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

What is the Beta release?

The Beta release contains all the exciting 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 from the Alpha version. When most of 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.

We need your help to make Fedora 24 the best yet. Please take some time to download and try out the Beta and make sure the things that are important to you are working. If you find a bug, please report it – every bug you uncover is a chance to improve the experience for millions of Fedora users worldwide. This is a great opportunity for non-programmers to contribute back to fedora.

Together, we can make Fedora rock-solid. We have a culture of adding new features to software and pushing fixes to the upstream developers at the same time. This means your feedback will help improve not only Fedora but Linux and free software on the whole.

Fedora-Wide Changes

Under the hood, glibc has moved to 2.23. This update includes better performance, increased security, bugfixes, improvements to POSIX compliance, and additional locales. The new library is backwards compatible with the version of glibc that was shipped in Fedora 23. We’ve also updated the system compiler to GCC 6 and rebuilt all of our packages with it, providing greater code optimization and improved program error catching.

Workstation

The Fedora 24 Workstation release will not default to Wayland, the next generation graphic stack, but this is planned for future releases. Wayland is available as an option, and the Workstation team would greatly appreciate your help in testing it out. Our goal is to have one full release where Wayland works almost seamlessly as a drop in replacement for X11. At that point we plan to set it as the default display server in Fedora.

This new release also features GNOME 3.20. There have been changes to the theming API in GTK+ 3. At this time the API is under heavy development and will not remain stable. As a result, applications that use custom CSS theming for example, may have rendering issues. This could include default applications that come with Fedora 24 Beta Workstation. We request that users try out their favorite GTK+ 3 based applications and report bugs to the upstream developers so they can be fixed in time for the final release.

Server

Fedora 24 beta server edition has also been more streamlined. Unnecessary packages were removed and the installer has a smaller footprint.

FreeIPA 4.3, an integrated security information management solution is now included. The installation of replicas is streamlined by adding a replica promotion method for new installs. A new topology plugin has also been added to this version of FreeIPA that automatically manages new replication segment creation. An effective replica topology visualization tool is now available in the webUI.

Cloud

We are working hard to make Fedora the best platform for containerized applications, from base Fedora container images to a full-featured platform as a service to run and manage them.

To meet this goal, we are packaging OpenShift Origin so it is easy to deploy. OpenShift Origin is a distribution of Kubernetes, a container cluster manager from Google. It is optimized for enterprise application development and deployment. Origin makes it easy for developers to get started building applications in containers and for operators to manage them.

Spins and Labs

Fedora Spins is an alternative Fedora version that offers alternative desktop environments to the standard Fedora Workstation.

Fedora Workstation is built on the GNOME desktop. GNOME was chosen because it provides an easy-to-use operating system for software developers, while also being well-suited for standard desktop use. Our Spins make it easy for people to try out alternative desktop environments. Everyone has different needs and Spins are a great way for us to meet them. The Fedora 24 spins beta release showcases KDE Plasma, Xfce*, LXDE, Mate-Compiz, Cinnamon, and Sugar on a Stick* (Soas) all on the same Fedora Base.

Fedora Labs offers collections of software for specific purposes: Games, Design, Robotics, and so on. They are pre-selected sets of software ideal for events or audiences with specialized interests that need corresponding software. Fedora 24 comes with a new lab focused on Astronomy and contains a set of tools for astronomers and astrophysicists.

Note that the SoaS and Xfce spins are missing from the Fedora 24 Beta release. We plan to fix this for the final 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 your 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. 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 a tmux session to make it easier to work at the console and obtain necessary information such as the root password or IP address.

Issues and Details

This is a Beta 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: