Five notable new features in Fedora Linux 18 ‘Spherical Cow’ - keatonpausay

After many delays along the way, the final version of Stetson Linux 18 "Spherical Cow" made its long-awaited debut on Tuesday.

Late last year I wrote about a few of the interesting features that had appeared in the beta version of the software, only now this finished release brings quite a bit more to the table.

As the free, community version of Bloody Lid Enterprise Linux (RHEL), Fedora is zero if non a leading-edge in dispersion, and it tends to offer a sneak preview of what's to come in RHEL and beyond. Presently in the No. 4 spot for page-hit rankings on DistroWatch, it's particularly long-familiar for its business-focused features.

Waiting for a quick tour? Here are few of the more notable new features in this spill.

1. The MATE desktop

The introduction of a mobile-style paradigm in the world of Linux desktops has been even as controversial arsenic it has in Windows 8, causing no end of debate over the merits of fashionable contenders such as Ubuntu's Unity and GNOME 3.

The enduring popularity of Dwarf 2 has been striking in dividing line, and we've already seen numerous examples of efforts to preserve the classic desktop. Nowadays, Fedora is offering a like-minded choice in the work of Match.

"This screen background is perfect for users World Health Organization have been running GNOME Classic or separate window managers like Xfce as an alternative to GNOME 3," the Fedora team notes in the software's release declaration.

Users of Fedora 18 in reality have many desktops to choose from, including as wel Xfce 4.10, KDE Plasma Workspaces 4.9, Cinnamomum zeylanicum, and GNOME 3.6.

2. A rewritten installer

As I noted back when the of import release came outgoing, Felt hat's Anaconda installer has been completely rewritten for this release so as to make it easier to use for a wider range of users.

A hub-and-spoke model, for instance, makes installation easier for new users, "offering them aphoristic explanations about their choices," the project team explains.

Other improvements include new visuals to improve the overall calculate and palpate of the installation experience.

3. 'Secure Boot' support

The Fedora project was i of the firstly distributions to realize the implications of the Secure Boot engineering science enabled in Windows 8's Coordinated Protractile Firmware User interface (UEFI), and Fedora 18 is the first release to admit the fruits of its labors. So, thanks to the software's included UEFI Safe-deposit Boot bear out, it can boot on systems that make Secured Boot enabled.

Tools are also available that allow administrators to make up custom certificates to sign local changes to GRUB or the gist, the release notes point out.

4. Samba 4

Also notable especially for systems administrators is the inclusion of Arere 4, the latest version of the suite of tools that provide file- and print-joint services in heterogeneous OS environments. Samba 4 goes even further than its predecessors, in fact, by introducing the starting time uncommitted and unprotected author implementation of Active Directory protocols.

5. Eucalyptus tree

Last not least is that Eucalyptus makes its first appearance in Fedora 18, which includes the befog software's 3.2 release. Also included are OpenStack's Folsom resign and variant 3.1 of the oVirt engine.

Ready to take Fedora 18 for a spin? IT's available as a free download connected the project place.