Some cool features in Fedora 13, Goddard

Recently, I have been a little out of touch with Fedora news. With the release of Fedora 13 alpha, I finally got a chance to get back to work. Went through the list of new additions in Fedora 13 alpha and as expected, Goddard has some really cool new features. I have jotted down some of my favourites in this article.

boot.fedoraproject.org

boot.fedoraproject.org (BFO) is one of the unique features in Fedora. This effort by Fedora community hopes to completely remove DVD installations in long term. It allows users to download a single, tiny image and install current and future versions of Fedora without having to download additional images.

This method is similar to Pxeboot, can also be considered as a Fedora branded version of boot.kernel.org.

System Rollback feature with Btrfs

Btrfs lets you take light weight snapshots of the filesystem which can be mounted or booted into selectively. This means, before doing something crazy with your system, you can easily take a snapshot of the partition and in case something bad happens, just boot into the older snapshot.

In Fedora 13, codenamed Goddard, if you have selected one or more partitions as btrfs, then it will automatically create new snapshots with every yum operation. You will also be allowed to select which snapshot to boot into. This is indeed an amazing addition.

Design Suite Spin, to make Fedora look even better

This suite will contain all the required applications targeted at designers. Here is a list of the applications that are going to be included.

The Fedora Design Suite includes well-selected applications, fitting a variety of use cases. Whether you decide to work on publishing documents, creating images and pictures or even 3D content, the Design Suite has a fitting tool.

Network Manager finally has a Command Line

I have always been a command line fan but when it comes to managing multiple network connections(including wireless), I always ended up using Network Manager, wondering if they will ever add a command line support. I am sure this added support would have brought a smile on all of the CLI junkies like me .

Zarafa, a complete Open Source groupware suite is now available in Goddard

Zarafa is an open source groupware suite that can be used as a drop-in Exchange replacement for Web-based mail, calendaring, collaboration and tasks. Features include IMAP/POP and iCal/CalDAV capabilities, native mobile phone support, the ability to integrate with existing Linux mail servers, a full set of programming interfaces, and a comfortable look and feel using modern Ajax technologies.

NFSv4

NFSv4 aims to offer increase performance and seamless transition for the end-user. Fedora is the only distro till now using it.

You might want to check out some other Fedora spins coming out with Fedora 13, Goddard.

A whole list of the main, new features  in Fedora 13 can be found here.