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Fedora

Fedora 10 running GNOME
Developer	Fedora Project
OS family	Unix-like
Working state	Current
Source model	Various
Initial release	2003-11-16
Latest release	10 / November 25, 2008 (2008-11-25)
Update method	Yum, Anaconda
Package manager	RPM Package Manager
Platforms	x86, x86-64, PowerPC
Kernel type	Monolithic
Default user interface	GNOME
License	Various
Official website	www.fedoraproject.org

Fedora is an RPM-based, general purpose operating system built on top of the Linux kernel, developed by the community-supported Fedora Project and sponsored by Red Hat. Fedora's mission statement is: "Fedora is about the rapid progress of Free and Open Source software."

One of Fedora's main objectives is not only to contain free and open source software, but also to be on the leading edge of such technologies. Also, developers in Fedora prefer to make upstream changes instead of applying fixes specifically for Fedora — this ensures that updates are available to all Linux distributions.

Linus Torvalds, creator of the Linux kernel, says he uses Fedora because it had fairly good support for PowerPC when he used that processor architecture. He became accustomed to the operating system and continues to use it.

History

The Fedora Project was created in late 2003, when Red Hat Linux was discontinued. Red Hat Enterprise Linux was to be Red Hat's only officially supported Linux distribution, while Fedora was to be a community distribution. Red Hat Enterprise Linux branches its releases from versions of Fedora.

The name of Fedora derives from Fedora Linux, a volunteer project that provided extra software for the Red Hat Linux distribution, and from the characteristic fedora used in Red Hat's "Shadowman" logo. Fedora Linux was eventually absorbed into the Fedora Project. Fedora is a trademark of Red Hat. Although this has previously been disputed by the creators of the Fedora repository management software, the issue has now been resolved.

Features

Distribution

The Fedora Project distributes Fedora in several different ways:

• Fedora DVD – a DVD of all major Fedora packages at time of shipping;
• Live images – CD or DVD sized images that can be used to create a Live CD or install Fedora on a USB flash drive;
• Minimal CD or USB image – used for installing over HTTP, FTP or NFS
• Rescue CD or USB image – used if some part of the system has failed and needs to be fixed, or for installing over the Internet.

The Fedora Project also distributes custom variations of Fedora which are called Fedora spins. These are built from a specific set of software packages and have a combination of software to meet the requirements of a specific kind of end user. Fedora spins are developed by several Fedora special interest groups. It is also possible to create Live USB versions of Fedora using Fedora Live USB creator or UNetbootin.

Software package management is primarily handled by the yum utility. Graphical interfaces, such as pirut and pup are provided, as well as puplet, which provides visual notifications in the panel when updates are available. apt-rpm is an alternative to yum, and may be more familiar to people used to Debian or Debian-based distributions, where Advanced Packaging Tool is used to manage packages. Additionally, extra repositories can be added to the system, so that packages not available in Fedora can be installed.

Software repositories

It has been suggested that RPMforge and Talk:Fedora (operating system)#RPMforge Merge proposal be merged into this article. (Discuss) Proposed since December 2008.

It has been suggested that RPM Fusion and Talk:Fedora (operating system)#RPMforge Merge proposal be merged into this article. (Discuss) Proposed since January 2008.

Before Fedora 7, there were two main repositories – Core and Extras. Fedora Core contained all the base packages that were required by the operating system, as well as other packages that were distributed along with the installation CD/DVDs, and was maintained only by Red Hat developers. Fedora Extras, the secondary repository that was included from Fedora Core 3, was community-maintained and not distributed along with the installation CD/DVDs. Since Fedora 7, the Core and Extras repositories have been merged, hence the distribution's dropping the Core from its name. That also allowed for community submissions of packages that were formerly allowed only by Red Hat developers.

Also prior to Fedora 7 being released, there was a third repository called Fedora Legacy. This repository was community-maintained and was mainly concerned with extending the life cycle of older Fedora Core distributions and selected Red Hat Linux releases that were no longer officially maintained. Fedora Legacy was shut down in December 2006.

There are also third party repositories aimed at Fedora, like RPMforge and RPM Fusion, which contain software that cannot be put in the official repositories for licensing or support reasons.

Security features

Security is one of the most important features in Fedora. One of the security features in Fedora is Security-Enhanced Linux, a Linux feature that implements a variety of security policies, including mandatory access controls, through the use of Linux Security Modules (LSM) in the Linux kernel. Fedora is one of the distributions leading the way with SELinux. SELinux was introduced in Fedora Core 2. It was disabled by default, as it radically altered how the operating system worked, but was enabled by default in Fedora Core 3 and introduced a less strict, targeted policy.

Fedora also has methods in place to prevent some buffer overflow exploits and root kits from functioning. Compile time buffer checks, Exec Shield and restrictions on how kernel memory in /dev/mem can be accessed help to prevent this.

Releases

Fedora Core 1–4

Fedora Core 1 was the first version of Fedora and was released on November 6, 2003. It was codenamed Yarrow. Fedora Core 1 was based on Red Hat Linux 9 and shipped with version 2.4.19 of the Linux kernel, version 2.4 of the GNOME desktop environment, and version 3.1.4 of KDE (the K Desktop Environment).

Fedora Core 2 was released on May 18, 2004, codenamed Tettnang. It shipped with Linux 2.6, GNOME 2.6, KDE 3.2.2, and SELinux (SELinux was disabled by default due to concerns that it radically altered the way that Fedora Core ran). XFree86 was replaced by the newer X.org, a merger of the previous official X11R6 release, which additionally included a number of updates to Xrender, Xft, Xcursor, fontconfig libraries, and other significant improvements.

Fedora Core 3 was released on November 8, 2004, codenamed Heidelberg. This was the first release of Fedora Core to include the Mozilla Firefox web browser, as well as support for the Indic languages. This release also saw the LILO boot loader deprecated in favour of GRUB. SELinux was also enabled by default, but with a new targeted policy, which was less strict than the policy used in Fedora Core 2. Fedora Core 3 shipped with GNOME 2.8 and KDE 3.3. It was the first release to include the new Fedora Extras repository.

Fedora Core 4 was released on June 13, 2005, with the codename Stentz. It shipped with Linux 2.6.11, KDE 3.4 and GNOME 2.10. This version introduced the new Clearlooks theme, which was inspired by the Red Hat Bluecurve theme. It also shipped with the OpenOffice.org 2.0 office suite, as well as Xen, a high performance and secure open source virtualization framework. It also introduced support for the PowerPC CPU architecture, and over 80 new policies for SELinux.

None of these distributions are maintained by the Fedora Project.

Fedora Core 5–6

The last two cores introduced specific artwork that defined them. This is a trend that has continued in later Fedora versions.

Fedora Core 5 was released on March 20, 2006, with the codename Bordeaux, and introduced the Fedora Bubbles artwork. It was the first Fedora release to include Mono and tools built with it such as Beagle, F-Spot and Tomboy. It also introduced new package management tools such as pup and pirut (see Yellow dog Updater, Modified). It also was the first Fedora release not to include the long deprecated (but kept for compatibility) LinuxThreads, replaced by the Native POSIX Thread Library.

Fedora Core 6 was released on October 24, 2006, codenamed Zod. This release introduced the Fedora DNA artwork, replacing the Fedora Bubbles artwork used in Fedora Core 5. The codename is derived from the infamous villain, General Zod, from the Superman DC Comic Books. This version introduced support for the Compiz compositing window manager and AIGLX (a technology that enables GL-accelerated effects on a standard desktop). It shipped with Firefox 1.5 as the default web browser, and Smolt, a tool that allows users to inform developers about the hardware they use.

Neither of these distributions are maintained by the Fedora Project.

Fedora 7

Fedora 7, codenamed Moonshine, was released on May 31, 2007. The biggest difference between Fedora Core 6 and Fedora 7 was the merging of the Red Hat "Core" and Community "Extras" repositories, and the new build system put in place to manage those packages. This release used entirely new build and compose tools that enabled the user to create fully-customized Fedora distributions that could also include packages from any third party provider.

There are three official spins available for Fedora 7:

• Live – two Live CDs (one for GNOME and one for KDE);
• Fedora – a DVD that includes all the major packages available at shipping;
• Everything – simply an installation tree for use by yum and Internet installations.

Fedora 7 features GNOME 2.18 and KDE 3.5.6, a new theme entitled Flying High, OpenOffice.org 2.2 and Firefox 2.0. Fast user switching is, for the first time, fully integrated and enabled by default. Also, there were a number of updates to SELinux, including a new setroubleshoot tool for debugging SELinux security notifications, and a new, comprehensive system-config-selinux tool for fine-tuning the SELinux setup. As of 2008-06-13, Fedora 7 was no longer supported by the Fedora Project.

Fedora 8

Fedora 8, codenamed Werewolf, was released on November 8, 2007.

Some of the new features and updates in Fedora 8 include:

• PulseAudio – a sound daemon that allows different applications to control the audio. Fedora was the first distribution to enable it by default.
• system-config-firewall – a new firewall configuration tool that replaces system-config-securitylevel from previous releases.
• Codeina – a tool that guides users using content under proprietary or patent encumbered formats to purchase codecs from fluendo; it is an optional component that may be uninstalled in favor of Gstreamer codec plug-ins from Livna which are free of charge.
• IcedTea – a project that attempts to bring OpenJDK to Fedora by replacing encumbered code.
• NetworkManager – faster, more reliable connections; better security (through the use of the keyring); clearer display of wireless networks; better D-Bus integration.
• Better laptop support – enhancements to the kernel to reduce battery load, disabling of background cron jobs when running on the battery, and additional wireless drivers.

Fedora 8 also includes a new desktop artwork entitled Infinity, and a new desktop theme called Nodoka. A unique feature of Infinity is that the wallpaper can change during the day to reflect the time of day.

In February 2008, a new Xfce Live CD "spin" was announced for the x86 and x86-64 architectures. This Live CD version uses the Xfce desktop environment, which aims to be fast and lightweight, while still being visually appealing and easy to use. Like the GNOME and KDE spins, the Xfce spin can be installed to the hard disk.

Fedora 9

Fedora 9, codenamed Sulphur, was released on May 13, 2008.

Some of the new features of Fedora 9 include:

• GNOME 2.22.
• KDE 4, which is the default interface as part of the KDE spin.
• OpenJDK 6 has replaced IcedTea.
• PackageKit is included as a front-end to yum, and as the default package manager.
• One Second X allows the X Window System to perform a cold start from the command line in nearly one second; similarly, shutdown of X should be as quick.
• Many improvements to the Anaconda installer; among these features, it now supports resizing ext2, ext3 and NTFS file systems, and can create and install Fedora to encrypted file systems.
• Firefox 3.0 beta 5 is included in this release, and the 3.0 package was released as an update the same day as the general release.
• Perl 5.10.0, which features a smaller memory footprint and other improvements.
• Data Persistence in USB images

Fedora 9 features a new artwork entitled Waves which, like Infinity in Fedora 8, changes the wallpaper to reflect the time of day.

