Fedora 10 Arrives with Better Audio, GNOME Updates and a new IM Client
The Fedora Project has announced the release of Fedora 10, the next generation of Fedora Linux. Fedora 10 brings many of the same improvements we saw in the latest version of Ubuntu — a better network manager and updated versions of GNOME and GIMP among others — but also packs in some unique new features.
The big news for Fedora fans in version 10 is the new “glitch-free” version of PulseAudio, which improves sound in Fedora 10, and, as the name implies, gets rid of the annoying latency and dropped audio problems that plagued early release of PulseAudio.
Fedora 10 is also notable for opting to using GNOME’s new Empathy instant messaging framework. Ubuntu passed on Empathy, and having tested Empathy in the Fedora 10 RC1, we can see why. While Empathy works well enough, the interface is a bit simplistic next to other GNOME IM apps like Pidgin.
Our favorite part of Fedora, PackageKit, remains largely unchanged in this release. If you’ve never encountered PackageKit, it’s worth taking the live CD for a spin to see how well PackageKit “just works.”
PackageKit will automatically search for and install any software you need to open a file. For example, say you download a ODF file, but don’t have OpenOffice install, PackageKit will step in and prompt you to install OpenOffice and any dependancies so you can open the file.
Obviously PackageKit has its limitations — download a file for which there is no open source software, say a Word file, and PackageKit will remain silent — but for the average use case it adds a nice layer of user friendliness to the Fedora desktop.
You can grab the latest Fedora release from the Fedora site. By default the live CD will install GNOME so if KDE is your preferred desktop be sure to grab the KDE flavor.
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