Fedora 12 released

The Fedora developers have released Fedora 12, a.k.a. Constantine. The release features a 2.6.31 Linux kernel and GNOME 2.28 or KDE 4.3 desktop. The Fedora free Linux distribution is sponsored by Red Hat.

Among the new features of Fedora 12 are extended hardware support for kernel based mode setting (KMS), 3D support for recent ATI Radeon cards, and the incorporation of KSM, Kernel Samepage Merging, for more efficent memory use by virtual machines. Fedora 12 sees the kernel being optimised for a wider range of processors, with the 32 bit x86 version including special optimisations for the Intel Atom processor, found in many netbooks. Updates to Fedora 12 will be faster with the yum-presto system from Fedora 11 being enabled by default. The full list of features of Fedora 12 also notes changes to KVM, OGG support, updated NetBeans, improved webcam support and new bug reporting tools.

The Fedora 12 release is available from the project's website, with CD and DVD images for 32 bit and 64 bit x86 and Power PC processors and LiveCD images for 32 and 64 bit x86 processors. Release notes are also available and full documentation can be found on the docs.fedoraproject.org web site in a number of languages. Fedora 12 is released under version 12 of the Fedora License Agreement.

The H will have a detailed look at Fedora 12 later in the week.

(djwm)