Fedora 10

Fedora 10, codenamed "Cambridge", was released on November 25, 2008. It flaunts the new "Solar" artwork. Its features include:

• Web-based package installer similar to Linux Mint's
• Faster startup using Plymouth (instead of Red Hat Graphical Boot used in previous versions)
• Support for ext4 filesystem
• Sugar Desktop Environment
• GNOME 2.24
• KDE 4.1.2

Version history

Fedora gallery

• Fedora Core 1
• Fedora Core 4
• Fedora Core 5
• Fedora Core 6
• Fedora 7
• Fedora 8
• Fedora 9
• Fedora 10

Fedora-based distributions

Source: DistroWatch

• ASPLinux – a Russian Fedora based distribution which includes its own installer. ASPLinux also includes closed source NVIDIA and ATI drivers, and supports proprietary audio and video codecs.
• Aurora SPARC Linux – for the SPARC platform
• Berry Linux – a medium-sized Fedora based distribution that provides support for Japanese and English.
• BLAG Linux and GNU – a stripped down 1-CD Fedora with Debian's APT system
• Eeedora – for the Asus Eee PC
• Ekaaty – from Brazil
• Fox Linux – made in Italy, designed for basic home computing tasks such as browsing the Web, writing and printing documents, using multimedia and burning discs.
• Linpus
• Linux XP – a commercial Linux distribution aimed at replacing Windows XP as a home-use desktop operating system.
• MythDora – based around MythTV's media center capabilities.
• Nusantara – a Linux distribution supported by the Indonesian ministry of technology as a desktop operating system. It is a part of IGOS program (Indonesia Goes Open Source).
• Omega - Rahul Sundaram, Red Hat's Community Engineer, had added Livna Repository support which has non-free multimedia codecs such as MP3 decoding.
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux – enterprise Linux offering from Red Hat, which branches from the current Fedora baseline.
• Yellow Dog Linux – for the PowerPC platform.
• Vixta – focuses on easy-to-use Linux, with a custom KDE interface that resembles Windows Vista.
• Fedora Colinux - an easy to install and fully functional coLinux distribution based on Fedora Core 6 .

See also

• Fedora Project
• Livna
• Red Hat Linux

References

1. Jesse Keating (2008-05-13). "The Prophecy of the 9 comes true (Fedora 9 walks the earth!)". Fedora Project. Retrieved 2008-05-13.
2. Jesse Keating. "Cambridge (F-10) Preview Release announcement". Retrieved 2008-11-10.
3. ^ Max Spevack. "Fedora Project Leader Max Spevack Responds". Retrieved 2006-12-17.
4. "Fedora Project Objectives". 2006-12-19. Retrieved 2007-02-12.
5. Paul W. Frields (2008-05-12). "Fedora 9". Fedora Project. Retrieved 2008-07-27.
6. Nikesh Jauhari (2008-06-22). "Linus Torvalds uses Fedora 9". Retrieved 2008-09-10.
7. ^ "Fedora Project: Announcing New Direction". 2003-09-22. Retrieved 2007-10-18.
8. "The Fedora Project and Red Hat Enterprise Linux, part 4". 2006-08-22. Retrieved 2007-10-18.
9. "Fedora Network Proposal". Retrieved 2006-07-28.
10. "Red Hat Inc.'s Use of The Fedora Name". Retrieved 2006-07-28.
11. Fedora Project. "New Users – How Do I Download Installation Files?". Retrieved 2007-11-18.
12. Fedora Project. "Alternative Install Methods". Retrieved 2007-11-18.
13. CustomSpins - Fedora Project Wiki
14. Fedora Project (2007-11-19). "Custom Spins". Retrieved 2007-11-19.
15. ^ Stuart Ellis. "Software Management Tools in Fedora Core". Retrieved 2007-11-18.
16. Fedora Project. "APT and Fedora". Retrieved 2007-11-18.
17. Stuart Ellis. "Using Repositories". Retrieved 2007-11-18.
18. "Fedora 7". Retrieved 2007-01-17.
19. Fedora Project. "Fedora Legacy". Retrieved 2007-11-18.
20. David Eisenstein (2006-12-29). "Fedora Legacy shutting down". Retrieved 2007-11-18.
21. "Mandatory Access Control with SELinux" (PDF). Retrieved 2007-10-07.
22. ^ "Fedora Core 2 Release Notes". Retrieved 2007-10-19.
23. ^ "Fedora Core 3 Release Notes". Retrieved 2007-10-19.
24. ^ "Fedora Core 1 Release Notes". Retrieved 2007-10-19.
25. Red Hat (2003-11-06). "Announcing Fedora Core 1". Retrieved 2007-10-18.
26. ^ Red Hat (2004-05-18). "Presenting Fedora Core 2". Retrieved 2007-10-18.
27. ^ Red Hat (2004-11-08). "Announcing the release of Fedora Core 3". Retrieved 2007-10-18.
28. ^ Fedora Project (2005-06-13). "The Amazing Fedora Core 4!". Retrieved 2007-11-18.
29. ^ "Fedora Core 4 Release Notes". Fedora Project. Retrieved 2007-11-18.
30. ^ Fedora Project. "Releases". Retrieved 2008-06-23.
31. ^ "Announcing the release of Fedora Core 5". 2006-03-20. Retrieved 2007-10-18.
32. "Fedora Core 5 Release Notes". Retrieved 2007-10-18.
33. Fedora Project (2006-10-24). "Announcing Fedora Core 6 (Zod)". Retrieved 2007-10-18.
34. ^ Fedora Project. "Fedora Core 6 Release Notes". Retrieved 2007-10-18.
35. Red Hat. "Fedora status report: Announcing Zod". Retrieved 2007-10-18.
36. ^ Fedora Project (2007-05-31). "Announcing Fedora 7 (Moonshine)". Retrieved 2007-11-07.
37. ^ Fedora Project. "Fedora 7 Release Highlights". Retrieved 2007-11-18.
38. Paul W. Frields (2008-04-29). "Fedora 7 End of Life". Fedora Project. Retrieved 2008-06-23.
39. "Fedora Project Release Schedule". Retrieved 2007-10-07.
40. ^ "Fedora 8 Release Summary". 2007-11-07. Retrieved 2007-11-07.
41. ^ Rahul Sundaram (2008-02-13). "Announcing Fedora 8 Xfce Spin". Fedora Project. Retrieved 2008-05-17.
42. "Fedora 9 Release Notes". Fedora Project. Retrieved 2008-05-13.
43. Angel, Lillian (2008-03-13). "OpenJDK to replace IcedTea in Fedora 9". Retrieved 2008-04-05.
44. Wade, Karsten (2008-03-13). "OpenJDK in Fedora 9!". redhatmagazine.com. Retrieved 2008-04-05. Thomas Fitzsimmons updated the Fedora 9 release notes source pages to reflect that Fedora 9 would ship with OpenJDK 6 instead of the IcedTea implementation of OpenJDK 7. Fedora 9 (Sulphur) is due to release in May 2008.
45. "One Second X". Fedora Project. Retrieved 2008-05-09.
46. "Fedora 9 (Beta) Release Notes". Fedora Project. Retrieved 2008-01-04.
47. "How to create and use Live USB - FedoraProject". Fedoraproject.org. Retrieved 2008-12-01.
48. "Fedora 10 Release Schedule". The Fedora Project. 2008-09-24. Retrieved 2008-09-25.
49. "Fedora 10 Feature List". The Fedora Project. Retrieved 2008-11-30.
50. Fedora 11 Proposed Schedule

External links

• Fedora Project homepage
  • International Fedora Project sites
• Fedora at DistroWatch

Fedora

Fedora 10 running GNOME
Developer	Fedora Project
OS family	Unix-like
Working state	Current
Source model	Various
Initial release	2003-11-16
Latest release	10 / November 25, 2008 (2008-11-25)
Update method	Yum, Anaconda
Package manager	RPM Package Manager
Platforms	x86, x86-64, PowerPC
Kernel type	Monolithic
Default user interface	GNOME
License	Various
Official website	www.fedoraproject.org

Fedora is an RPM-based, general purpose operating system built on top of the Linux kernel, developed by the community-supported Fedora Project and sponsored by Red Hat. Fedora's mission statement is: "Fedora is about the rapid progress of Free and Open Source software."

One of Fedora's main objectives is not only to contain free and open source software, but also to be on the leading edge of such technologies. Also, developers in Fedora prefer to make upstream changes instead of applying fixes specifically for Fedora — this ensures that updates are available to all Linux distributions.

Linus Torvalds, creator of the Linux kernel, says he uses Fedora because it had fairly good support for PowerPC when he used that processor architecture. He became accustomed to the operating system and continues to use it.

History

The Fedora Project was created in late 2003, when Red Hat Linux was discontinued. Red Hat Enterprise Linux was to be Red Hat's only officially supported Linux distribution, while Fedora was to be a community distribution. Red Hat Enterprise Linux branches its releases from versions of Fedora.

The name of Fedora derives from Fedora Linux, a volunteer project that provided extra software for the Red Hat Linux distribution, and from the characteristic fedora used in Red Hat's "Shadowman" logo. Fedora Linux was eventually absorbed into the Fedora Project. Fedora is a trademark of Red Hat. Although this has previously been disputed by the creators of the Fedora repository management software, the issue has now been resolved.

Features

Distribution

The Fedora Project distributes Fedora in several different ways:

• Fedora DVD – a DVD of all major Fedora packages at time of shipping;
• Live images – CD or DVD sized images that can be used to create a Live CD or install Fedora on a USB flash drive;
• Minimal CD or USB image – used for installing over HTTP, FTP or NFS
• Rescue CD or USB image – used if some part of the system has failed and needs to be fixed, or for installing over the Internet.

The Fedora Project also distributes custom variations of Fedora which are called Fedora spins. These are built from a specific set of software packages and have a combination of software to meet the requirements of a specific kind of end user. Fedora spins are developed by several Fedora special interest groups. It is also possible to create Live USB versions of Fedora using Fedora Live USB creator or UNetbootin.

Software package management is primarily handled by the yum utility. Graphical interfaces, such as pirut and pup are provided, as well as puplet, which provides visual notifications in the panel when updates are available. apt-rpm is an alternative to yum, and may be more familiar to people used to Debian or Debian-based distributions, where Advanced Packaging Tool is used to manage packages. Additionally, extra repositories can be added to the system, so that packages not available in Fedora can be installed.

Software repositories

It has been suggested that RPMforge and Talk:Fedora (operating system)#RPMforge Merge proposal be merged into this article. (Discuss) Proposed since December 2008.

It has been suggested that RPM Fusion and Talk:Fedora (operating system)#RPMforge Merge proposal be merged into this article. (Discuss) Proposed since January 2008.

