What's New in Fedora 12?

• Optimized performance - All software packages on 32-bit (x86_32) architecture have been compiled for i686 systems, with special optimization for the Intel Atom processors used in many netbooks, but without losing compatibility with the overwhelming majority of CPUs.
• Smaller and faster updates - In Fedora 11, the optional yum-presto plugin, developed by Fedora contributor Jonathan Dieter, reduced update size by transmitting only the changes in the updated packages. Now, the plugin is installed by default. Also, RPMs now use XZ rather than gzip for compression, providing smaller package sizes without the memory and CPU penalties associated with bzip2. This lets us fit more software into each Fedora image, and uses less space on mirrors, making their administrators' lives a little easier. Thanks to the Fedora infrastructure team for their excellent work in setting up the infrastructure to generate delta RPMs on the fly for all the updates.
• NetworkManager broadband and other enhancements - NetworkManager, originally developed by Red Hat's Dan Williams, was introduced in Fedora 7 and has become the de facto network configuration solution for distributions everywhere. Enhancements to NetworkManager make both system-wide connections and mobile broadband connections easier than ever. Bluetooth PAN support offers a simple click through process to access the Internet from your mobile phone. NetworkManager can now configure always-on and static address connections directly from the desktop. PolicyKit integration has been added so configuration management can be done via central policy where needed. IPv6 support has also been improved.
• Next-generation (Ogg) Theora video - For several years, Theora, the open and free format not encumbered by known patents has provided a way for freedom-loving users to share video. Fedora 12 includes the new Theora 1.1, which achieves very high quality comparable to H.264, meeting the expectations of demanding users with crisp, vibrant media in both streaming and downloadable form. Thanks to the work of the Xiph.Org Foundation's Christopher "Monty" Montgomery, sponsored by Red Hat, other Xiph developers and the contribution of Mozilla.org, Theora videos now deliver much better quality primarily via enhancements in the encoder without any change in the format, making it available to all Theora users. Using Theora video and Vorbis audio formats, Firefox 3.5 and applications using the Gstreamer multimedia framework can deliver free media on the web out of the box even better than the previous release of Fedora. Theora is being rapidly adopted by several popular websites including Wikipedia, VideoPress and DailyMotion. Fedora Project is proud to support communities of free culture and open content as part of our mission.
• Graphics support improvements -Fedora 12 introduces experimental 3D support for AMD Radeon HD 2400 and later graphics cards. To try it out, install the mesa-dri-drivers-experimental package. On many cards, this support should allow desktop effects to be used. Kernel mode setting (KMS) support, which was introduced on AMD hardware in Fedora 10 and extended to Intel hardware in Fedora 11, is now extended to NVIDIA hardware as well, meaning the great majority of systems now benefit from the smooth, fully-graphical startup sequence made possible by KMS. The Fedora graphical startup sequence now works better on systems with multiple monitors. Also on multiple monitor systems, the desktop will now automatically be spread across all monitors by default, rather than having all monitors display the same output, including on NVIDIA chips (where multiple monitor spanning was not possible without manual configuration changes in Fedora 11). Systems with NVIDIA graphics chips also gain initial support for suspend and resume functionality via the default Nouveau driver. Initial support for the new DisplayPort display connector has been added for Intel graphics chips. Support for Nvidia and ATI systems is already under rapid development and will be included in the next release of Fedora. Thanks to the Red Hat Xorg team including Adam Jackson (X server), Kristian Høgsberg (Intel driver), Dave Airlie and Jerome Glisse (Radeon driver for AMD), and Ben Skeggs (Nouveau driver for NVIDIA).