NetworkManager 0.7 Nears Release

The wonderful Red Hat software project for easily managing wired and wireless networks on Linux, NetworkManager, is preparing for its first major release in over two years. NetworkManager 0.7 has been in development for a long time with many improvements made, but there has been no formal release. However, Fedora in particular has been shipping with the latest NetworkManager code for some time.

Among the improvements in NetworkManager 0.7 are faster connection times, more reliable wireless networking, improved D-BUS API, multi simultaneous network device support, enhanced support for different wireless security modes, and PPP integration. The PPP integration means that many mobile broadband / cellular cards (SM/GPRS/EDGE/UMTS/HDSPA/HSUPA/EVDO) are now supported "out of the box" by NetworkManager.

The main mastermind behind NetworkManager 0.7, Dan Williams, mentioned on his blog that this new release will finally be out soon. As one other note, he's also ported the PPTP VPN plugin to the version 0.7 code-base. On the GNOME Wiki he has made a list of items that are currently blocking the release. These blocker items range from missing documentation to GNOME Keyring issues.

Dan Williams has delayed some of the Bluetooth enhancements for NetworkManager until version 0.7.1 or 0.7.5. In addition, IPv6 support will likely be missing from the 0.7.0 release.

As something for the readers, what do you think will be released first: X.Org 7.4, the Unreal Tournament 3 Linux client, or NetworkManager 0.7? Tell us in the forums.