Before Fedora 7, there were two main repositories – Core and Extras. Fedora Core contained all the base packages that were required by the operating system, as well as other packages that were distributed along with the installation CD/DVDs, and was maintained only by Red Hat developers. Fedora Extras, the secondary repository that was included from Fedora Core 3, was community-maintained and not distributed along with the installation CD/DVDs. Since Fedora 7, the Core and Extras repositories have been merged, hence the distribution's dropping the Core from its name. That also allowed for community submissions of packages that were formerly allowed only by Red Hat developers.

Also prior to Fedora 7 being released, there was a third repository called Fedora Legacy. This repository was community-maintained and was mainly concerned with extending the life cycle of older Fedora Core distributions and selected Red Hat Linux releases that were no longer officially maintained. Fedora Legacy was shut down in December 2006.

There are also third party repositories aimed at Fedora, like RPMforge and RPM Fusion, which contain software that cannot be put in the official repositories for licensing or support reasons.

Security features

Security is one of the most important features in Fedora. One of the security features in Fedora is Security-Enhanced Linux, a Linux feature that implements a variety of security policies, including mandatory access controls, through the use of Linux Security Modules (LSM) in the Linux kernel. Fedora is one of the distributions leading the way with SELinux. SELinux was introduced in Fedora Core 2. It was disabled by default, as it radically altered how the operating system worked, but was enabled by default in Fedora Core 3 and introduced a less strict, targeted policy.

Fedora also has methods in place to prevent some buffer overflow exploits and root kits from functioning. Compile time buffer checks, Exec Shield and restrictions on how kernel memory in /dev/mem can be accessed help to prevent this.

Releases

Fedora Core 1–4

Fedora Core 1 was the first version of Fedora and was released on November 6, 2003. It was codenamed Yarrow. Fedora Core 1 was based on Red Hat Linux 9 and shipped with version 2.4.19 of the Linux kernel, version 2.4 of the GNOME desktop environment, and version 3.1.4 of KDE (the K Desktop Environment).

Fedora Core 2 was released on May 18, 2004, codenamed Tettnang. It shipped with Linux 2.6, GNOME 2.6, KDE 3.2.2, and SELinux (SELinux was disabled by default due to concerns that it radically altered the way that Fedora Core ran). XFree86 was replaced by the newer X.org, a merger of the previous official X11R6 release, which additionally included a number of updates to Xrender, Xft, Xcursor, fontconfig libraries, and other significant improvements.

Fedora Core 3 was released on November 8, 2004, codenamed Heidelberg. This was the first release of Fedora Core to include the Mozilla Firefox web browser, as well as support for the Indic languages. This release also saw the LILO boot loader deprecated in favour of GRUB. SELinux was also enabled by default, but with a new targeted policy, which was less strict than the policy used in Fedora Core 2. Fedora Core 3 shipped with GNOME 2.8 and KDE 3.3. It was the first release to include the new Fedora Extras repository.

Fedora Core 4 was released on June 13, 2005, with the codename Stentz. It shipped with Linux 2.6.11, KDE 3.4 and GNOME 2.10. This version introduced the new Clearlooks theme, which was inspired by the Red Hat Bluecurve theme. It also shipped with the OpenOffice.org 2.0 office suite, as well as Xen, a high performance and secure open source virtualization framework. It also introduced support for the PowerPC CPU architecture, and over 80 new policies for SELinux.

None of these distributions are maintained by the Fedora Project.

Fedora Core 5–6

The last two cores introduced specific artwork that defined them. This is a trend that has continued in later Fedora versions.

Fedora Core 5 was released on March 20, 2006, with the codename Bordeaux, and introduced the Fedora Bubbles artwork. It was the first Fedora release to include Mono and tools built with it such as Beagle, F-Spot and Tomboy. It also introduced new package management tools such as pup and pirut (see Yellow dog Updater, Modified). It also was the first Fedora release not to include the long deprecated (but kept for compatibility) LinuxThreads, replaced by the Native POSIX Thread Library.

Fedora Core 6 was released on October 24, 2006, codenamed Zod. This release introduced the Fedora DNA artwork, replacing the Fedora Bubbles artwork used in Fedora Core 5. The codename is derived from the infamous villain, General Zod, from the Superman DC Comic Books. This version introduced support for the Compiz compositing window manager and AIGLX (a technology that enables GL-accelerated effects on a standard desktop). It shipped with Firefox 1.5 as the default web browser, and Smolt, a tool that allows users to inform developers about the hardware they use.

Neither of these distributions are maintained by the Fedora Project.

Fedora 7

Fedora 7, codenamed Moonshine, was released on May 31, 2007. The biggest difference between Fedora Core 6 and Fedora 7 was the merging of the Red Hat "Core" and Community "Extras" repositories, and the new build system put in place to manage those packages. This release used entirely new build and compose tools that enabled the user to create fully-customized Fedora distributions that could also include packages from any third party provider.

There are three official spins available for Fedora 7:

• Live – two Live CDs (one for GNOME and one for KDE);
• Fedora – a DVD that includes all the major packages available at shipping;
• Everything – simply an installation tree for use by yum and Internet installations.

Fedora 7 features GNOME 2.18 and KDE 3.5.6, a new theme entitled Flying High, OpenOffice.org 2.2 and Firefox 2.0. Fast user switching is, for the first time, fully integrated and enabled by default. Also, there were a number of updates to SELinux, including a new setroubleshoot tool for debugging SELinux security notifications, and a new, comprehensive system-config-selinux tool for fine-tuning the SELinux setup. As of 2008-06-13, Fedora 7 was no longer supported by the Fedora Project.

Fedora 8

Fedora 8, codenamed Werewolf, was released on November 8, 2007.

Some of the new features and updates in Fedora 8 include:

• PulseAudio – a sound daemon that allows different applications to control the audio. Fedora was the first distribution to enable it by default.
• system-config-firewall – a new firewall configuration tool that replaces system-config-securitylevel from previous releases.
• Codeina – a tool that guides users using content under proprietary or patent encumbered formats to purchase codecs from fluendo; it is an optional component that may be uninstalled in favor of Gstreamer codec plug-ins from Livna which are free of charge.
• IcedTea – a project that attempts to bring OpenJDK to Fedora by replacing encumbered code.
• NetworkManager – faster, more reliable connections; better security (through the use of the keyring); clearer display of wireless networks; better D-Bus integration.
• Better laptop support – enhancements to the kernel to reduce battery load, disabling of background cron jobs when running on the battery, and additional wireless drivers.

Fedora 8 also includes a new desktop artwork entitled Infinity, and a new desktop theme called Nodoka. A unique feature of Infinity is that the wallpaper can change during the day to reflect the time of day.

In February 2008, a new Xfce Live CD "spin" was announced for the x86 and x86-64 architectures. This Live CD version uses the Xfce desktop environment, which aims to be fast and lightweight, while still being visually appealing and easy to use. Like the GNOME and KDE spins, the Xfce spin can be installed to the hard disk.

Fedora 9

Fedora 9, codenamed Sulphur, was released on May 13, 2008.

Some of the new features of Fedora 9 include:

• GNOME 2.22.
• KDE 4, which is the default interface as part of the KDE spin.
• OpenJDK 6 has replaced IcedTea.
• PackageKit is included as a front-end to yum, and as the default package manager.
• One Second X allows the X Window System to perform a cold start from the command line in nearly one second; similarly, shutdown of X should be as quick.
• Many improvements to the Anaconda installer; among these features, it now supports resizing ext2, ext3 and NTFS file systems, and can create and install Fedora to encrypted file systems.
• Firefox 3.0 beta 5 is included in this release, and the 3.0 package was released as an update the same day as the general release.
• Perl 5.10.0, which features a smaller memory footprint and other improvements.
• Data Persistence in USB images

Fedora 9 features a new artwork entitled Waves which, like Infinity in Fedora 8, changes the wallpaper to reflect the time of day.

Fedora 10

Fedora 10, codenamed "Cambridge", was released on November 25, 2008. It flaunts the new "Solar" artwork. Its features include:

• Web-based package installer similar to Linux Mint's
• Faster startup using Plymouth (instead of Red Hat Graphical Boot used in previous versions)
• Support for ext4 filesystem
• Sugar Desktop Environment
• GNOME 2.24
• KDE 4.1.2

Version history

Fedora gallery

• Fedora Core 1
• Fedora Core 4
• Fedora Core 5
• Fedora Core 6
• Fedora 7
• Fedora 8
• Fedora 9
• Fedora 10

Fedora-based distributions

Source: DistroWatch

• ASPLinux – a Russian Fedora based distribution which includes its own installer. ASPLinux also includes closed source NVIDIA and ATI drivers, and supports proprietary audio and video codecs.
• Aurora SPARC Linux – for the SPARC platform
• Berry Linux – a medium-sized Fedora based distribution that provides support for Japanese and English.
• BLAG Linux and GNU – a stripped down 1-CD Fedora with Debian's APT system
• Eeedora – for the Asus Eee PC
• Ekaaty – from Brazil
• Fox Linux – made in Italy, designed for basic home computing tasks such as browsing the Web, writing and printing documents, using multimedia and burning discs.
• Linpus
• Linux XP – a commercial Linux distribution aimed at replacing Windows XP as a home-use desktop operating system.
• MythDora – based around MythTV's media center capabilities.
• Nusantara – a Linux distribution supported by the Indonesian ministry of technology as a desktop operating system. It is a part of IGOS program (Indonesia Goes Open Source).
• Omega - Rahul Sundaram, Red Hat's Community Engineer, had added Livna Repository support which has non-free multimedia codecs such as MP3 decoding.
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux – enterprise Linux offering from Red Hat, which branches from the current Fedora baseline.
• Yellow Dog Linux – for the PowerPC platform.
• Vixta – focuses on easy-to-use Linux, with a custom KDE interface that resembles Windows Vista.
• Fedora Colinux - an easy to install and fully functional coLinux distribution based on Fedora Core 6 .

