Jim Lynch: Off the Top of My Head…

Ars has a good look at the new Fedora 10.

Fedora 10 is built on Linux kernel version 2.6.27, which was officially released in October. This version of the kernel comes with improved compatibility for popular webcam devices and also includes the new Atheros ath9k wireless driver. Firefox 3.0.4, the latest bugfix release of the popular open source web browser, is also included in the default installation.

Fedora 10 offers installation options for both GNOME 2.24 and KDE 4.1, the latest versions of the two most popular Linux desktop environments. GNOME 2.24, which was released in September, introduced the Empathy instant messaging client and also brought tabbed browsing and other improvements to GNOME’s Nautilus file manager.

Fedora 10 also includes a new version of the Network Manager utility, which is used to configure Fedora’s connectivity settings. The new version has built-in support for connection sharing. This is useful in a variety of contexts, particularly when a user with a 3G card wants to share it with other computers via an ad hoc WiFi network.

Fedora’s RPM package management system got a major overhaul for this release. RPM 4.6 has many new features and a cleaner code base. Some legacy limitations have been eliminated and the maximum file size within packages has been increased to 4GB. For a complete list of RPM improvements, read the draft of changes that have been made since RPM 4.4.x at the RPM web site.

I haven’t used it in ages but it’s nice to see it’s still chugging along. I may take a look at it if I can find the time. It seems like these days Fedora has become a bit of an also-ran compared to Ubuntu. It would be nice if this release puts it back in the running on people’s Linux desktops.

You can download Fedora 10 here.

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