The Fedora 18 "Spherical Cow" Beta release is rolling! This release offers a
preview of some of the best free and open source technology currently under
development.

We are delighted to announce the availability of the beta release of Fedora
18. Want to get a taste of the future? Download it now:

http://fedoraproject.org/get-prerelease

*** What is the Beta Release? ***

The Beta release is the last important milestone of Fedora 18. Only critical
bug fixes will be pushed as updates leading to the general release of Fedora 18
in the beginning of the next year. We invite you to join us in making Fedora
18 a solid release by downloading, testing, and providing your valuable
feedback.

Of course, this is a beta release, meaning that some problems may still be
lurking. A list of the problems we already know about is found at the Common
F18 bugs page, seen here: http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Common_F18_bugs

There is a new upgrade system for Fedora 18 making its first appearance in
Fedora 18 Beta. Upgrading via the system installer or the preupgrade tool is
no longer possible. To upgrade to Fedora 18 from Fedora 17, you should use the
new "Fedup" tool. Instructions and information on the new tool are here:
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FedUp. The tool is still under active
development, please take a look at the FedUp FAQ (in the wiki page) in case of
any issues with the upgrade process, and back up your system before trying the
upgrade.

*** Features ***

This release of Fedora includes a variety of features both over and under the
hood that show off the power and flexibility of the advancing state of free
software. Here are just a few of the new features:

= For users everywhere =
* Fedora 18 offers a brand-new version of the Gnome desktop, version 3.6,
straight from the upstream development process. Updates have also been made to
the KDE Plasma Workspaces, XFCE and Sugar]desktop environments; additionally,
the MATE desktop is available for the first time in Fedora.
* Fedora's new installer user interface enhances the anaconda installer with
improvements in ease of use and installation.

= For developers =
* This release includes several language updates, including the move to Perl
5.16, updating the Python 3 stack from 3.2 to 3.3, Rails 3.2 and updated D and
Haskell programming environments.

= For system administrators =
* Fedora 18 includes the final release of Samba 4, and can be used on an
Active Directory domain member out of the box. An integrated, new native
management software allows you to access data and server information easily.
* OpenStack in Fedora 18 has been updated to Folsom, the most recent release
by the OpenStack community. This Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) platform
enables the creation and management of cloud infrastructure.
* Eucalyptus 3.1, another IaaS platform, is available in Fedora for the first
time, and includes the major components of Eucalyptus.
* System Storage Management CLI tools simplify the user interface by
providing unified abstraction and interface for multiple storage technologies,
including lvm, btrfs and md raid.

For more Features, please take a look on the complete list:
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Releases/18/FeatureList

*** Contributing ***

Great releases like Fedora 18 don't get made in a vacuum. We can't do it
without you! Bug reports are especially helpful as we move from the theory to
the applied physics. If you encounter any issues, please report them!

Fedora is a fantastic, friendly community, and we have many ways in which you
can contribute, including Documentation, Marketing, Design, QA, Development,
and more.

To learn how to help us, visit:
http://join.fedoraproject.org/

Thank you, and we hope to see you in the Fedora Project!