See also

• Fedora Project
• Livna
• Red Hat Linux

References

1. Jesse Keating (2008-05-13). "The Prophecy of the 9 comes true (Fedora 9 walks the earth!)". Fedora Project. Retrieved 2008-05-13.
2. Jesse Keating. "Cambridge (F-10) Preview Release announcement". Retrieved 2008-11-10.
3. ^ Max Spevack. "Fedora Project Leader Max Spevack Responds". Retrieved 2006-12-17.
4. "Fedora Project Objectives". 2006-12-19. Retrieved 2007-02-12.
5. Paul W. Frields (2008-05-12). "Fedora 9". Fedora Project. Retrieved 2008-07-27.
6. Nikesh Jauhari (2008-06-22). "Linus Torvalds uses Fedora 9". Retrieved 2008-09-10.
7. ^ "Fedora Project: Announcing New Direction". 2003-09-22. Retrieved 2007-10-18.
8. "The Fedora Project and Red Hat Enterprise Linux, part 4". 2006-08-22. Retrieved 2007-10-18.
9. "Fedora Network Proposal". Retrieved 2006-07-28.
10. "Red Hat Inc.'s Use of The Fedora Name". Retrieved 2006-07-28.
11. Fedora Project. "New Users – How Do I Download Installation Files?". Retrieved 2007-11-18.
12. Fedora Project. "Alternative Install Methods". Retrieved 2007-11-18.
13. CustomSpins - Fedora Project Wiki
14. Fedora Project (2007-11-19). "Custom Spins". Retrieved 2007-11-19.
15. ^ Stuart Ellis. "Software Management Tools in Fedora Core". Retrieved 2007-11-18.
16. Fedora Project. "APT and Fedora". Retrieved 2007-11-18.
17. Stuart Ellis. "Using Repositories". Retrieved 2007-11-18.
18. "Fedora 7". Retrieved 2007-01-17.
19. Fedora Project. "Fedora Legacy". Retrieved 2007-11-18.
20. David Eisenstein (2006-12-29). "Fedora Legacy shutting down". Retrieved 2007-11-18.
21. "Mandatory Access Control with SELinux" (PDF). Retrieved 2007-10-07.
22. ^ "Fedora Core 2 Release Notes". Retrieved 2007-10-19.
23. ^ "Fedora Core 3 Release Notes". Retrieved 2007-10-19.
24. ^ "Fedora Core 1 Release Notes". Retrieved 2007-10-19.
25. Red Hat (2003-11-06). "Announcing Fedora Core 1". Retrieved 2007-10-18.
26. ^ Red Hat (2004-05-18). "Presenting Fedora Core 2". Retrieved 2007-10-18.
27. ^ Red Hat (2004-11-08). "Announcing the release of Fedora Core 3". Retrieved 2007-10-18.
28. ^ Fedora Project (2005-06-13). "The Amazing Fedora Core 4!". Retrieved 2007-11-18.
29. ^ "Fedora Core 4 Release Notes". Fedora Project. Retrieved 2007-11-18.
30. ^ Fedora Project. "Releases". Retrieved 2008-06-23.
31. ^ "Announcing the release of Fedora Core 5". 2006-03-20. Retrieved 2007-10-18.
32. "Fedora Core 5 Release Notes". Retrieved 2007-10-18.
33. Fedora Project (2006-10-24). "Announcing Fedora Core 6 (Zod)". Retrieved 2007-10-18.
34. ^ Fedora Project. "Fedora Core 6 Release Notes". Retrieved 2007-10-18.
35. Red Hat. "Fedora status report: Announcing Zod". Retrieved 2007-10-18.
36. ^ Fedora Project (2007-05-31). "Announcing Fedora 7 (Moonshine)". Retrieved 2007-11-07.
37. ^ Fedora Project. "Fedora 7 Release Highlights". Retrieved 2007-11-18.
38. Paul W. Frields (2008-04-29). "Fedora 7 End of Life". Fedora Project. Retrieved 2008-06-23.
39. "Fedora Project Release Schedule". Retrieved 2007-10-07.
40. ^ "Fedora 8 Release Summary". 2007-11-07. Retrieved 2007-11-07.
41. ^ Rahul Sundaram (2008-02-13). "Announcing Fedora 8 Xfce Spin". Fedora Project. Retrieved 2008-05-17.
42. "Fedora 9 Release Notes". Fedora Project. Retrieved 2008-05-13.
43. Angel, Lillian (2008-03-13). "OpenJDK to replace IcedTea in Fedora 9". Retrieved 2008-04-05.
44. Wade, Karsten (2008-03-13). "OpenJDK in Fedora 9!". redhatmagazine.com. Retrieved 2008-04-05. Thomas Fitzsimmons updated the Fedora 9 release notes source pages to reflect that Fedora 9 would ship with OpenJDK 6 instead of the IcedTea implementation of OpenJDK 7. Fedora 9 (Sulphur) is due to release in May 2008.
45. "One Second X". Fedora Project. Retrieved 2008-05-09.
46. "Fedora 9 (Beta) Release Notes". Fedora Project. Retrieved 2008-01-04.
47. "How to create and use Live USB - FedoraProject". Fedoraproject.org. Retrieved 2008-12-01.
48. "Fedora 10 Release Schedule". The Fedora Project. 2008-09-24. Retrieved 2008-09-25.
49. "Fedora 10 Feature List". The Fedora Project. Retrieved 2008-11-30.
50. Fedora 11 Proposed Schedule

External links

• Fedora Project homepage
  • International Fedora Project sites
• Fedora at DistroWatch

Fedora

Fedora 10 running GNOME
Developer	Fedora Project
OS family	Unix-like
Working state	Current
Source model	Various
Initial release	2003-11-16
Latest release	10 / November 25, 2008 (2008-11-25)
Update method	Yum, Anaconda
Package manager	RPM Package Manager
Platforms	x86, x86-64, PowerPC
Kernel type	Monolithic
Default user interface	GNOME
License	Various
Official website	www.fedoraproject.org

Fedora is an RPM-based, general purpose operating system built on top of the Linux kernel, developed by the community-supported Fedora Project and sponsored by Red Hat. Fedora's mission statement is: "Fedora is about the rapid progress of Free and Open Source software."

One of Fedora's main objectives is not only to contain free and open source software, but also to be on the leading edge of such technologies. Also, developers in Fedora prefer to make upstream changes instead of applying fixes specifically for Fedora — this ensures that updates are available to all Linux distributions.

Linus Torvalds, creator of the Linux kernel, says he uses Fedora because it had fairly good support for PowerPC when he used that processor architecture. He became accustomed to the operating system and continues to use it.

History

The Fedora Project was created in late 2003, when Red Hat Linux was discontinued. Red Hat Enterprise Linux was to be Red Hat's only officially supported Linux distribution, while Fedora was to be a community distribution. Red Hat Enterprise Linux branches its releases from versions of Fedora.

The name of Fedora derives from Fedora Linux, a volunteer project that provided extra software for the Red Hat Linux distribution, and from the characteristic fedora used in Red Hat's "Shadowman" logo. Fedora Linux was eventually absorbed into the Fedora Project. Fedora is a trademark of Red Hat. Although this has previously been disputed by the creators of the Fedora repository management software, the issue has now been resolved.

Features

Distribution

The Fedora Project distributes Fedora in several different ways:

• Fedora DVD – a DVD of all major Fedora packages at time of shipping;
• Live images – CD or DVD sized images that can be used to create a Live CD or install Fedora on a USB flash drive;
• Minimal CD or USB image – used for installing over HTTP, FTP or NFS
• Rescue CD or USB image – used if some part of the system has failed and needs to be fixed, or for installing over the Internet.

The Fedora Project also distributes custom variations of Fedora which are called Fedora spins. These are built from a specific set of software packages and have a combination of software to meet the requirements of a specific kind of end user. Fedora spins are developed by several Fedora special interest groups. It is also possible to create Live USB versions of Fedora using Fedora Live USB creator or UNetbootin.

Software package management is primarily handled by the yum utility. Graphical interfaces, such as pirut and pup are provided, as well as puplet, which provides visual notifications in the panel when updates are available. apt-rpm is an alternative to yum, and may be more familiar to people used to Debian or Debian-based distributions, where Advanced Packaging Tool is used to manage packages. Additionally, extra repositories can be added to the system, so that packages not available in Fedora can be installed.

Software repositories

It has been suggested that RPMforge and Talk:Fedora (operating system)#RPMforge Merge proposal be merged into this article. (Discuss) Proposed since December 2008.

It has been suggested that RPM Fusion and Talk:Fedora (operating system)#RPMforge Merge proposal be merged into this article. (Discuss) Proposed since January 2008.

Before Fedora 7, there were two main repositories – Core and Extras. Fedora Core contained all the base packages that were required by the operating system, as well as other packages that were distributed along with the installation CD/DVDs, and was maintained only by Red Hat developers. Fedora Extras, the secondary repository that was included from Fedora Core 3, was community-maintained and not distributed along with the installation CD/DVDs. Since Fedora 7, the Core and Extras repositories have been merged, hence the distribution's dropping the Core from its name. That also allowed for community submissions of packages that were formerly allowed only by Red Hat developers.

Also prior to Fedora 7 being released, there was a third repository called Fedora Legacy. This repository was community-maintained and was mainly concerned with extending the life cycle of older Fedora Core distributions and selected Red Hat Linux releases that were no longer officially maintained. Fedora Legacy was shut down in December 2006.

There are also third party repositories aimed at Fedora, like RPMforge and RPM Fusion, which contain software that cannot be put in the official repositories for licensing or support reasons.

Security features

Security is one of the most important features in Fedora. One of the security features in Fedora is Security-Enhanced Linux, a Linux feature that implements a variety of security policies, including mandatory access controls, through the use of Linux Security Modules (LSM) in the Linux kernel. Fedora is one of the distributions leading the way with SELinux. SELinux was introduced in Fedora Core 2. It was disabled by default, as it radically altered how the operating system worked, but was enabled by default in Fedora Core 3 and introduced a less strict, targeted policy.

Fedora also has methods in place to prevent some buffer overflow exploits and root kits from functioning. Compile time buffer checks, Exec Shield and restrictions on how kernel memory in /dev/mem can be accessed help to prevent this.

Releases

Fedora Core 1–4

Fedora Core 1 was the first version of Fedora and was released on November 6, 2003. It was codenamed Yarrow. Fedora Core 1 was based on Red Hat Linux 9 and shipped with version 2.4.19 of the Linux kernel, version 2.4 of the GNOME desktop environment, and version 3.1.4 of KDE (the K Desktop Environment).

Fedora Core 2 was released on May 18, 2004, codenamed Tettnang. It shipped with Linux 2.6, GNOME 2.6, KDE 3.2.2, and SELinux (SELinux was disabled by default due to concerns that it radically altered the way that Fedora Core ran). XFree86 was replaced by the newer X.org, a merger of the previous official X11R6 release, which additionally included a number of updates to Xrender, Xft, Xcursor, fontconfig libraries, and other significant improvements.

Fedora Core 3 was released on November 8, 2004, codenamed Heidelberg. This was the first release of Fedora Core to include the Mozilla Firefox web browser, as well as support for the Indic languages. This release also saw the LILO boot loader deprecated in favour of GRUB. SELinux was also enabled by default, but with a new targeted policy, which was less strict than the policy used in Fedora Core 2. Fedora Core 3 shipped with GNOME 2.8 and KDE 3.3. It was the first release to include the new Fedora Extras repository.

Fedora Core 4 was released on June 13, 2005, with the codename Stentz. It shipped with Linux 2.6.11, KDE 3.4 and GNOME 2.10. This version introduced the new Clearlooks theme, which was inspired by the Red Hat Bluecurve theme. It also shipped with the OpenOffice.org 2.0 office suite, as well as Xen, a high performance and secure open source virtualization framework. It also introduced support for the PowerPC CPU architecture, and over 80 new policies for SELinux.

