On Tuesday Red Hat announced that Fedora 17, the latest version of its free open source operating system distribution, is available to download and use. The new release includes free and open source software for users to share including GIMP 2.8, Inkscape, Scribus and more. It also uses GNOME 3.4 which adds new search capabilities, improved themes, and enhancements to the Documents and Contacts application.
"I am extremely proud of the Fedora 17 release. The addition of projects such as oVirt and JBoss Application Server 7, enhancements in OpenStack, and continued support for fresh releases of desktop environments demonstrate the Fedora Project’s commitment to deliver rich features and capabilities," said Robyn Bergeron, Fedora Project Leader. "This, combined with our leading-edge innovations at the operating-system level, truly makes Fedora 17 a comprehensive and robust operating system for all types of users."
Fedora 17 updates OpenStack to 2012.1 (Essex) -- this is an included collection of services that can be used to set up and run cloud compute and storage infrastructure. There's also oVirt, an open virtualization platform which provides a "feature-rich virtualization management system with robust capabilities for both hosts and guests." Fedora 17's Cluster stack includes numerous and significant updates for both high availability and load balancing applications.
On the developer front, Fedora 17 provides JBoss Application Server 7 which is a fast, lightweight Java EE-based application server optimized for developing and launching Java EE applications. Java 7 (and OpenJDK7) is the default Java runtime and Java build toolset, and a pre-release of Juno -- a release of the Eclipse SDK with is expected later this year -- has been tossed into the new Fedora as well.
"The Fedora Project aims to release a new version of its free operating system approximately every six months," Red Hat said on Tuesday. "This rapid development cycle encourages collaboration and the inclusion of the latest, most cutting-edge open source features available. Fedora is built by community members from across the globe, and the Fedora Project’s transparent and open collaboration process has attracted thousands of registered contributors. The total of unique IPs across Fedora releases since tracking was initiated at Fedora 7 is now approaching 38 million connections."
For more information on Fedora 17 and to download the distribution or to join this community effort, head over to www.fedoraproject.org. Download options include a 645 MB, ISO format image for Intel-compatible PCs (64-bit).
