Riding the Rocket: A CEO’s Look at Fedora 13 “Goddard”

I’ve been a Fedora fan for years now and have used it at home long before I joined Red Hat. I look forward to May and October to see what’s the new bleeding edge, and I continue to be impressed by the innovation the Fedora community delivers. There are so many great new features in Fedora 13 and it’s difficult to highlight just a few of my favorite, but here are some that stand out after a few days of using Fedora 13.

The first thing I noticed was the dramatically improved printer setup!! In Fedora 13 it truly feels seamless. I think this is the first time I’ve ever actually printed something from a new Fedora release before even seeing a command line. Didn’t even have to go searching for PPD files! The printer setup function uses PackageKit to search the online software repositories to find the driver. Once it’s done, the printer setup is finished, and the new printer is ready for printing immediately.

I also like the more polished desktop look and feel. Menus are simpler and more consistent thanks to the work of the Fedora Desktop team. The Fedora Design team has also been hard at work in making the icons in the default installation match a single look and feel. I’m looking forward to trying out other desktop features in Fedora 13 including its solutions for scanning, microblogging and photo management. (Heading on vacation soon, and plan to take a lot of pics!) I’m able to rely on Fedora to just work out of the box more than ever before.

Red Hat’s software development model relies on its sponsorship of leading open source projects, like Fedora, which provide the technology foundation of our commercial products. The Fedora community’s work enables Red Hat to deliver superior technology, faster, and helps ensure that the resulting products are better suited to customer requirements. Red Hat is proud to be a sponsor of and contributors to the Fedora Project, and we continue to encourage our customers and partners to be involved in the Fedora community. I’d like to thank the Fedora community for its work in delivering a great distribution in Fedora 13.

Whether you’re a desktop user, developer, system administrator….or even a CEO, Fedora 13 has something for you. I encourage everyone to download Fedora 13 and take it for a spin today.