Fedora 7, the latest version of the popular community-driven Linux distribution sponsored by Red Hat, was released this morning. This is the first Fedora release to incorporate and unify both the Core and Extra platform components, thus obviating the need for the traditional inclusion of the word "Core" in the distribution's name. This is also the first release to be constructed with Fedora's new build system, which will vastly simplify development of custom versions and derivatives.

"Beyond the usual set of upstream changes and improvements, our latest release is by far the most exciting and flexible to date," comments Fedora Project leader Max Spevack. "With our new open-source build process, our community of contributors will enjoy much greater influence and authority in advancing Fedora. The ability to create appliances to suit very particular user needs is incredibly powerful."

Fedora 7 features the latest versions of many popular open-source software programs, including GNOME 2.18, KDE 3.5.6, Xorg 7.2, and version 2.6.21 of the Linux kernel, with integrated KVM virtualization support. The version of Xorg 7.2 included in Fedora 7 features extensive support for display hot-plugging, a much-anticipated feature that will hopefully eliminate the need for frustrating Xorg configuration tweaking typically required for multiple monitor configurations and projector support.

Fedora 7 also includes the NetworkManager utility for improved wireless networking, a new SELinux graphical configuration tool, support for Fast User Switching, a new Firewire stack, and support for the experimental Nouveau driver, an open-source alternative to NVIDIA's proprietary drivers that could eventually provide complete support for hardware-accelerated 3D rendering.

Comprehensive release notes are currently available but might not be for very long. When Fedora Core 6 was released last year, content at the Fedora web site was accessible only intermittently as a result of heavy traffic. ISO images are available from Fedora mirrors, but users will probably have better luck with torrents.