None of these distributions are maintained by the Fedora Project.

Fedora Core 5–6

The last two cores introduced specific artwork that defined them. This is a trend that has continued in later Fedora versions.

Fedora Core 5 was released on March 20, 2006, with the codename Bordeaux, and introduced the Fedora Bubbles artwork. It was the first Fedora release to include Mono and tools built with it such as Beagle, F-Spot and Tomboy. It also introduced new package management tools such as pup and pirut (see Yellow dog Updater, Modified). It also was the first Fedora release not to include the long deprecated (but kept for compatibility) LinuxThreads, replaced by the Native POSIX Thread Library.

Fedora Core 6 was released on October 24, 2006, codenamed Zod. This release introduced the Fedora DNA artwork, replacing the Fedora Bubbles artwork used in Fedora Core 5. The codename is derived from the infamous villain, General Zod, from the Superman DC Comic Books. This version introduced support for the Compiz compositing window manager and AIGLX (a technology that enables GL-accelerated effects on a standard desktop). It shipped with Firefox 1.5 as the default web browser, and Smolt, a tool that allows users to inform developers about the hardware they use.

Neither of these distributions are maintained by the Fedora Project.

Fedora 7

Fedora 7, codenamed Moonshine, was released on May 31, 2007. The biggest difference between Fedora Core 6 and Fedora 7 was the merging of the Red Hat "Core" and Community "Extras" repositories, and the new build system put in place to manage those packages. This release used entirely new build and compose tools that enabled the user to create fully-customized Fedora distributions that could also include packages from any third party provider.

There are three official spins available for Fedora 7:

• Live – two Live CDs (one for GNOME and one for KDE);
• Fedora – a DVD that includes all the major packages available at shipping;
• Everything – simply an installation tree for use by yum and Internet installations.

Fedora 7 features GNOME 2.18 and KDE 3.5.6, a new theme entitled Flying High, OpenOffice.org 2.2 and Firefox 2.0. Fast user switching is, for the first time, fully integrated and enabled by default. Also, there were a number of updates to SELinux, including a new setroubleshoot tool for debugging SELinux security notifications, and a new, comprehensive system-config-selinux tool for fine-tuning the SELinux setup. As of 2008-06-13, Fedora 7 was no longer supported by the Fedora Project.

Fedora 8

Fedora 8, codenamed Werewolf, was released on November 8, 2007.

Some of the new features and updates in Fedora 8 include:

• PulseAudio – a sound daemon that allows different applications to control the audio. Fedora was the first distribution to enable it by default.
• system-config-firewall – a new firewall configuration tool that replaces system-config-securitylevel from previous releases.
• Codeina – a tool that guides users using content under proprietary or patent encumbered formats to purchase codecs from fluendo; it is an optional component that may be uninstalled in favor of Gstreamer codec plug-ins from Livna which are free of charge.
• IcedTea – a project that attempts to bring OpenJDK to Fedora by replacing encumbered code.
• NetworkManager – faster, more reliable connections; better security (through the use of the keyring); clearer display of wireless networks; better D-Bus integration.
• Better laptop support – enhancements to the kernel to reduce battery load, disabling of background cron jobs when running on the battery, and additional wireless drivers.

Fedora 8 also includes a new desktop artwork entitled Infinity, and a new desktop theme called Nodoka. A unique feature of Infinity is that the wallpaper can change during the day to reflect the time of day.

In February 2008, a new Xfce Live CD "spin" was announced for the x86 and x86-64 architectures. This Live CD version uses the Xfce desktop environment, which aims to be fast and lightweight, while still being visually appealing and easy to use. Like the GNOME and KDE spins, the Xfce spin can be installed to the hard disk.

Fedora 9

Fedora 9, codenamed Sulphur, was released on May 13, 2008.

Some of the new features of Fedora 9 include:

• GNOME 2.22.
• KDE 4, which is the default interface as part of the KDE spin.
• OpenJDK 6 has replaced IcedTea.
• PackageKit is included as a front-end to yum, and as the default package manager.
• One Second X allows the X Window System to perform a cold start from the command line in nearly one second; similarly, shutdown of X should be as quick.
• Many improvements to the Anaconda installer; among these features, it now supports resizing ext2, ext3 and NTFS file systems, and can create and install Fedora to encrypted file systems.
• Firefox 3.0 beta 5 is included in this release, and the 3.0 package was released as an update the same day as the general release.
• Perl 5.10.0, which features a smaller memory footprint and other improvements.
• Data Persistence in USB images

Fedora 9 features a new artwork entitled Waves which, like Infinity in Fedora 8, changes the wallpaper to reflect the time of day.

Fedora 10

Fedora 10, codenamed "Cambridge", was released on November 25, 2008. It flaunts the new "Solar" artwork. Its features include:

• Web-based package installer similar to Linux Mint's
• Faster startup using Plymouth (instead of Red Hat Graphical Boot used in previous versions)
• Support for ext4 filesystem
• Sugar Desktop Environment
• GNOME 2.24
• KDE 4.1.2

Version history

Fedora gallery

• Fedora Core 1
• Fedora Core 4
• Fedora Core 5
• Fedora Core 6
• Fedora 7
• Fedora 8
• Fedora 9
• Fedora 10

Fedora-based distributions

Source: DistroWatch

• ASPLinux – a Russian Fedora based distribution which includes its own installer. ASPLinux also includes closed source NVIDIA and ATI drivers, and supports proprietary audio and video codecs.
• Aurora SPARC Linux – for the SPARC platform
• Berry Linux – a medium-sized Fedora based distribution that provides support for Japanese and English.
• BLAG Linux and GNU – a stripped down 1-CD Fedora with Debian's APT system
• Eeedora – for the Asus Eee PC
• Ekaaty – from Brazil
• Fox Linux – made in Italy, designed for basic home computing tasks such as browsing the Web, writing and printing documents, using multimedia and burning discs.
• Linpus
• Linux XP – a commercial Linux distribution aimed at replacing Windows XP as a home-use desktop operating system.
• MythDora – based around MythTV's media center capabilities.
• Nusantara – a Linux distribution supported by the Indonesian ministry of technology as a desktop operating system. It is a part of IGOS program (Indonesia Goes Open Source).
• Omega - Rahul Sundaram, Red Hat's Community Engineer, had added Livna Repository support which has non-free multimedia codecs such as MP3 decoding.
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux – enterprise Linux offering from Red Hat, which branches from the current Fedora baseline.
• Yellow Dog Linux – for the PowerPC platform.
• Vixta – focuses on easy-to-use Linux, with a custom KDE interface that resembles Windows Vista.
• Fedora Colinux - an easy to install and fully functional coLinux distribution based on Fedora Core 6 .

See also

• Fedora Project
• Livna
• Red Hat Linux

References

1. Jesse Keating (2008-05-13). "The Prophecy of the 9 comes true (Fedora 9 walks the earth!)". Fedora Project. Retrieved 2008-05-13.
2. Jesse Keating. "Cambridge (F-10) Preview Release announcement". Retrieved 2008-11-10.
3. ^ Max Spevack. "Fedora Project Leader Max Spevack Responds". Retrieved 2006-12-17.
4. "Fedora Project Objectives". 2006-12-19. Retrieved 2007-02-12.
5. Paul W. Frields (2008-05-12). "Fedora 9". Fedora Project. Retrieved 2008-07-27.
6. Nikesh Jauhari (2008-06-22). "Linus Torvalds uses Fedora 9". Retrieved 2008-09-10.
7. ^ "Fedora Project: Announcing New Direction". 2003-09-22. Retrieved 2007-10-18.
8. "The Fedora Project and Red Hat Enterprise Linux, part 4". 2006-08-22. Retrieved 2007-10-18.
9. "Fedora Network Proposal". Retrieved 2006-07-28.
10. "Red Hat Inc.'s Use of The Fedora Name". Retrieved 2006-07-28.
11. Fedora Project. "New Users – How Do I Download Installation Files?". Retrieved 2007-11-18.
12. Fedora Project. "Alternative Install Methods". Retrieved 2007-11-18.
13. CustomSpins - Fedora Project Wiki
14. Fedora Project (2007-11-19). "Custom Spins". Retrieved 2007-11-19.
15. ^ Stuart Ellis. "Software Management Tools in Fedora Core". Retrieved 2007-11-18.
16. Fedora Project. "APT and Fedora". Retrieved 2007-11-18.
17. Stuart Ellis. "Using Repositories". Retrieved 2007-11-18.
18. "Fedora 7". Retrieved 2007-01-17.
19. Fedora Project. "Fedora Legacy". Retrieved 2007-11-18.
20. David Eisenstein (2006-12-29). "Fedora Legacy shutting down". Retrieved 2007-11-18.
21. "Mandatory Access Control with SELinux" (PDF). Retrieved 2007-10-07.
22. ^ "Fedora Core 2 Release Notes". Retrieved 2007-10-19.
23. ^ "Fedora Core 3 Release Notes". Retrieved 2007-10-19.
24. ^ "Fedora Core 1 Release Notes". Retrieved 2007-10-19.
25. Red Hat (2003-11-06). "Announcing Fedora Core 1". Retrieved 2007-10-18.
26. ^ Red Hat (2004-05-18). "Presenting Fedora Core 2". Retrieved 2007-10-18.
27. ^ Red Hat (2004-11-08). "Announcing the release of Fedora Core 3". Retrieved 2007-10-18.
28. ^ Fedora Project (2005-06-13). "The Amazing Fedora Core 4!". Retrieved 2007-11-18.
29. ^ "Fedora Core 4 Release Notes". Fedora Project. Retrieved 2007-11-18.
30. ^ Fedora Project. "Releases". Retrieved 2008-06-23.
31. ^ "Announcing the release of Fedora Core 5". 2006-03-20. Retrieved 2007-10-18.
32. "Fedora Core 5 Release Notes". Retrieved 2007-10-18.
33. Fedora Project (2006-10-24). "Announcing Fedora Core 6 (Zod)". Retrieved 2007-10-18.
34. ^ Fedora Project. "Fedora Core 6 Release Notes". Retrieved 2007-10-18.
35. Red Hat. "Fedora status report: Announcing Zod". Retrieved 2007-10-18.
36. ^ Fedora Project (2007-05-31). "Announcing Fedora 7 (Moonshine)". Retrieved 2007-11-07.
37. ^ Fedora Project. "Fedora 7 Release Highlights". Retrieved 2007-11-18.
38. Paul W. Frields (2008-04-29). "Fedora 7 End of Life". Fedora Project. Retrieved 2008-06-23.
39. "Fedora Project Release Schedule". Retrieved 2007-10-07.
40. ^ "Fedora 8 Release Summary". 2007-11-07. Retrieved 2007-11-07.
41. ^ Rahul Sundaram (2008-02-13). "Announcing Fedora 8 Xfce Spin". Fedora Project. Retrieved 2008-05-17.
42. "Fedora 9 Release Notes". Fedora Project. Retrieved 2008-05-13.
43. Angel, Lillian (2008-03-13). "OpenJDK to replace IcedTea in Fedora 9". Retrieved 2008-04-05.
44. Wade, Karsten (2008-03-13). "OpenJDK in Fedora 9!". redhatmagazine.com. Retrieved 2008-04-05. Thomas Fitzsimmons updated the Fedora 9 release notes source pages to reflect that Fedora 9 would ship with OpenJDK 6 instead of the IcedTea implementation of OpenJDK 7. Fedora 9 (Sulphur) is due to release in May 2008.
45. "One Second X". Fedora Project. Retrieved 2008-05-09.
46. "Fedora 9 (Beta) Release Notes". Fedora Project. Retrieved 2008-01-04.
47. "How to create and use Live USB - FedoraProject". Fedoraproject.org. Retrieved 2008-12-01.
48. "Fedora 10 Release Schedule". The Fedora Project. 2008-09-24. Retrieved 2008-09-25.
49. "Fedora 10 Feature List". The Fedora Project. Retrieved 2008-11-30.
50. Fedora 11 Proposed Schedule

