The Fedora 24 Alpha is here, right on schedule for our planned June final release. Download the prerelease from our Get Fedora site:

What is the Alpha release?

The Alpha release contains all the features of Fedora 24’s editions in a form that anyone can help test. This testing, guided by the Fedora QA team, helps us target and identify bugs. When these bugs are fixed, we make a Beta release available. A Beta release is code-complete and bears a very strong resemblance to the third and final release. The final release of Fedora 24 is expected in June.

If you take the time to download and try out the Alpha, you can check and make sure the things that are important to YOU are working. Every bug you find and report doesn’t just help you, it improves the experience of millions of Fedora users worldwide!

Together, we can make Fedora rock-solid. We have a culture of coordinating new features and pushing fixes upstream as much as we can, and your feedback improves not only Fedora, but Linux and Free software as a whole.

Fedora-Wide Changes

Under the hood, glibc has moved to 2.23. The update includes better performance, many bugfixes and improvements to POSIX compliance, and additional locales. The new library is backwards compatible with the version of glibc that was shipped in Fedora 23, and includes a number of security and bug fixes.

We’ve also updated the system compiler to GCC 6 and rebuilt all packages with that, providing greater code optimization and catching programming errors which had slipped past previous compilers.

Workstation

Workstation features a preview of GNOME 3.20, which was released just after the Alpha was cut. The GNOME 3.20 release is already available in the Fedora 24 update stream. Once you install Fedora 24 Alpha, you can use Software or dnf to update. GNOME 3.20 will of course be part of Fedora 24 Beta and the Final release.

We have decided not to make Wayland, the next generation graphic stack, the default in Fedora 24 Workstation. However, Wayland remains available as an option, and the Workstation team would greatly appreciate your help in testing. Our goal is one full release where the non-default Wayland option works seamlessly, or reasonably close thereto. At that point we will make Wayland the default with X11 as the fallback option.

There have been many changes to theming in GTK+ 3, where a stable API has not been declared. As a result, applications that use custom CSS theming, for example, may show issues with their appearance. This may include default applications that come with Fedora 24 Alpha Workstation. Users are asked to try out their favorite GTK+ 3 based applications and report bugs upstream so they might be addressed in time for the final release.

Server

FreeIPA 4.3 (Domain Controller role) is included in Fedora 24. This version helps streamline installation of replicas by adding a replica promotion method for new installs. A new topology plugin has also been added that automatically manages new replication segment creation. An effective replica topology visualization tool is also available in the webUI.

More packages have been removed from the default Server edition to make the footprint of the default installation smaller.

Cloud

For Fedora 24, we’re working hard to make Fedora the best platform for developing containers, from the base Fedora container images to a full-featured PaaS to run and manage them.

We’re packaging OpenShift Origin for Fedora to make it easy to run on Fedora. OpenShift Origin is a distribution of Kubernetes optimized for enterprise application development and deployment. Origin embeds Kubernetes and adds powerful additional functionality to deliver an easy to approach developer and operator experience for building applications in containers.

Spins and Labs

Fedora Spins are alternative desktops for Fedora that provide a different desktop experience than the standard Fedora Workstation edition. Fedora Workstation is built on the GNOME desktop environment and aims to provide a compelling, easy-to-use operating system for software developers, while also being well-suited to other users. Our spins showcase KDE Plasma, Xfce, LXDE, Mate-Compiz, Cinnamon, and Sugar on a Stick (Soas) on the same Fedora Base.*

Fedora Labs are collections of software for specific purposes — Games, Design, Robotics, and so on. They are pre-selected sets of Fedora software and are ideal for events or audiences with the corresponding specific interest. Fedora 24 comes with a new lab, the Astronomy Spin, a set of tools for astronomers and astrophysicists.

*: Note that the SoaS spin and Security, Games, and Design Suite labs are missing from the Fedora 24 Alpha release. We plan to fix this for the Beta release.

ARM

ARM images are available as usual for several usecases. Fedora 24 ships Desktop images, such as Spins and Workstation, but also provides a Server image. A minimal Fedora image completes the wide set of install options for you ARM board.

Atomic Host

Fedora Atomic Host releases on a two-week schedule, and each release is built on the latest overall Fedora OS. This schedule means the Atomic Host is currently built on Fedora 23, but will switch to Fedora 24 when we’re out of Beta. There currently is no Fedora Atomic Host built on Fedora 24 Alpha, but we plan to have that for the Beta.

However, you can try one of the newer features with recent Fedora Atomic Host builds today. Since Fedora 23 was released, Atomic Host has added a “developer mode” that gives a better developer experience overall. When running in DEVELOPER MODE, the host will download and start Cockpit and fire up a TMUX session to make it easier to work at the console and obtain necessary information (like the root password, IP address, etc.).

Issues and Details

This is an Alpha release. As such, we expect that you may encounter bugs or missing features. To report issues encountered during testing, contact the Fedora QA team via the mailing list or in #fedora-qa on Freenode.

As testing progresses, common issues are tracked on the Common F24 Bugs page.

For tips on reporting a bug effectively, read “how to file a bug report.”

Release Schedule

The full release schedule is available on the Fedora wiki:

The current schedule calls for a beta release towards the beginning of May, and the final release in early June.

Be aware that these dates are development targets. Some projects release on a set date regardless of feature completeness or bugs; others wait until certain thresholds for functionality or testing are met. Fedora uses a hybrid model, with milestones subject to adjustment. This allows us to make releases with new features and newly-integrated and updated upstream software while also retaining high quality.

Flock 2016: Krakow, Poland

If you’re a contributor to Fedora, or interested in getting more involved, one way to engage with our community is through Fedora premier events.

The annual North American/European conference for Fedora contributors is Flock, which takes place August 2-5, 2016 in Krakow, Poland. Registration is now open at https://register.flocktofedora.org.

For more information about our Latin American and Asia-Pacific Conferences, stay tuned for announcements on the Fedora Community Blog: