Fedora 16 Arrives, Cloud Friendly

Cloud and virtualization technologies now feature in latest version release

The Red Hat sponsored Fedora Project has announced availability of version 16 of the free and open-source operating system distribution. Fedora 16 now features “Aeolus Conductor” as a feature enhancement designed to create and manage cloud instances across a variety of cloud types. OpenStack tools have also been included to help configure and run cloud compute and storage infrastructures; new too is HekaFS, a technology based on GlusterFS to enable cloud-ready distributed parallel filesystems. Lastly in the cloud category, the Pacemaker-cloud application service has now been incorporated to improve availability.

Red Hat reminds us that Fedora Project developers collaborate closely with upstream free software project teams to try and provide the best experience for users; that access and integration of new features can hopefully lead to wider and further innovation. The Fedora Project aims to release a new version of its free operating system approximately every 6 months. According to Red Hat, this rapid development cycle encourages collaboration and the inclusion of the latest, most cutting-edge open-source features available. Fedora is built by community members from across the globe, and the Fedora Project’s transparent and open collaboration process has attracted more than 24,000 registered contributors.

In terms of virtualization technologies, Fedora 16 has been peppered with SPICE USB to offer sharing and audio volume messaging for virtualized desktops; Virtual Machines Lock Manager protects users from starting the same virtual machine twice or adding the same disk to two different virtual machines; and Virt-manager Guest Inspection allows read-only browsing of guest filesystems and the Windows Registry.

“The open source community sets a new bar for technical excellence in the creation of this release,” said leader of the Fedora Project Jared Smith. “Fedora 16 combines the newest advancements in open source virtualized and cloud computing environments with significant under-the hood-improvements — all while continuing to improve the operating system’s usability. The Fedora Project’s commitment to advancing free and open source software is absolutely reflected in what the community delivered in Fedora 16.”