External links

• Fedora Project homepage
  • International Fedora Project sites
• Fedora at DistroWatch

Fedora

Fedora 10 running GNOME
Developer	Fedora Project
OS family	Unix-like
Working state	Current
Source model	Various
Initial release	2003-11-16
Latest release	10 / November 25, 2008 (2008-11-25)
Update method	Yum, Anaconda
Package manager	RPM Package Manager
Platforms	x86, x86-64, PowerPC
Kernel type	Monolithic
Default user interface	GNOME
License	Various
Official website	www.fedoraproject.org

Fedora is an RPM-based, general purpose operating system built on top of the Linux kernel, developed by the community-supported Fedora Project and sponsored by Red Hat. Fedora's mission statement is: "Fedora is about the rapid progress of Free and Open Source software."

One of Fedora's main objectives is not only to contain free and open source software, but also to be on the leading edge of such technologies. Also, developers in Fedora prefer to make upstream changes instead of applying fixes specifically for Fedora — this ensures that updates are available to all Linux distributions.

Linus Torvalds, creator of the Linux kernel, says he uses Fedora because it had fairly good support for PowerPC when he used that processor architecture. He became accustomed to the operating system and continues to use it.

History

The Fedora Project was created in late 2003, when Red Hat Linux was discontinued. Red Hat Enterprise Linux was to be Red Hat's only officially supported Linux distribution, while Fedora was to be a community distribution. Red Hat Enterprise Linux branches its releases from versions of Fedora.

The name of Fedora derives from Fedora Linux, a volunteer project that provided extra software for the Red Hat Linux distribution, and from the characteristic fedora used in Red Hat's "Shadowman" logo. Fedora Linux was eventually absorbed into the Fedora Project. Fedora is a trademark of Red Hat. Although this has previously been disputed by the creators of the Fedora repository management software, the issue has now been resolved.

Features

Distribution

The Fedora Project distributes Fedora in several different ways:

• Fedora DVD – a DVD of all major Fedora packages at time of shipping;
• Live images – CD or DVD sized images that can be used to create a Live CD or install Fedora on a USB flash drive;
• Minimal CD or USB image – used for installing over HTTP, FTP or NFS
• Rescue CD or USB image – used if some part of the system has failed and needs to be fixed, or for installing over the Internet.

The Fedora Project also distributes custom variations of Fedora which are called Fedora spins. These are built from a specific set of software packages and have a combination of software to meet the requirements of a specific kind of end user. Fedora spins are developed by several Fedora special interest groups. It is also possible to create Live USB versions of Fedora using Fedora Live USB creator or UNetbootin.

Software package management is primarily handled by the yum utility. Graphical interfaces, such as pirut and pup are provided, as well as puplet, which provides visual notifications in the panel when updates are available. apt-rpm is an alternative to yum, and may be more familiar to people used to Debian or Debian-based distributions, where Advanced Packaging Tool is used to manage packages. Additionally, extra repositories can be added to the system, so that packages not available in Fedora can be installed.

Software repositories

It has been suggested that RPMforge and Talk:Fedora (operating system)#RPMforge Merge proposal be merged into this article. (Discuss) Proposed since December 2008.

It has been suggested that RPM Fusion and Talk:Fedora (operating system)#RPMforge Merge proposal be merged into this article. (Discuss) Proposed since January 2008.

Before Fedora 7, there were two main repositories – Core and Extras. Fedora Core contained all the base packages that were required by the operating system, as well as other packages that were distributed along with the installation CD/DVDs, and was maintained only by Red Hat developers. Fedora Extras, the secondary repository that was included from Fedora Core 3, was community-maintained and not distributed along with the installation CD/DVDs. Since Fedora 7, the Core and Extras repositories have been merged, hence the distribution's dropping the Core from its name. That also allowed for community submissions of packages that were formerly allowed only by Red Hat developers.

Also prior to Fedora 7 being released, there was a third repository called Fedora Legacy. This repository was community-maintained and was mainly concerned with extending the life cycle of older Fedora Core distributions and selected Red Hat Linux releases that were no longer officially maintained. Fedora Legacy was shut down in December 2006.

There are also third party repositories aimed at Fedora, like RPMforge and RPM Fusion, which contain software that cannot be put in the official repositories for licensing or support reasons.

Security features

Security is one of the most important features in Fedora. One of the security features in Fedora is Security-Enhanced Linux, a Linux feature that implements a variety of security policies, including mandatory access controls, through the use of Linux Security Modules (LSM) in the Linux kernel. Fedora is one of the distributions leading the way with SELinux. SELinux was introduced in Fedora Core 2. It was disabled by default, as it radically altered how the operating system worked, but was enabled by default in Fedora Core 3 and introduced a less strict, targeted policy.

Fedora also has methods in place to prevent some buffer overflow exploits and root kits from functioning. Compile time buffer checks, Exec Shield and restrictions on how kernel memory in /dev/mem can be accessed help to prevent this.

Releases

Fedora Core 1–4

Fedora Core 1 was the first version of Fedora and was released on November 6, 2003. It was codenamed Yarrow. Fedora Core 1 was based on Red Hat Linux 9 and shipped with version 2.4.19 of the Linux kernel, version 2.4 of the GNOME desktop environment, and version 3.1.4 of KDE (the K Desktop Environment).

Fedora Core 2 was released on May 18, 2004, codenamed Tettnang. It shipped with Linux 2.6, GNOME 2.6, KDE 3.2.2, and SELinux (SELinux was disabled by default due to concerns that it radically altered the way that Fedora Core ran). XFree86 was replaced by the newer X.org, a merger of the previous official X11R6 release, which additionally included a number of updates to Xrender, Xft, Xcursor, fontconfig libraries, and other significant improvements.

Fedora Core 3 was released on November 8, 2004, codenamed Heidelberg. This was the first release of Fedora Core to include the Mozilla Firefox web browser, as well as support for the Indic languages. This release also saw the LILO boot loader deprecated in favour of GRUB. SELinux was also enabled by default, but with a new targeted policy, which was less strict than the policy used in Fedora Core 2. Fedora Core 3 shipped with GNOME 2.8 and KDE 3.3. It was the first release to include the new Fedora Extras repository.

Fedora Core 4 was released on June 13, 2005, with the codename Stentz. It shipped with Linux 2.6.11, KDE 3.4 and GNOME 2.10. This version introduced the new Clearlooks theme, which was inspired by the Red Hat Bluecurve theme. It also shipped with the OpenOffice.org 2.0 office suite, as well as Xen, a high performance and secure open source virtualization framework. It also introduced support for the PowerPC CPU architecture, and over 80 new policies for SELinux.

None of these distributions are maintained by the Fedora Project.

Fedora Core 5–6

The last two cores introduced specific artwork that defined them. This is a trend that has continued in later Fedora versions.

Fedora Core 5 was released on March 20, 2006, with the codename Bordeaux, and introduced the Fedora Bubbles artwork. It was the first Fedora release to include Mono and tools built with it such as Beagle, F-Spot and Tomboy. It also introduced new package management tools such as pup and pirut (see Yellow dog Updater, Modified). It also was the first Fedora release not to include the long deprecated (but kept for compatibility) LinuxThreads, replaced by the Native POSIX Thread Library.

Fedora Core 6 was released on October 24, 2006, codenamed Zod. This release introduced the Fedora DNA artwork, replacing the Fedora Bubbles artwork used in Fedora Core 5. The codename is derived from the infamous villain, General Zod, from the Superman DC Comic Books. This version introduced support for the Compiz compositing window manager and AIGLX (a technology that enables GL-accelerated effects on a standard desktop). It shipped with Firefox 1.5 as the default web browser, and Smolt, a tool that allows users to inform developers about the hardware they use.

Neither of these distributions are maintained by the Fedora Project.

Fedora 7

Fedora 7, codenamed Moonshine, was released on May 31, 2007. The biggest difference between Fedora Core 6 and Fedora 7 was the merging of the Red Hat "Core" and Community "Extras" repositories, and the new build system put in place to manage those packages. This release used entirely new build and compose tools that enabled the user to create fully-customized Fedora distributions that could also include packages from any third party provider.

There are three official spins available for Fedora 7:

• Live – two Live CDs (one for GNOME and one for KDE);
• Fedora – a DVD that includes all the major packages available at shipping;
• Everything – simply an installation tree for use by yum and Internet installations.

Fedora 7 features GNOME 2.18 and KDE 3.5.6, a new theme entitled Flying High, OpenOffice.org 2.2 and Firefox 2.0. Fast user switching is, for the first time, fully integrated and enabled by default. Also, there were a number of updates to SELinux, including a new setroubleshoot tool for debugging SELinux security notifications, and a new, comprehensive system-config-selinux tool for fine-tuning the SELinux setup. As of 2008-06-13, Fedora 7 was no longer supported by the Fedora Project.

Fedora 8

Fedora 8, codenamed Werewolf, was released on November 8, 2007.

Some of the new features and updates in Fedora 8 include:

• PulseAudio – a sound daemon that allows different applications to control the audio. Fedora was the first distribution to enable it by default.
• system-config-firewall – a new firewall configuration tool that replaces system-config-securitylevel from previous releases.
• Codeina – a tool that guides users using content under proprietary or patent encumbered formats to purchase codecs from fluendo; it is an optional component that may be uninstalled in favor of Gstreamer codec plug-ins from Livna which are free of charge.
• IcedTea – a project that attempts to bring OpenJDK to Fedora by replacing encumbered code.
• NetworkManager – faster, more reliable connections; better security (through the use of the keyring); clearer display of wireless networks; better D-Bus integration.
• Better laptop support – enhancements to the kernel to reduce battery load, disabling of background cron jobs when running on the battery, and additional wireless drivers.

