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Fedora 11 “Leonidas” is Almost Ready to Kick Ass!

- - 15 comments
A few more days from now, the latest and hopefully the greatest version of one of the most popular Linux distributions will be released. For those of you who loved Fedora 10, then the reasons are plenty for you to like version 11 (codename Leonidas) more.

To get everyone excited, let's take a look at some of the many great features that the upcoming Fedora 11 will incorporate:

Faster Boot Speed
Probably a shot at beating the boot speed of Ubuntu 9.04 "Jaunty Jackaope", Fedora aims to startup or to be at login screen (GNOME) in 20 seconds or less. As they say, a faster boot makes for happy users.

Automatic Fonts & Mime Installer
This new feature will certainly make Fedora much friendlier to Linux newbies. Users will be able to automatically install applications, fonts, multimedia codecs and clipart in just a few clicks. There's also a new popup like when you try to play an unsupported media file, open an unknown file, or use fonts that are not suitable.


Improved Power Management
Laptop and netbook owners will have a good reason to use Fedora 11 since the developers are working hard on conserving battery power consumption. With the use of new measuring tools, they were able to locate power greedy applications that led to tuned daemon, which can automatically set the power saving levels.

Significant RPM Update

RPM 4.7 has notably improved over its previous version in terms of performance. Memory consumption has been reduced a lot. A test-case of "everything install" of Fedora 10 used to top at near 1.5GB memory consumption, now the peak with the same package set is just over 300MB. For users, this means a much faster upgrades and improved handling of failed upgrades.

Flexible and Easy-to-use Volume Control
To make volume control more intuitive and user-friendly, Fedora 11 will ship with a revised volume control and sound user interfaces. The result is an easily understandable and much more flexible volume control model. To somehow let you know what I mean, here are a few screenshots:




Updated Applications
Essential programs and applications like GNOME, KDE, Xfce, Firefox, Thunderbird, and Python are upgraded to their latest versions.


You will find these and more on the latest approaching version of Fedora. So will you be in for one wild night (I mean release)?

15 comments

  1. AnonymousMay 24, 2009

    Linux is really coming along very fast. Got Windows 7RC, and three Linux distros running on my hard drive. All work well. Looking forward to this new Fedora 11.
    One thing I wish they would fix-up is their archaic bootloader .Its not very impressive; certainly not in the same league as Mandriva's, LinuxMint's, or PCLinuxOs.
    Maybe I am missing something here. Anyone wish to comment. Good to
    see so much progress with Linux.

    "Canuck"

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  2. AnonymousMay 24, 2009

    I have to say, nothing I've read about Fedora 11 makkes me think it will be better than Mandriva 2009.1. Mandriva has many of the same features, and it kicks the snot out of Ubuntu et al already. Good luck next time Fedora.

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  3. "One thing I wish they would fix-up is their archaic bootloader .Its not very impressive;"

    Does Plymouth ring a bell here??? It is the BEST bootloader till now. Period. See the Youtube video.

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  4. AnonymousMay 25, 2009

    Plymouth is not a bootloader. grub/lilo can be said of as bootloader.


    Mandriva is great, except that, they made choices which are often never destined to be a part of upstream.

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  5. I've got Fedora 10 on my desktop and I'm yet to really take Fedora 11 for a spin, I doubt I will be upgrading to Fedora 11, unless PulseAudio is greatly improved as its a bit of a pain in Fedora 10, QuakeWars is crackly and crashes which I suspect is all down to PulseAudio.

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  6. Looks nice, but the popup for when you attempt to open an unsupported media file is actually quite old news. Been in Ubuntu for some time. I do like the look of the volume control, and in fact the overall appearance. It's good to see the majority of the latest "Linuxes" aiming for reduced memory & processor overhead.

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  7. AnonymousMay 26, 2009

    Fedora's bootloader is just grub, same as most distros use. If you mean we don't make it all pretty and graphical, well, OK. However, for F11, it defaults to a zero delay, so you don't actually see it at all...

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  8. AnonymousMay 26, 2009

    I am sorry but Mandriva did not work out for me. Always used Ubuntu. Time and again have tried other flavours. This time tried to install the latest Mandriva (after reading some rave reviews) on my Apple Mac Mini. No way could I get my Wireless working. Same problem with openSUSE too. Had some bewildering issues with KDE too..particularly with a unruly panel (I have a 23" Samsung widescreen). Installed Ubuntu 9.04 and my Wireless et al worked out of the box. Maybe Mandriva & openSUSE works for others but for me Ubuntu works without a hassle on my Mac Mini & DELL Inspiron & a couple of other 8 year old laptops. Ubuntu is not perfect but they do get the basics right and thats all that matters for me. I really hope they would sort out their ugly GUI in 9.10.

    Cheers,
    Sid

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  9. I have Kubuntu 9.04 here and Fedora 11 is looking good. I don't expect to switch distros soon, but I think the competition will be beneficial to the GNU/Linux community, so I welcome the challenge.

    Keep it on the edge! Live long and prosper!

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  10. I've tryed Fedora 11 on my laptop for over a week now, and my overall impression is very positive. I started using Linux with RH 6.2, but left soon because of stability and speed issues with later releases. The main reason in recent years not to use Fedora has been speed and package management. With this new release I can say that the reasons to my complaints have dissapeared. Well done to the team.

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  11. AnonymousMay 26, 2009

    The fact that people have the gall to complain about something as inane as the bootloader is the reason Linux is so far behind Windows and Mac: Developers waste incalculable amounts of time chasing down ridiculous petty dislikes of fellow nerds rather than the showstoppers that keep people from not just using Linux, but deleting extant installs of the Big 2 OSes in order to put Linux on their machines. Pre-loading and its own users; that's Linux's problem. "Year of the Linux Desktop"? Don't hold your breath.

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  12. It is very nice to see fedora removing applications based on Mono, that alone may have me switching, if Ubuntu does not get the message.

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  13. thanks for the article!

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  14. AnonymousMay 29, 2009

    The biggest feature I expect from Fedora is the log on-screen...
    Just clicking the user and fill in the password is so "Windows Home edition".
    why can't we choose our log-on sreen??
    Ubuntu has still this feature.... :s

    I'l try fedora 11, but I don't think this is already been solved... :(

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  15. AnonymousJune 14, 2009

    Fedora 11 isn't intended for end-users (not that there is anything 'wrong' with that). It is a disappointment to see such a horrid installation routine, even if the goal is software testing. It has been done better by countless other projects.

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