The Fedora Project is pleased to announce the immediate availability of
Fedora 25 Beta, the next big step on our journey to the exciting Fedora
25 release in November.
Fedora's journey is not simply about updating one operating system with
the latest and greatest packages. It's also about innovation for the
many different platforms represented in the Fedora Project:
Workstation, Server, Atomic, and the various Spins. Coordinating the
efforts across the many working groups is no small task, and serves as
a testament to the talent and professionalism found within the Fedora
community.
Download the prerelease from our Get Fedora site:
* Get Fedora 25 Beta Workstation
https://getfedora.org/en/workstation/prerelease/
* Get Fedora 25 Beta Server
https://getfedora.org/en/server/prerelease/
Looking for Cloud edition? Check out the section on Fedora Atomic
below. Or, check out one of our popular variants:
* Get Fedora 25 Beta Spins
https://spins.fedoraproject.org/prerelease
* Get Fedora 25 Beta Labs
https://labs.fedoraproject.org/prerelease
* Get Fedora 25 Beta ARM
https://arm.fedoraproject.org/prerelease
What's New?
===========
As we move into this Beta phase of the Fedora 25 release cycle, what
can users expect?
Fedora-Wide Changes
===================
Some of the changes that will be seen across all aspects of Fedora
include:
* Docker updated to version 1.12
* Support for weaker certificate authorities (i.e., 1024-bit) has
been removed
* Node.js updated to version 6.x, providing a new and better version of
the popular server-side JavaScript engine
* "Secondary architectures" now known as "alternate architectures"
* Rust: Fedora 25 brings the support for the Rust programming
language. Rust is a system programming language which runs
blazingly fast, and prevents almost all crashes, segfaults, and
data races.
* Python: Alongside the "standard" Python versions included in
Fedora 25 (3.5 and 2.7), Python programmers can now install Python
3.4, 3.3, and 2.6 from the repositories to help them run test
suites on multiple Python versions, as well as on PyPy, PyPy3, and
Jython, which were already there.
Fedora Workstation
==================
The Workstation edition of Fedora 25 Beta is going to show off its
stuff, too:
* GNOME 3.22: Fedora 25 includes GNOME 3.22 in its pre-release and in
the Final version, coming soon. Helpful new features include multiple
file renaming, a redesigned keyboard settings tool, and many other UI
improvements across the environment. For full details, refer to the
GNOME 3.22 release notes. https://help.gnome.org/misc/release-notes/3.22/
* New Fedora media writer: The new Fedora Media Writer is a tool that
downloads the latest stable Fedora for you. It then helps you write it
to media such as a USB stick, so you can take Fedora for a spin on your
system. If you like what you see, you can install to your system from
the live environment. The Fedora Media Writer is available for Windows,
Mac OS, and Linux.
* Wayland has been under development for several years. While like most
software it still has some bugs, we believe it's ready to serve as a
default that works for many users. Users can still select the old X11
system if necessary to avoid a problem that affects them.
* Improved Flatpak support in the Software tool: The Software tool
has the ability to install, update, and remove Flatpak software where a
Fedora system is configured to point to a repo that offers it.
* GNOME Shell extensions are no longer checked for compatibility with
the current version of the Shell. This was originally required because
the GNOME interfaces were changing rapidly during the early days of
GNOME 3. Now these interfaces have stabilized, and extensions can
generally be expected to work with new releases. Any problems with an
extension should be reported to the author through the homepage, as
listed on the Extensions site.
Fedora Server
=============
Fedora 25 Server is also going to see some interesting changes in this
cycle, particularly in the Cockpit tool:
* SELinux Troubleshooter module: Cockpit now has a SELinux
Troubleshooter module similar to Fedora Workstation.
If a system encounters an SELinux denial, it will display information
about the issue as well as suggestions for correcting the issue if it
was unexpected. Without the module, an administrator has to notice a
denial occurred, dig through log files for the denial, and search for
workarounds. The SELinux Troubleshooter presents information clearly
and to the point all from the convenience of Cockpit.
* Displays host SSH keys in the system dashboard: Easy to see and
understand what SSH keys are added to the system for connecting to the
machine.
