Fedora 20 Is Now Ready For Testing

The Alpha release contains all the exciting features of Fedora 20 in a form that anyone can help test. This testing, guided by the Fedora QA team, helps us target and identify bugs. When these bugs are fixed, we make a Beta release available. A Beta release is code-complete and bears a very strong resemblance to the third and final release. The final release of Fedora 20 is expected in early December.

We need your help to make Fedora 20 the best release yet, so please take some time to download and try out the Alpha and make sure the things that are important to you are working. If you find a bug, please report it – every bug you uncover is a chance to improve the experience for millions of Fedora users worldwide. Together, we can make Fedora a rock-solid distribution. We have a culture of coordinating new features and pushing fixes upstream as much as feasible and your feedback will help improve not only Fedora but Linux and free software on the whole. (See the end of this announcement for more information on how to help.)

Fedora is a linux distribution which is used among desktop users, hardware design, gaming, musicians and artists. The Fedora 20 “Heisenbug” alpha release has arrived with many new features and fixes. Also this Alpha release of Fedora 20 includes many changes such as Bluez 5 migration, gpk-update-viewer and gpk-application replacment by a new application etc. The Fedora 20 Boost 1.54 Uplift change brings Boost 1.54.0 to Fedora 20. I know fedora guys are curious about other changes so I will list more changes in this article. You can find them listed below.

– No Default Syslog (No longer install a traditional syslog service by default. Specifically, remove rsyslog from the @core or @standard groups in comps.)
– No Default Sendmail(No longer install an MTA by default. Specifically let’s remove sendmail from @core and @standard comps groups.)
– python-setuptools update to 0.7.x and greater (Update to a new upstream release of python-setuptools that is not completely compatible with previous releases. The python-setuptools “major” version may be higher than 0.7.x as there’s some other structural changes happening that should not affect API.)
– Visible Cloud (With Fedora 19’s First Class Cloud Images feature, we have Amazon EC2 and downloadable cloud images (in qcow2 and raw.xz format) produced and released together with the traditional desktop installer and and livecd images. Now, let’s go to the next level and present the cloud images as equal options.)
– Web Assets (JavaScript have been swept under the rug. This change proposal provides a simple framework for shipping static web content and a way forward to treat JavaScript more closely to other code in the distribution.)

Ok, now it is time to tell you guys about some developer goodies included in this Fedora 20 Alpha Release. Perl and Ruby on Rails, attention please! Fedora always takes care of developers. Ruby on Rail and Perl developers will get support by Fedora 20 and this is a very good news for all developers out there.

Do you want to know some details about Ruby on Rail and Perl in Fedora 20?

Ruby on Rails 4.0 bring improved functionality, speed. security and better modularization. Fedora 20 comes with Ruby on Rails 4.0 which ensure that Ruby on Rails Developers stay up to date with their language and get support for system-packaged Ruby on Rails of the latest version. Rails 4.0 brings speed, improved functionality and security to the game. Ah, i forgot, it also bring better modularization.

What about Perl developers?

Fedora 20 comes with perl 5.18 version brings a lot of changes done over a year of development.

GNOME 3.10, will be available as a preview in Fedora 20 Alpha and it will have many new features and applications such as new music application (gnome-music), a new maps application (gnome-maps), a revamp for the system status menu, and Zimbra support in Evolution. So Gnome Lovers, Be Happy!

Reference: https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/F20_Alpha_release_announcement