Fedora 8 also includes a new desktop artwork entitled Infinity, and a new desktop theme called Nodoka. A unique feature of Infinity is that the wallpaper can change during the day to reflect the time of day.

In February 2008, a new Xfce Live CD "spin" was announced for the x86 and x86-64 architectures. This Live CD version uses the Xfce desktop environment, which aims to be fast and lightweight, while still being visually appealing and easy to use. Like the GNOME and KDE spins, the Xfce spin can be installed to the hard disk.

Fedora 9

Fedora 9, codenamed Sulphur, was released on May 13, 2008.

Some of the new features of Fedora 9 include:

• GNOME 2.22.
• KDE 4, which is the default interface as part of the KDE spin.
• OpenJDK 6 has replaced IcedTea.
• PackageKit is included as a front-end to yum, and as the default package manager.
• One Second X allows the X Window System to perform a cold start from the command line in nearly one second; similarly, shutdown of X should be as quick.
• Many improvements to the Anaconda installer; among these features, it now supports resizing ext2, ext3 and NTFS file systems, and can create and install Fedora to encrypted file systems.
• Firefox 3.0 beta 5 is included in this release, and the 3.0 package was released as an update the same day as the general release.
• Perl 5.10.0, which features a smaller memory footprint and other improvements.
• Data Persistence in USB images

Fedora 9 features a new artwork entitled Waves which, like Infinity in Fedora 8, changes the wallpaper to reflect the time of day.

Fedora 10

Fedora 10, codenamed "Cambridge", was released on November 25, 2008. It flaunts the new "Solar" artwork. Its features include:

• Web-based package installer similar to Linux Mint's
• Faster startup using Plymouth (instead of Red Hat Graphical Boot used in previous versions)
• Support for ext4 filesystem
• Sugar Desktop Environment
• GNOME 2.24
• KDE 4.1.2

Version history

Fedora gallery

• Fedora Core 1
• Fedora Core 4
• Fedora Core 5
• Fedora Core 6
• Fedora 7
• Fedora 8
• Fedora 9
• Fedora 10

Fedora-based distributions

Source: DistroWatch

• ASPLinux – a Russian Fedora based distribution which includes its own installer. ASPLinux also includes closed source NVIDIA and ATI drivers, and supports proprietary audio and video codecs.
• Aurora SPARC Linux – for the SPARC platform
• Berry Linux – a medium-sized Fedora based distribution that provides support for Japanese and English.
• BLAG Linux and GNU – a stripped down 1-CD Fedora with Debian's APT system
• Eeedora – for the Asus Eee PC
• Ekaaty – from Brazil
• Fox Linux – made in Italy, designed for basic home computing tasks such as browsing the Web, writing and printing documents, using multimedia and burning discs.
• Linpus
• Linux XP – a commercial Linux distribution aimed at replacing Windows XP as a home-use desktop operating system.
• MythDora – based around MythTV's media center capabilities.
• Nusantara – a Linux distribution supported by the Indonesian ministry of technology as a desktop operating system. It is a part of IGOS program (Indonesia Goes Open Source).
• Omega - Rahul Sundaram, Red Hat's Community Engineer, had added Livna Repository support which has non-free multimedia codecs such as MP3 decoding.
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux – enterprise Linux offering from Red Hat, which branches from the current Fedora baseline.
• Yellow Dog Linux – for the PowerPC platform.
• Vixta – focuses on easy-to-use Linux, with a custom KDE interface that resembles Windows Vista.
• Fedora Colinux - an easy to install and fully functional coLinux distribution based on Fedora Core 6 .

See also

• Fedora Project
• Livna
• Red Hat Linux

References

1. Jesse Keating (2008-05-13). "The Prophecy of the 9 comes true (Fedora 9 walks the earth!)". Fedora Project. Retrieved 2008-05-13.
2. Jesse Keating. "Cambridge (F-10) Preview Release announcement". Retrieved 2008-11-10.
3. ^ Max Spevack. "Fedora Project Leader Max Spevack Responds". Retrieved 2006-12-17.
4. "Fedora Project Objectives". 2006-12-19. Retrieved 2007-02-12.
5. Paul W. Frields (2008-05-12). "Fedora 9". Fedora Project. Retrieved 2008-07-27.
6. Nikesh Jauhari (2008-06-22). "Linus Torvalds uses Fedora 9". Retrieved 2008-09-10.
7. ^ "Fedora Project: Announcing New Direction". 2003-09-22. Retrieved 2007-10-18.
8. "The Fedora Project and Red Hat Enterprise Linux, part 4". 2006-08-22. Retrieved 2007-10-18.
9. "Fedora Network Proposal". Retrieved 2006-07-28.
10. "Red Hat Inc.'s Use of The Fedora Name". Retrieved 2006-07-28.
11. Fedora Project. "New Users – How Do I Download Installation Files?". Retrieved 2007-11-18.
12. Fedora Project. "Alternative Install Methods". Retrieved 2007-11-18.
13. CustomSpins - Fedora Project Wiki
14. Fedora Project (2007-11-19). "Custom Spins". Retrieved 2007-11-19.
15. ^ Stuart Ellis. "Software Management Tools in Fedora Core". Retrieved 2007-11-18.
16. Fedora Project. "APT and Fedora". Retrieved 2007-11-18.
17. Stuart Ellis. "Using Repositories". Retrieved 2007-11-18.
18. "Fedora 7". Retrieved 2007-01-17.
19. Fedora Project. "Fedora Legacy". Retrieved 2007-11-18.
20. David Eisenstein (2006-12-29). "Fedora Legacy shutting down". Retrieved 2007-11-18.
21. "Mandatory Access Control with SELinux" (PDF). Retrieved 2007-10-07.
22. ^ "Fedora Core 2 Release Notes". Retrieved 2007-10-19.
23. ^ "Fedora Core 3 Release Notes". Retrieved 2007-10-19.
24. ^ "Fedora Core 1 Release Notes". Retrieved 2007-10-19.
25. Red Hat (2003-11-06). "Announcing Fedora Core 1". Retrieved 2007-10-18.
26. ^ Red Hat (2004-05-18). "Presenting Fedora Core 2". Retrieved 2007-10-18.
27. ^ Red Hat (2004-11-08). "Announcing the release of Fedora Core 3". Retrieved 2007-10-18.
28. ^ Fedora Project (2005-06-13). "The Amazing Fedora Core 4!". Retrieved 2007-11-18.
29. ^ "Fedora Core 4 Release Notes". Fedora Project. Retrieved 2007-11-18.
30. ^ Fedora Project. "Releases". Retrieved 2008-06-23.
31. ^ "Announcing the release of Fedora Core 5". 2006-03-20. Retrieved 2007-10-18.
32. "Fedora Core 5 Release Notes". Retrieved 2007-10-18.
33. Fedora Project (2006-10-24). "Announcing Fedora Core 6 (Zod)". Retrieved 2007-10-18.
34. ^ Fedora Project. "Fedora Core 6 Release Notes". Retrieved 2007-10-18.
35. Red Hat. "Fedora status report: Announcing Zod". Retrieved 2007-10-18.
36. ^ Fedora Project (2007-05-31). "Announcing Fedora 7 (Moonshine)". Retrieved 2007-11-07.
37. ^ Fedora Project. "Fedora 7 Release Highlights". Retrieved 2007-11-18.
38. Paul W. Frields (2008-04-29). "Fedora 7 End of Life". Fedora Project. Retrieved 2008-06-23.
39. "Fedora Project Release Schedule". Retrieved 2007-10-07.
40. ^ "Fedora 8 Release Summary". 2007-11-07. Retrieved 2007-11-07.
41. ^ Rahul Sundaram (2008-02-13). "Announcing Fedora 8 Xfce Spin". Fedora Project. Retrieved 2008-05-17.
42. "Fedora 9 Release Notes". Fedora Project. Retrieved 2008-05-13.
43. Angel, Lillian (2008-03-13). "OpenJDK to replace IcedTea in Fedora 9". Retrieved 2008-04-05.
44. Wade, Karsten (2008-03-13). "OpenJDK in Fedora 9!". redhatmagazine.com. Retrieved 2008-04-05. Thomas Fitzsimmons updated the Fedora 9 release notes source pages to reflect that Fedora 9 would ship with OpenJDK 6 instead of the IcedTea implementation of OpenJDK 7. Fedora 9 (Sulphur) is due to release in May 2008.
45. "One Second X". Fedora Project. Retrieved 2008-05-09.
46. "Fedora 9 (Beta) Release Notes". Fedora Project. Retrieved 2008-01-04.
47. "How to create and use Live USB - FedoraProject". Fedoraproject.org. Retrieved 2008-12-01.
48. "Fedora 10 Release Schedule". The Fedora Project. 2008-09-24. Retrieved 2008-09-25.
49. "Fedora 10 Feature List". The Fedora Project. Retrieved 2008-11-30.
50. Fedora 11 Proposed Schedule

External links

• Fedora Project homepage
  • International Fedora Project sites
• Fedora at DistroWatch

Template:Beta software

Windows 7 (formerly codenamed Blackcomb and Vienna) is the next release of Microsoft Windows, an operating system produced by Microsoft for use on personal computers, including home and business desktops, laptops, Tablet PCs, and media center PCs.

Microsoft stated in 2007 that it is planning Windows 7 development for a three-year time frame starting after the release of its predecessor, Windows Vista, but that the final release date will be determined by product quality.

Unlike its predecessor, Windows 7 is intended to be an incremental upgrade with the goal of being fully compatible with existing device drivers, applications, and hardware. Presentations given by the company in 2008 have focused on multi-touch support, a redesigned Windows Shell with a new taskbar, a home networking system called HomeGroup, and performance improvements. Some applications that have been included with prior releases of Microsoft Windows, most notably Windows Mail, Windows Calendar, Windows Movie Maker, and Windows Photo Gallery, are no longer included with the operating system; they are instead offered separately (free of charge) as part of the Windows Live Essentials suite.

Development

Originally, a version of Windows codenamed Blackcomb was planned as the successor to Windows XP and Windows Server 2003. Major features were planned for Blackcomb, including an emphasis on searching and querying data and an advanced storage system named WinFS to enable such scenarios. Later, Blackcomb was delayed and an interim, minor release, codenamed "Longhorn" was announced for 2003. By the middle of 2003, however, Longhorn had acquired some of the features originally intended for Blackcomb. After three major viruses exploited flaws in Windows operating systems within a short time period in 2003, Microsoft changed its development priorities, putting some of Longhorn's major development work on hold in order to develop new service packs for Windows XP and Windows Server 2003. Development of Longhorn was also "reset" in September 2004.