* Includes support for network teaming, Docker volume, and storage
management, as well as the creation of systemd timer units
* Supports multi-step (including two-factor) authentication
FreeIPA identity management system has also been upgraded to 4.4
series:
* Topology management: FreeIPA web UI can now be used to visually
manage topology graph for large deployments
* DNS sites: DNS management in FreeIPA now supports location-specific
placement of services
* Subordinate Certificate Authorities: FreeIPA Certificate Authority
now is able to create subordinate CAs to issue certificates with a
specific scope
* Kerberos Authentication Indicators: Kerberos KDC now takes
Authentication Indicators into account when issuing service tickets.
This allows, for example, to require two-factor authenticated Kerberos
credentials prior to obtaining tickets to a VPN service (supported by
OpenConnect Server).
* Client certificate authentication in Web UI: FreeIPA Web UI and API
end-points now can be configured to log-in with client certificates and
smart cards.
* Active Directory integration improvements: a number of features
were added for enterprise environments
* FreeIPA now supports alternative user principal names and suffixes
from Active Directory and allows FreeIPA users to have Kerberos
aliases
* Active Directory users can now manage own details through the command
line interface (CLI), including public SSH keys and certificates
- In case of trusting multiple Active Directory forests, FreeIPA
is now capable to automatically solve DNS namespace routing conflicts
- FreeIPA framework gained support for external plugins
- Performance of FreeIPA has been optimized for large environments
Fedora Atomic
=============
Fedora Atomic includes a base image suitable for creating virtual
machines, the Fedora Atomic Host image for creating hosts for container
deployment, and a Docker image. This aspect of Fedora represents some
of the most exciting changes, as we build more cloud- and
container-ready tools into Fedora to create a fantastic developer
platform. While Fedora 25 Atomic Host will not be a part of this beta
release, the Fedora Project plans to change Fedora Atomic Host to be on
Fedora 25 base on when generally available.
Fedora Atomic images have new persistent download points:
https://getfedora.org/atomic_qcow2_latest
https://getfedora.org/atomic_raw_latest
https://getfedora.org/atomic_vagrant_libvirt_latest
https://getfedora.org/atomic_vagrant_virtualbox_latest
"We chose to use Fedora Atomic as the base for our Navops Launch -
Kubernetes cluster provisioning solution because our customers trust
and already run Red Hat operating systems. We love the immutable aspect
of Fedora Atomic which is perfect for containerized environments."
Cameron Brunner, Chief Architect, Navops by Univa.
Fedora Atomic has a two-week refresh release cycle with major releases
every six months. It has an easy upgrade path to accommodate rapid
development for supporting the latest applications. It can also be run
as a desktop for those requiring a lightweight and highly
reconfigurable environment.
Still undergoing active development, once stable, Fedora Atomic should
allow the typical Fedora user to easily provision cloud services. User
contributions and experience reports are particularly welcome in
preparing the upcoming version.
Fedora Atomic will replace Fedora Cloud as one of our three Fedora
Editions. The Fedora Cloud Base image will continue to be available for
users wanting to build on a more traditional rpm-based foundation in a
cloud environment. https://getfedora.org/en/cloud/prerelease/
Spins and More
==============
These are not the only iterations of Fedora that are seeing changes in
the Beta release today. Our KDE spin features new and improved packages
for music, video, and personal information management. Xfce includes
imrpovements to the terminal, notifications, and power management.
Mate-Compiz features an update to Mate 1.16 and a complete switch to
the GTK+ 3 toolkit.
Issues and Details
==================
Since this is a beta release, we expect that you may encounter bugs or
missing features. To report issues encountered during testing, contact
the Fedora QA team via the mailing list or in #fedora-qa on Freenode.
As testing progresses, common issues are tracked on the Common F25 Bugs
page. https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Common_F25_bugs
For tips on reporting a bug effectively, read "how to file a bug report."
https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/How_to_file_a_bug_report
Release Schedule
================
The full release schedule is available on the Fedora wiki:
https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Releases/25/Schedule
The current schedule calls for a final release in November. Be aware
that these dates are development targets. Some projects release on a
set date regardless of feature completeness or bugs; others wait until
certain thresholds for functionality or testing are met. Fedora uses a
hybrid model, with milestones subject to adjustment. This allows us to
make releases with new features and newly integrated and updated
upstream software while also retaining high quality.
Enjoy
Fedora Release Engineering
(Dennis, Peter, Kevin, Mohan, Adam, Randy)