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.