24 Workstation. However, Wayland remains available as an option, and the Workstation team would greatly appreciate your help in testing. Our goal is one full release where the non-default Wayland option works seamlessly, or reasonably close thereto. At that point we will make Wayland the default with X11 as the fallback option.
There have been many changes to theming in GTK+ 3, where a stable API has not been declared. As a result, applications that use custom CSS theming, for example, may show issues with their appearance. This may include default applications that come with Fedora 24 Beta Workstation. Users are asked to try out their favorite GTK+ 3 based applications and report bugs upstream so they might be addressed in time for the final release.

Server

FreeIPA 4.3 (Domain Controller role) is included in Fedora 24. This version helps streamline installation of replicas by adding a replica promotion method for new installs. A new topology plugin has also been added that automatically manages new replication segment creation. An effective replica topology visualization tool is also available in the webUI.
More packages have been removed from the default Server edition to make the footprint of the default installation smaller.

Cloud

For Fedora 24, we're working hard to make Fedora the best platform for developing containers, from the base Fedora container images to a full-featured PaaS to run and manage them.
We're packaging OpenShift Origin for Fedora to make it easy to run on Fedora. OpenShift Origin is a distribution of Kubernetes optimized for enterprise application development and deployment. Origin embeds Kubernetes and adds powerful additional functionality to deliver an easy to approach developer and operator experience for building applications in containers.

Spins and Labs

Fedora Spins are alternative desktops for Fedora that provide a different desktop experience than the standard Fedora Workstation edition. Fedora Workstation is built on the GNOME desktop environment and aims to provide a compelling, easy-to-use operating system for software developers, while also being well-suited to other users. Our spins showcase KDE Plasma, Xfce, LXDE, Mate-Compiz, Cinnamon, and Sugar on a Stick (Soas) on the same Fedora Base.* Fedora Labs are collections of software for specific purposes — Games, Design, Robotics, and so on. They are pre-selected sets of Fedora software and are ideal for events or audiences with the corresponding specific interest. Fedora 24 comes with a new lab, the Astronomy Spin, a set of tools for astronomers and astrophysicists.

*: Note that the SoaS spin may be missing from the Fedora 24 Beta release. We plan to fix this for the final release.

ARM

ARM images are available as usual for several usecases. Fedora 24 ships Desktop images, such as Spins and Workstation, but also provides a Server image. A minimal Fedora image completes the wide set of install options for you ARM board.

Atomic Host

Fedora Atomic Host releases on a two-week schedule, and each release is built on the latest overall Fedora OS. This schedule means the Atomic Host is currently built on Fedora 23, but will switch to Fedora 24 when we're out of Beta. You can try one of the newer features with recent Fedora Atomic Host builds today. Since Fedora 23 was released, Atomic Host has added a "developer mode" that gives a better developer experience overall. When running in DEVELOPER MODE, the host will download and start Cockpit and fire up a TMUX session to make it easier to work at the console and obtain necessary information (like the root password, IP address, etc.).

Issues and Details

This is a Beta release. As such, we expect that you may encounter bugs or missing features. To report issues encountered during testing, contact the Fedora QA team via the mailing list or in #fedora-qa on Freenode. As testing progresses, common issues are tracked on the Common F24 Bugs page.

https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Common_F24_bugs

For tips on reporting a bug effectively, read "how to file a bug report."

https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/How_to_file_a_bug_report

Release Schedule

The full release schedule is available on the Fedora wiki:

https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Releases/24/Schedule

The current schedule calls for a beta release towards the beginning of May, and the final release in early June. Be aware that these dates are development targets. Some projects release on a set date regardless of feature completeness or bugs; others wait until certain thresholds for functionality or testing are met. Fedora uses a hybrid model, with milestones subject to adjustment. This allows us to make releases with new features and newly-integrated and updated upstream software while also retaining high quality.

Flock 2016: Krakow, Poland

If you're a contributor to Fedora, or interested in getting more involved, one way to engage with our community is through Fedora premier events. The annual North American/European conference for Fedora contributors is Flock, which takes place August 2-5, 2016 in Krakow, Poland. Registration is now open at https://register.flocktofedora.org. For more information about our Latin American and Asia-Pacific Conferences, stay tuned for announcements on the Fedora Community Blog:

https://communityblog.fedoraproject.org

Press Release Copy

Fedora 24 Beta now available By Matthew Miller, Fedora Project Leader

We're pleased to announce that Fedora 24, the latest version of the Fedora operating system, is now available in beta. The Fedora Project is a global community that works together to lead the advancement of free and open source software. As part of the community’s mission the project delivers three editions, each one a free, Linux-based operating system tailored to meet specific use cases: Fedora 24 Cloud Beta, Fedora 24 Server Beta, and Fedora 24 Workstation Beta.

Each edition is built from a common set of base packages, which form the core foundation of Fedora 24 Beta. In addition to minor bug fixes and package tweaks, Fedora 24 Beta’s foundational packages include glibc 2.23 for better performance and improvements to POSIX compliance (and backwards compatibility to Fedora 23) and GNU Compiler Collection (GCC) 6. All base packages have been rebuilt with GCC 6, providing better code optimization across all Fedora 24 Beta editions.

Fedora 24 Cloud Beta The beta of Fedora 24 Cloud shows Fedora’s continued work in creating a powerful, community-driven platform for container development. To help meet this goal, we are now packaging OpenShift Origin for Fedora - a Kubernetes distribution optimized for application development and deployment - which provides additional container development capabilities and a smoother operator experience.

Today also marks the first availability of Fedora 24 as the foundation for Fedora Atomic Host, which we continue to release on a two week schedule based on the very latest Fedora operating system build. Fedora Atomic Host includes many package enhancements and bug fixes, but also includes a new “developer mode” - when run, the host is downloaded and automatically starts Cockpit along with a tmux session, making it easier to work via the developer console and obtain key information for the session, including the IP address and root password.

Fedora 24 Server Beta Fedora 24 Server Beta continues to refine and enhance the flexibility it provides via task-specific roles, provided by rolekit. To this end, FreeIPA 4.3 is included in Fedora 24 Server Beta, enhancing the Domain Controller role by streamlining replica installation, segment creation and replica topology visualization. Additionally, we’ve made the overall footprint of Fedora Server smaller by removing many unneeded packages.

Fedora 24 Workstation Beta <TBD>

You can take Fedora 24 Beta for a spin yourself at https://getfedora.org.

As always, the Fedora Project team wants to hear from you – let us know about any bugs or problems that you encounter, as your feedback will only help us improve Fedora 23. Common issues can be found on the Fedora 24 common bugs page (please read this on how to effectively report bugs).

If you are interested in being more deeply involved with Fedora, we want you on our team! You can contribute to the Fedora Project in many ways other than bug reporting – the Fedora Project is always looking for translators, testers, content creators, marketers, designers and so much more. Whatever your skill set, we would love to have you involved – find out more at http://whatcanidoforfedora.org/.

The Fedora Project is a Red Hat-sponsored community project. For more information about Fedora, please visit the Fedora Project homepage.

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