The Fedora Project is proud to announce that the upcoming release of Fedora 16, code-named “Verne”, is slated to feature the latest version of the popular GNOME desktop. Fedora seeks to offer the best free and open source technology, integrated into a Linux distribution that anyone can freely download, use, modify, and redistribute. The Fedora 16 release is also expected to include new features and enhancements for end users, administrators, developers, and enthusiasts.

Fedora 16 will feature the GNOME 3.2 desktop environment or the GNOME Shell as it is commonly called. The GNOME 3.2 release offers several refinements and enhancements to the GNOME 3.0 release that shipped with Fedora 15, including:

• New look and feel for GDM, the GNOME login manager;
• Refinements to the look and feel of the desktop, including smaller title bars and windows that are easier to re-size;
• Online Accounts editor to make it easier to interact with documents, contacts, and calendars managed by an online provider;
• New Contacts application for keeping track of the details of friends and colleagues;
• New Documents application is a simple way to find, organize, and view the most-used documents, and;
• Enhancements to the on-screen keyboard and other accessibility capabilities.

We encourage you to take the GNOME Desktop for a spin when Fedora 16 is released later this year. To download the a pre-release version of Fedora 16, please visit http://fedoraproject.org/get-prerelease. For more information on these and other Fedora 16 features, see http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Releases/16/FeatureList

The Fedora Project is a Red Hat-sponsored community project. For more information about Fedora, please visit here.