Constantine Gets Ready to Unite Again: Fedora 12 Beta Now Available

The Fedora Project’s latest release Fedora 12 – codename “Constantine” – is anticipated to be released in November. Much like its namesake Constantine, Fedora 12 is ready to unite with a feature set that includes plenty for everyone!

Fedora 12 is expected to include numerous enhancements and features added since the release of Fedora 11 in June 2009, such as these:

• PackageKit has grown the ability to automatically install the software packages that provide new commands when the user is operating a text terminal. It also now supports a browser plugin that allows software vendors of any size to provide automatic installation of software packages using simple HTML object tags.
• Enhancements to NetworkManager to make both system-wide connections and mobile broadband connections easier than ever. Signal strength and network selection are available for choosing the best mobile broadband connection when you’re on the road. And if you’re at a system that requires an always-on connection or static addressing, NetworkManager now is designed to allow you to configure that connection directly from the desktop, and includes PolicyKit integration so configuration management can be done via central policy where needed.
• For several years, the open, free Ogg Theora format has provided a way for freedom-loving users to share video. Fedora 12 includes the new Theora 1.1, which achieves near-H.264 quality in a completely free and open codec and format. (A detailed and highly technical status report can be found here.) With the introduction of Theora 1.1, we believe that the quality of free video will meet or exceed user expectations, delivering crisp, vibrant media in both streaming and downloadable form.
• New higher-performance virtualization capabilities help administrators build more secure, powerful, scalable, and easy to manage solutions. The newest features include better memory and performance management, hot network adapter changes, discovery of SAN storage, improved virtual disk image performance, a newer PXE boot infrastructure, and the new libguestfs library and guestfish shell to allow highly automated manipulation of virtual machines outside the virtualization environment.

We encourage everyone to download the Beta and take it for a spin. Let us know what you think and be sure to report any issues with the Beta to help Fedora improve the final release. Anyone can download the Beta as an installation medium or a Live image to try it on their system. Check it out today by downloading here.