We've opened the box for the Fedora 19 "Schrödinger's Cat" beta release and confirmed it's alive! Ready to purr at the latest free and open source technology? Download it now:

http://fedoraproject.org/get-prerelease

What is the Beta release?

The Beta release is the last important milestone before the release of Fedora 19. Only critical bug fixes will be pushed as updates, leading up to the general release of Fedora 19. Join us in making Fedora 19 a solid release by downloading, testing, and providing your valuable feedback.

Of course, this is a beta release, meaning that some problems may still be lurking. A list of the problems we already know about is found at the Common F19 bugs page, seen here: http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Common_F19_bugs

Fedora 19 Beta's default configuration allows applications and users with administrative privileges to install signed packages from the official Fedora repositories (but no other packages) without authentication or confirmation. This was inherited from PackageKit upstream, is not Fedora's intended behavior, and will not be the case for the Fedora 19 final release. More details on this issue and the planned behavior for the final release can be found at https://fedorahosted.org/fesco/ticket/1115 .

Features

Fedora 19 continues our long tradition of bringing the latest technologies to open source software users. No matter what you do with open source, Fedora 19 has the tools you need to help you get things done.

A complete list with details of each new feature is available here:

http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Releases/19/FeatureList

Make new things

Would you like to play? Whether you're a developer, maker, or just starting to learn about open source development, we have what you need to bring your ideas to reality. Here's a peek at some of our new tools:

3D modelling and printing are enabled through a variety of tools, including OpenSCAD, Skeinforge, SFACT, Printrun, and RepetierHost. By bringing 3D printing tools into Fedora, you can get started with what's ready-to-go in the repositories without having to download binary blobs or run Python code from git.

OpenShift Origin makes it easy for you to build your own Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) infrastructure, allowing you to enable others to easily develop and deploy software.

node.js is a popular Javascript-based platform for those building scalable network applications or real-time apps across distributed devices. Also included is the npm package manager, providing access to over 20,000 programs and libraries available under free and open source licenses.

Ruby 2.0.0, just released in February, comes to Fedora while maintaining source-level backwards compatibility with your Ruby 1.9.3 software. Also included: a custom Ruby loader for easy switching of interpreters.

MariaDB, a community-developed fork of MySQL, is the default implementation of MySQL in Fedora 19, offering users a truly open MySQL implementation.

Get things done

Federated VOIP means Fedora users can make calls using a user@domain address with the same convenience as email.

CUPS has been updated to the latest upstream release, using PDF rather than PostScript as the baseline document format.

Learn

Developer's Assistant is great for those new to development or even new to Linux, this tool helps you to get started on a code project with templates, samples, and toolchains for the languages of your choice. Bonus: It lets you publish directly to GitHub.

Deploy, Monitor, and Manage

Make your machines work for you--not the other way around. Whether you have one or "one too many" machines, Fedora 19 helps you boot manage your systems and enables you to be proactive with tools for diagnosis, monitoring, and logging.

Syslinux optional boot tool integration brings you optional, simplified booting of Fedora. We have added support for using syslinux instead of GRUB via kickstart and plan to add a hidden option in Anaconda installer as well. syslinux is especially ideal for images used in cloud environments and virt appliances where the advanced features of GRUB are not needed.

Among other systemd enhancements in this release, the systemd Resource Control lets you modify your service settings without a reboot by dynamically querying and modifying resource control parameters at runtime.

Kerberos administrators will enjoy an easier experience, thanks to Fedora 19 removing the need for Kerberos clients to sync their clocks or to have reverse DNS records carefully setup for services. In addition, it provies Kerberos-enabled, LDAP replicated, two-factor authentication for FreeIPA.

OpenLMI is a common infrastructure for the management of Linux systems that makes remote management of machines much simpler.

Desktop Environments and Spins

GNOME 3.8

GNOME 3.8 brings new applications such as clock and improvements to the desktop including privacy and sharing settings, ordered search, frequent applications overview, and additionally provides the ability to enable a "classic mode" for a user experience similar to GNOME 2 built out of a collection of GNOME Shell extensions. Refer to https://help.gnome.org/misc/release-notes/3.8/ for more details.

KDE Plasma Workspaces 4.10

A modern, stable desktop environment, KDE Plasma Workspaces 4.10 includes new features for printing and screenlocking, better indexing of files, and improved accessibility features. Refer to http://www.kde.org/announcements/4.10/ for more details.

MATE Desktop 1.6

The MATE 1.6 Desktop introduces a large number of improvements to this traditional, GNOME 2-like desktop interface. Refer to http://mate-desktop.org/2013/04/02/mate-1-6-released/ for more details.

Spins

Spins are alternate versions of Fedora. In addition to various desktop environments for Fedora, spins are also available as tailored environments for various types of users via hand-picked application sets or customizations.

Interest-specific Spins include the Design Suite Spin, the Robotics Spin, and the Security Spin, among others. Other available desktop environments, in addition to the GNOME 3.8 desktop which is shipped in the default version of Fedora 19, as well as those highlighted above, include Xfce, Sugar on a Stick, and LXDE.

To see all of the Official Fedora 19 Release Spins, see the Fedora 19 Release Spins link.

Nightly composes of alternate Spins are available here: http://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/alt/nightly-composes

Contributing

We can't build Fedora inside a box. We need your help! Bug reports are especially helpful--if you encounter any issues, please report them!

Fedora is a fantastic, friendly community, and we have many ways in which you can contribute, including documentation, marketing, design, QA, and development.

To learn how to help us, visit: http://join.fedoraproject.org/