Blackcomb was renamed Vienna in early 2006, and again to Windows 7 in 2007. In 2008, it was announced that Windows 7 would also be the official name of the operating system.

Bill Gates, in an interview with Newsweek, suggested that the next version of Windows would "be more user-centric." Gates later said that Windows 7 will also focus on performance improvements; Steven Sinofsky later expanded on this point, explaining in the Engineering Windows 7 blog that the company was using a variety of new tracing tools to measure the performance of many areas of the operating system on an ongoing basis, to help locate inefficient code paths and to help prevent performance regressions.

Senior Vice President Bill Veghte stated that Windows 7 will not have the kind of compatibility issues with Windows Vista that Vista has with previous versions. Speaking about Windows 7 on 16 October 2008, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer confirmed compatibility between Vista and Windows 7. Ballmer also confirmed the relationship between Vista and Windows 7, indicating that Windows 7 will be an improved version of Vista.

On 27 December 2008 Windows 7 Beta was leaked onto the Internet. According to a performance test by ZDNet, Windows 7 Beta has beaten both Windows XP and Vista in several key areas, including boot and shutting down time, working with files and loading documents. On 07 January 2009, the 64-bit version of the Windows 7 Beta (Build 7000) was leaked onto the web.

The official beta, announced at the CES 2009, was made available to MSDN and TechNet subscribers on 07 January 2009 and was made briefly available for public download on Microsoft TechNet on 09 January 2009 before being withdrawn and placed with a coming soon message. The servers were experiencing difficulty in dealing with the number of users who wished to download the beta. Microsoft had to add additional servers to cope with the large volume of interest from the public. As of 18:00 GMT Saturday 10th January, the Windows 7 download servers were back online. Due to the unexpectedly high demand, Microsoft has decided to remove its initial 2.5 million download limit and make it available to the public until January 24th 2009.

Features

New and changed features

Windows 7 includes a number of new features, such as advances in touch, speech, and handwriting recognition, support for virtual hard disks, improved performance on multi-core processors, improved boot performance, and kernel improvements.

Windows 7 adds support for systems using multiple heterogeneous graphics cards from different vendors, a new version of Windows Media Center, Gadgets being integrated into Windows Explorer, a Gadget for Windows Media Center, the ability to visually pin and unpin items from the Start Menu and Taskbar, improved media features, the XPS Essentials Pack being integrated, Windows PowerShell Integrated Scripting Environment (ISE), and a redesigned Calculator with multiline capabilities including Programmer and Statistics modes along with unit conversion.

Many new items have been added to the Control Panel including: ClearType Text Tuner, Display Color Calibration Wizard, Gadgets, Recovery, Troubleshooting, Workspaces Center, Location and Other Sensors, Credential Manager, Biometric Devices, System Icons, Action Center, and Display. Windows Security Center has been renamed the Windows Action Center (Windows Health Center and Windows Solution Center in earlier builds) which encompasses both security and maintenance of the computer.

The taskbar has seen the biggest visual changes, where the Quick Launch toolbar has been merged with the task buttons to create an enhanced taskbar or what Microsoft internally refers to as the "Superbar". This enhanced taskbar also enables the Jump Lists feature to allow easy access to common tasks. The revamped taskbar also allows the reordering of taskbar buttons.

Screenshots have appeared demonstrating a new feature called 'Peek'. Peek is a quick way of making all visible windows transparent for a quick look at the desktop. A Microsoft spokesman said that "this will be useful for users who want a quick look at the news" in reference to RSS gadgets on the desktop.

For developers, Windows 7 includes a new networking API with support for building SOAP based web services in native code (as opposed to .NET based WCF web services), new features to shorten application install times, reduced UAC prompts, simplified development of installation packages, and improved globalization support through a new Extended Linguistic Services API.

At WinHEC 2008 Microsoft announced that color depths of 30-bit and 48-bit would be supported in Windows 7 along with the wide color gamut scRGB (which for HDMI 1.3 can be converted and output as xvYCC). The video modes supported in Windows 7 are 16-bit sRGB, 24-bit sRGB, 30-bit sRGB, 30-bit with extended color gamut sRGB, and 48-bit scRGB.

Removed features

It has been suggested that Features removed from Windows 7 be merged into this article. (Discuss) Proposed since January 2009.

• In Windows 7, Windows Mail, Windows Calendar, Windows Photo Gallery, and Windows Movie Maker are part of Windows Live Essentials.
• InkBall
• Windows Meeting Space
• Windows Sidebar (Gadgets will remain, sitting freely on the Desktop)

Games

Windows 7 removes InkBall and adds online versions of Spades, Backgammon and Checkers.

Antitrust regulatory attention

As with other Microsoft operating systems, Windows 7 is being studied by federal regulators who oversee the company's operations following the 2001 United States v. Microsoft settlement. According to status reports filed, the three-member panel began assessing prototypes of the new operating system in February 2008. Michael Gartenberg, an analyst at Jupiter Research said that, " challenge for Windows 7 will be how can they continue to add features that consumers will want that also don't run afoul of regulators."

Editions

Windows 7 (like Vista) will have 4 editions. Below you will see the difference between the Vista and Windows 7 names:

Windows Vista - Home Basic , Home Premium , Business , Ultimate
Windows 7 - Home Basic , Home Premium , Professional , Ultimate

The Windows 7 Beta (Build 7000) installs Ultimate Edition by default.

See also

• History of Microsoft Windows
• Comparison of Microsoft Windows versions
• Direct2D

References

1. http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/07/microsoft-announces-availability-of-windows-7-beta-and-windows-l/
2. "Cnet: Next version of Windows: Call it 7 Windows 7 was released for beta testing on January 9th 2009 but due to high demand and very slow download it has been removed and will be back up soon. Or as the website said "Thanks for your interest in the Windows 7 Beta. The volume has been phenomenal -- we're in the process of adding more servers to handle the demand. We're sorry for the delay and we'll re-post the Beta as soon as we can ensure a quality download experience." http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/evalcenter/dd353205.aspx". {{cite web}}: External link in |title= (help)
3. ^ Foley, Mary J (20 July 2007). "Windows Seven: Think 2010". ZDNet. Retrieved 2007-09-19. Cite error: The named reference "zdnet592" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
4. Nash, Mike (28 October 2008). "Windows 7 Unveiled Today at PDC 2008". Windows Team Blog. Microsoft. Retrieved 2008-11-11.
5. LeBlanc, Brandon (28 October 2008). "How Libraries & HomeGroup Work Together in Windows 7". Windows Team Blog. Microsoft. Retrieved 2008-11-11.
6. LeBlance, Brandon (28 October 2008). "The Complete Windows Experience – Windows 7 + Windows Live". Windows Team Blog. Microsoft. Retrieved 2008-11-11.
7. Lettice, John (2001-10-24). "Gates confirms Windows Longhorn for 2003". The Register. Retrieved 2008-03-05.
8. Thurrott, Paul (14 February 2007). "Windows "7" FAQ". Paul Thurrott's SuperSite for Windows. Retrieved 2008-01-05.
9. Fried, Ina (2008-10-13). "Microsoft makes Windows 7 name final". CNET. Retrieved 2008-10-13.
10. Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (2008). "For Microsoft's Windows, 7th time's a charm". Retrieved 2008-10-27. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
11. Steven Levy (3 February 2007). "Bill Gates on Vista and Apple's 'Lying' Ads".
12. Bill Gates (12 May 2007). "Bill Gates: Japan—Windows Digital Lifestyle Consortium".
13. Sinofsky, Steven (15 December, 2008). "Continuing our discussion on performance". Engineering Windows 7. Microsoft. Retrieved 2008-12-18. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
14. Marius Oiaga (24 June 2008). "Windows 7 Will Not Inherit the Incompatibility Issues of Vista".
15. ^ Dignan, Larry (2008). "Ballmer: It's ok to wait until Windows 7; Yahoo still 'makes sense'; Google Apps 'primitive'". Retrieved 2008-10-17. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
16. http://www.osnews.com/story/20703/Windows_7_Beta_1_Leaked
17. http://blogs.zdnet.com/hardware/?p=3236&page=2
18. Pennington, Kenneth (2009). "Windows 7 64-Bit Beta Hits the Web". Retrieved 2009-1-07. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
19. "The Windows 7 Beta Kicks Off This Week". 2009. Retrieved 2009-1-07. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
20. http://www.networkworld.com/reviews/2009/010809-windows-7-beta-shows-off.html
21. "Windows 7 Team Blog Information on Downloading and Installing Windows 7 Beta". Retrieved 2009-01-08. {{cite web}}: |first= has numeric name (help); |first= missing |last= (help)
22. LeBlanc, Brandon (10 January 2009). "Here's where we stand". The Windows Team Blog. Microsoft. Retrieved 2009-01-10.
23. http://www.windowsvienna.com/windows-7-takes-more-advantage-of-multi-core-cpus-a24.html
24. http://blogs.zdnet.com/microsoft/?p=1612
25. http://www.pctipsbox.com/windows-7-to-get-parallel-processing-tweaks/
26. http://vista.blorge.com/2008/09/30/windows-7-enters-parallel-universe/
27. Gruener, Wolfgang (2008-01-16). "TG Daily — Windows Vista successor scheduled for a H2 2009 release?". TG Daily. Retrieved 2008-01-17.
28. ThinkNext.net: Screenshots from a blogger with Windows 7 M1
29. Softpedia (2008). "Windows 7 User Interface – The Superbar (Enhanced Taskbar)". Retrieved 2008-11-12. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
30. Windows 7: Some Minor Improvements, No Game Changer
31. "Windows 7: Web Services in Native Code". PDC 2008. Retrieved 2008-09-26.
32. "Windows 7: Deploying Your Application with Windows Installer (MSI) and ClickOnce". PDC 2008. Retrieved 2008-09-26.
33. "Windows 7: Writing World-Ready Applications". PDC 2008. Retrieved 2008-09-26.
34. "WinHEC 2008 GRA-583: Display Technologies". Microsoft. 2008-11-06. Retrieved 2008-12-04.
35. "Windows 7 High Color Support". Softpedia. 2008-11-26. Retrieved 2008-12-05.
36. Keizer, Gregg F. (2008). "Windows 7 eyed by antitrust regulators". Retrieved 2008-03-19. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)

External links

• Official Windows 7 Website - Microsoft
• Engineering Windows 7 - MSDN Blogs
• The Windows 7 Blog for Developers - MSDN Blogs
• - Windows 7 Customer Preview Download

Windows 7 Beta Download: (Available until 1/24/09)

• Download Windows 7 Beta with Product Key - 64x (Login here first)
• Download Windows 7 Beta with Product Key - 32x (Login here first)
• Download Windows 7 with Product Key in MSDN

• Articles to be merged from December 2008
• Articles to be merged from January 2008
• Fedora Project
• RPM-based Linux distributions
• X86-64 Linux distributions
• Articles to be merged from January 2009
• Windows 7