FWN/Beats/Announcements

Announcements

In this section, we cover announcements from the Fedora Project, including general announcements, development announcements and Events.

Contributing Writer: Rashadul Islam

Fedora Announcement News

The announcement list is always exclusive for the Fedora Community. Please, visit the past announcements at

Fedora 16 Naming: Nominations are now open. Submit your suggestion!

Robyn Bergeron on Thu Mar 3 16:34:02 UTC 2011 announced

"Hear ye, hear ye! Attention, all Fedora fans and release naming enthusiasts:

The time has come once again to choose the name for the next release of Fedora. Potential names will be accepted for consideration beginning March 3rd (in other words, NOW) through March 10.

Please note that you *must* follow the instructions and guidelines at the page listed above if you want your name to be considered. For instance, there must be an "is-a" link between the name Lovelock (from Fedora 15) and the name you suggest. That link must be different than previous links for Fedora release names. Also, we ask that you please conduct the required searches for brand and trademark names that might cause us problems.

Read the full guidelines at that page, where you can also find full schedule details for the release naming process.

For those of you interested in reviewing the history of Fedora release names, there is an appropriately named wiki page for doing so:

Be fun. Be creative. Help pick out an awesome name for Fedora 16! I am looking forward to your suggestions."

Announcing the release of Fedora 15 Alpha!!

Dennis Gilmore on Tue Mar 8 15:00:56 UTC 2011 announced,

"The Fedora 15 "Lovelock" Alpha release is available! This release offers a preview of some of the best free and open source technology currently under development. Catch a glimpse of the future:

What is the Alpha release?

The Alpha release contains all the beefy features of Fedora 15 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 15 is due in May.

We need your help to make Fedora 15 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

This release of Fedora includes a variety of features both over and under the hood that show off the power and flexibility of the advancing state of free software. Examples include:

• Updated Desktop Environments. Fedora 15 will ship with GNOME 3, the

next major version of the GNOME desktop. If you're interested in other experiences, KDE and Xfce will also be showcasing the latest and greatest in desktop technology from their respective projects.

• System and session management. Previously available as a technology

preview in F14, systemd makes its full-fledged debut in Fedora 15. systemd is a smarter, more efficient way of starting up and managing the background daemons relied on by services we all use every day - such as NetworkManager and PulseAudio.

• Cloud. Looking to create appliances for use in the Cloud? BoxGrinder

creates appliances (virtual machines) for various platforms (KVM, Xen, EC2) from simple plain text appliance definition files for various virtual platforms.

• Updated programming languages and tools. Fedora 15 features new

versions of Rails, OCaml, and Python. GDB and GCC have also been updated. (Fedora 15 was built with GCC 4.6.0, too!)

• Productivity Applications. LibreOffice is filled with tools for

everyday use, including word processing, spreadsheet, and presentation applications.

• Consistent Network Device Naming. Server management just got even

easier. Fedora 15 uses BIOS-provided, non-arbitrarily given names for network ports, taking the burden off of system administrators.

• Dynamic Firewall. Fedora 15 adds support for the optional firewall

daemon, that provides a dynamic firewall management with a D-Bus interface.

• eCryptfs in Authconfig. Fedora 15 brings in improved support for

eCryptfs, a stacked cryptographic filesystem for Linux. Starting with Fedora 15, authconfig can be used to automatically mount a private encrypted part of the home directory when a user logs in.

• DNSSEC for workstations. NetworkManager now uses the BIND nameserver

as a DNSSEC resolver. All received DNS responses are proved to be correct. If particular domain is signed and failed to validate then resolver returns SERFVAIL instead of invalidated response, which means something is wrong.

• Go Green. Power Management improvements include the PowerTOP tool,

which identifies the software components that make your computer use more energy than necessary while idle. Automatic tuning of power consumption and performance helps conserve on laptop battery usage, too!

• Business Management tools. Tryton is a three-tier high-level general

purpose application platform, providing solutions for accounting, invoicing, sale management, purchase management, analytic accounting, and inventory management.

• New Package Suite Groups. The Graphics suite group has been renamed

to the Design group, and the Robotics SIG has created the Robotics Package Suite, a collection of software that provides an out-of-the-box usable robotic simulation environment featuring a linear demo to introduce new users.

These and many other improvements provide a wide and solid base for future releases, further increasing the range of possibilities for developers and helping to maintain Fedora's position at the leading edge of free and open source technology.

A more complete list and details of each new cited feature is available here:

We have nightly composes of alternate spins available here:

Issues and Details

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:

A shorter list of common bugs can be found here:

Contributing

Bug reports are helpful, especially for Alpha. If you encounter any issues please report them and help make this release of Fedora the best ever."

Update on FUDCons in 2011

Jared K. Smith, Fedora Project Leader, on Wed Mar 9 18:53:00 UTC 2011 announced,

"I want to take this opportunity to bring your attention to a few important matters regarding FUDCon events in 2011.

Travel subsidy deadline for FUDCon Panama 2011 on March 14th

---

Planning is in full swing for FUDCon Panama in May, and it's time for the FUDCon planning team to begin evaluating subsidy requests. The deadline for the first round of travel subsidies is the end of the day (UTC time) on March 14th, and the FUDCon planning team will be meeting on March 15th to evaluate those requests. Any subsidy requests made after that time will be handled in a future subsidy meeting. I encourage anyone interested in attending FUDCon Panama and requiring travel assistance to refer to the instructions at to learn about the subsidy process and open a Trac ticket with their details. We'll be giving priority to those travelers in Latin America who actively contribute to Fedora in meaningful ways.

Bids for FUDCon EMEA 2011 due March 15th.

---

I'm happy to see several bids starting to come in for FUDCon EMEA 2011. This is a reminder that any bids for FUDCon EMEA 2011 are due by the end of the day (UTC time) on March 15th. If you're interested in submitting a bid, please create a wiki page with the details and send an email to the fudcon-planning list letting us know about your bid. Refer to for more details, or for an example of a very thorough bid page.

Bids for FUDCon North America 2011/2012

---

I'd also like to formally open up bidding for FUDCon North America for the December 2011/January 2012 time frame. Bids will be due by the end of the day (UTC time) on April 8th. Again, please refer to for more details.

If you have any questions, please ask for help on the fudcon-planning mailing list or in the #fudcon-planning channel on IRC."

Fedora Events

The purpose of event is to build a global Fedora events calendar, and to identify responsible Ambassadors for each event. The event page is laid out by quarter and by region. Please maintain the layout, as it is crucial for budget planning. Events can be added to this page whether or not they have an Ambassador owner. Events without an owner are not eligible for funding, but being listed allows any Ambassador to take ownership of the event and make it eligible for funding. In plain words, Fedora events are the exclusive and 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 (Dec 2010 - Feb 2011)

• North America (NA)
• Central & South America (LATAM):
• Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA)
• India, Asia, Australia (India/APJ)

Past Events

Archive of Past Fedora Events

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.