Fedora 13 Codenamed Goddard is coming. The release will be on May 2010. It has some really cool new features. I have jotted down some of my favourites in this article.
boot.fedoraproject.org
boot.fedoraproject.org (BFO) is one of the unique features in Fedora. This effort by Fedora community hopes to completely remove DVD installations in long term. It allows users to download a single, tiny image and install current and future versions of Fedora without having to download additional images.
System Rollback feature with Btrfs
Btrfs lets you take light weight snapshots of the filesystem which can be mounted or booted into selectively. This means, before doing something crazy with your system, you can easily take a snapshot of the partition and in case something bad happens, just boot into the older snapshot.
In Fedora 13, codenamed Goddard, if you have selected one or more partitions as btrfs, then it will automatically create new snapshots with every yum operation. You will also be allowed to select which snapshot to boot into. This is indeed an amazing addition.
Design Suite, to make Fedora look better
This suite will contain all the required applications targeted at designers. Here is a list of the applications that are going to be included.
The Fedora Design Suite includes well-selected applications, fitting a variety of use cases. Whether you decide to work on publishing documents, creating images and pictures or even 3D content, the Design Suite has a fitting tool.
Command Line Network Manager
I have always been a command line fan but when it comes to managing multiple network connections(including wireless), I always ended up using Network Manager, wondering if they will ever add a command line support. I am sure this added support would have brought a smile on all of the CLI junkies like me.
NFSv4 Support
NFSv4 aims to offer increase performance and seamless transition for the end-user. Fedora is the only distro till now using it.
Zarafa, a complete Open Source groupware suite
Zarafa is an open source groupware suite that can be used as a drop-in Exchange replacement for Web-based mail, calendaring, collaboration and tasks. Features include IMAP/POP and iCal/CalDAV capabilities, native mobile phone support, the ability to integrate with existing Linux mail servers, a full set of programming interfaces, and a comfortable look and feel using modern Ajax technologies.
Well that is all for a snapshot. Lot more changes and improvements to the existing programmes make fedora 13 much better.