Fedora Core 6 Zod Review

After three last-minute delays, Fedora Core 6 is finally being pushed out the door this morning. Fedora Core 6 is codenamed Zod, and is being released seven months after the much anticipated and well-deserved launch of Fedora Core 5. Yarrow, Tettnang, Heidelberg, Stentz, and Bordeaux were all exceptional or ground-breaking releases in one way or another, but what is new for Zod? After the release of Fedora Core 6 Test 1, we had written up a small preview of that development release to shed some light on what would hopefully hit the Fedora Core 6 development cycle. Today we will share with you everything that has made the cut for Zod. We have been fortunate enough to obtain an early copy of the final Fedora Core 6 spin, so we have all of the details for you this morning, so grab your coffee and enjoy!

Following in past tradition, Fedora Core 6 will be announced this morning followed by the opening of public mirrors for download. In the Fedora Core 5 release announcement on fedora-announce-list, the creative press release portrayed Bordeaux as a student (after the Stentz release announcement used a toy analogy). We can only wait to see what creative references will be used for Zod. Perhaps some fictional adventure with Superman and General Zod from DC Comics?

When interviewing Greg DeKoenigsberg for the Fedora Core 5 launch, and when sharing our initial thoughts on Fedora Core 6 Test 1, many improvements were being made to Anaconda (the Red Hat installer). The major improvement to the Fedora installation process is the ability to tap into yum repositories. The Fedora Extras repository shows up in the installer, and any third-party yum repository can be accessed from Anaconda. This certainly will be interesting and handy for some users. Another improvement with the Fedora Core 6 installer is support for IPv6.

The notification framework has greatly improved for yum-updatesd since FC6T1. The update notification bubbles alert the users how many updates are available and presents the user with the option to install the updates. The notification framework overall has also improved.

Another improvement in Fedora Core 6 is system-config-printer. System-config-printer v0.7.32 boasts an entirely redesigned interface. This printer configuration now allows per-user queues for establishing user-specific printer settings. Shipping with Fedora Core 6 is CUPS v1.2.4.

One of the prominent desktop changes in Zod is also the new theme, which was developed by the Fedora Artwork Project. Unfortunately, they have yet to develop a new set of icons. The icons are becoming outdated but the remainder of the theme remains extremely nice. Fedora Core 7 will hopefully introduce the Echo theme package from the Fedora Artwork team. The Echo development artwork is available from the Fedora Wiki. The desktop background is also very attractive (they even offer multiple versions of the default background for wide, dual displays, dual wide displays, and 5:4 aspect ratio screens). The DNA theme is also prominent in Anaconda.