Fedora 10's snapshot scramble begins

(Credit: Fedora Project)

The Fedora Project has updated the "beta" or testing edition of version 10 of its Linux distribution over the weekend, with a final release to the public scheduled for 25 November.

Fedora release engineer Jesse Keating, who is employed by Red Hat, wrote in an email to developers that the first testing snapshot of Fedora 10 was available for download. The update represents one of the weekly testing builds of Fedora 10 after the beta version was offered up on 30 September.

The group has targeted wireless connection sharing; better printing; simplification of virtualisation storage provision; better support for audio, webcam, and infrared remote controls in version 10; as well as adding new tools such as the SecTool security software and a major update to the RPM software management package.

Like many other Linux suppliers, Fedora has flagged an urgent issue to users during the testing process relating to an Intel network card driver that could harm physical hardware. The problematic driver is listed as disabled in the Fedora 10 beta for the time being.

Fedora is also targeting a faster boot-up sequence, automatic installation of multimedia codecs, and better support for high-definition televisions and Apple Macintosh EFI hardware in the release, as well as a host of minor updates.

Fedora is the community-supported version of Red Hat's popular Linux software, created in late 2003 to provide a non-profit offering to the general public after the Linux vendor decided to provide its Red Hat Enterprise Linux on a commercial basis.

Like other distributions such as Ubuntu, Fedora generally makes both normal installation and live CD images (where users can boot Linux from a CD without touching the hard disk) available. However, Keating said "ongoing bugs" with Fedora's installation software meant only live images were currently available.

Fedora usually makes its software available by direct download from its site and mirrors, despite this Keating said the group was taking a different approach this time.

"We are releasing these via BitTorrent only as it is a much lighter-weight method to get the bits out the door than to go through our mirroring system," he wrote. "If you cannot use BitTorrent we apologise for the inconvenience."

The testing versions of Fedora 10 can be found at the group's website.