Fedora Linux 12 'Constantine' is a Milestone Release
Speed, Networking, Multimedia, Netbooks
Sean Michael Kerner
Thursday, October 22, 2009 10:58:12 PM
From the "Emperors of Rome Using Linux' files:
The first Fedora 12 beta is now available and at first glance it sure looks to me like it's jammed pack full of interesting and innovative new features.
Speed
Speed is a key issue for all Linux distros, and Fedora is taking an interesting approach by compiling all of its software for i686 with 'special' optimization for Intel Atom. What that means is instead of the typical generic x86 compilation, all apps could potentially run faster. Fedora now does have a specific netbook Moblin graphical interface and a Fedora 12 Moblin Fedora Remix too -- who said Fedora (or Red Hat) wasn't interested in netbooks or the Linux desktop?
Enhanced Networking
There is also an enhanced NetworkManager for network configuration, Bluetooth improvements as well as improved IPv6 support.
Multimedia
On the video side, Fedora 12 includes Theora 1.1 for improved video quality, as well as some preliminary support for the latest Radeon HD and NVIDIA graphics cards.
Virtualization
Virtualization which is a key focus for Red Hat overall gets a boost in Fedora 12 with the libguesfs library and the guestfish interactive tool for modifying guest images for virtual machines.
That's just the short list from my perspective, but if you look at the full feature list, there a lot of features in this release.
It makes a lot of sense too that this release be super jammed packed especially if this is the last Fedora release before Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 development really gets into gear. In some ways, this could well serve as our first preview for RHEL 6 and the technology that it might be bringing to the table.
Aside from the RHEL connection, the fact that there is an effort in Fedora 12 to satisfy the needs of netbook users is a real milestone for Fedora and Red Hat. The desktop market and certainly the netbook market are legitimate markets for Linux and it's great to see Fedora deliver a targeted solution.
Overall this is an exciting time to be a Linux user. Ubuntu Karmic Koala is due out at the end of October while openSUSE 11.2 and Fedora 12 are both set for November releases.
Article courtesy of InternetNews.com
