Fedora 19 "Schrödinger's Cat" Goes GA, Ready for Download

By Kevin Parrish
published

Fedora 19 has gone gold and is ready to download and install.

After launching the beta version in late May, Red Hat announced on Tuesday the general availability of Fedora 19 "Schrödinger's Cat", a free, fully-functional Linux operating system. This release includes high level features for enabling cloud and virtualization infrastructure. It also focuses on tools to enable scalability, and flexibility to enable rapid delivery of solutions and services.

One of the prominent new features loaded into Fedora 19 is Developer's Assistant, a tool suitable for beginners or seasoned developers for initiating code projects with language-specific templates, samples, and toolchains. The new platform also has 3D printing capabilities ranging from software for creation of 3D models, to tools for generating and sending code to 3D printers.

Also included in Fedora 19 is OpenShift Origin, a Platform-as-a-Service infrastructure, which consists of a variety of cartridges for developing and deploying applications. The updated OS even features updates to PHP (5.5), the recently released Ruby 2.0.0, and a tech preview of the upcoming OpenJDK8.

"Fedora 19 also provides a variety of improvements to the management of the operating system, including the boot process, recovery from failures, migration of systems, and more," Red Hat said. "Fedora 19 includes tools for diagnosis, monitoring, and logging that enable users to be proactive, not reactive, leaving them with more time to spend doing the things they love to do."

In addition to the under-the-hood improvements, additional enhancements can be seen directly by the desktop user. This includes CUPS which now uses PDF as the standard print job format for easier post-processing sand faster printing. There's also a federated VoIP, enabling Fedora 19 users to make calls utilizing a user@domain address with the same convenience as email.

"Fedora 19 also shines with a variety of desktop options, including GNOME 3.8, with improved privacy and sharing settings, and an option for enabling 'GNOME Classic,' providing an experience similar to GNOME 2," the company said. "KDE Plasma Workspaces 4.10, with new print, screenlock, and accessibility features; and the MATE 1.6 desktop environment, which includes numerous enhancements to this desktop environment."

The Fedora Project aims to release a new version of its free operating system approximately every six months. For more information about Fedora 19, or to download the latest build, head here.

Kevin Parrish
6 Comments Comment from the forums
  • dgingeri
    Does this mean it's uncertain that it's finished?
    Reply
  • Hope2k12
    Only until you open the file
    Reply
  • Mike Friesen
    "Only until you open the file"
    Not what Schrödinger's Cat is about; it is just a thought experiment showing the two possible states of quantum stuff.
    Reply
  • ingtar33
    11089885 said:
    "Only until you open the file"
    Not what Schrödinger's Cat is about; it is just a thought experiment showing the two possible states of quantum stuff.

    not to quibble... but it's not a "thought experiment." it's an analogy used to explain a characteristic of quantum particles..." see... quantum level particles have a very interesting characteristic. That is they BEHAVE like they have multiple contradictory traits. Lets say particle x (pX) is behaving like it is both the color red and the color blue. So scientist "look" at pX to see what color it actually is. At the moment they "look" at it, it becomes blue, and all pX stop behaving like they might be both red and blue at the same moment. Instead they now all behave like they've been blue all the time. If you reset the experiment, and stop observing pX, and use new pX, they'll behave like they're red and blue again. Only this time when you look at pX it will become "red" and it will behave like it's been red the whole time.

    Shrodinger's cat is a way to explain this phenomenon to people without a scientific background. In essence the cat in the box with the vial of cyanide which has a 50% chance of breaking and killing the cat, is both alive and dead up until the moment you open the box. Until that moment of observation it has all the qualities of both alive and dead... the cat is present, the cyanide is present, the vial is present and the box is present. Those 4 things will be there every time you run the experiment. So the cat will have a state of "alive" and "dead" at the same time. When you observe it, the question is solved. Unfortunately it's not solved for the next box with the same setup.

    I probably wasted my time typing it, as you likely know all this... but the phrase "thought experiment" was so wrong for what it is... I couldn't help myself
    Reply
  • majudhu
    Gnome 3.8 is a great improvement to the best desktop
    Reply
  • 4745454b
    "One of the prominent new features loaded into Fedora 19 is Developer's Assistant, a tool suitable for beginners or seasoned developers for initiating code projects with language-specific templates, samples, and toolchains."

    Wish I had this when I was in school. I can't believe I used notepad to code.
    Reply