FC5t2 new stuff

["Robert G. (Doc) Savage" <dsavage@peaknet.net>]

Lotsa stuff in the T2 release notes:

- "Revamped look & feel": new theme, wallpaper, screensaver and logo
- Gnome 2.13.2
- KDE 3.5 rc2
- Tech previews of GNOME power manager and screensaver
- OpenOffice.org v2.0 final release
- xorg X11R7 rc3 -- first modular version
- mono (!!)   <-- all kinds of discussion possibilities here
- Kernel 2.6.14 with software suspend enabled
- pup graphical updater using yum
- gcc4.1 compiler
- pcmciautils replaces pcmcia-cs and the cardmgr/pcmcia service
- SELinux replaces targeted & strict policies with reference policy
- Xen and yum now integrated into Fedora installer
- System Tap instrumentation system for debugging & analysis
- Frysk execution analysis technology for monitoring running processes
or threads.

Installation stuff:
- firewall/SELinux setups moved to firstboot
- serial mice no longer supported in installer
- screensaver no longer installed by default
- PPC support looks very comprehensive in this release
        [Oh sure, now that Apple is switching to Intel :-/ ]

Package specific stuff:
- OpenSSH v3.9: strict permission/ownership checks for ~/.ssh/config.
        ssh exits if not owned by owner of ~/ and permissions set to
        600.
- X11 forwarding is now disabled by default
        must use -X or -Y, or edit ~/.ssh/config.
- No separate SMP kernels for x86_64 -- all provide SMP capability

Security stuff:
- pam-stack module is deprecated and may be removed in a future release.
- buffer overflow detection added using fstack-protector

Developer stuff:
- Java improvements
        GNU Java runtime (libgcj), Eclipse Java compiler (ecj), and
        wrappers/links (java-gcj-compat) allow Openoffice.org Base,
        Eclipse, Apache Tomcat and others to run "normally"
- So many differences, Sun's JRE tarball should be installed in /opt
- GCJ compiler can now be used as just-in-time (JIT) tools with gnu.git
- SCIM has replaced IIIMF
- LinuxThreads library no longer available -- NPTL is only thread model

Multimedia stuff:
- rhythmbox, totem, and Helix Player are installed by default
- other stuff, including xmms, Adobe/Macromedia Flash Player, Real
Player, VLC, mplayer, and xine are in extras for licensing reasons.
- ALSA is default sound system
        "This means that many programs can play sound simultaneously,
        which was once difficult on Linux systems. When all multimedia
        software is configured to use ALSA for sound support, this old
        limitation disappears." [Too bad there's still a lot of stuff
        that expects OSS.]
- MP3 & DVD
        "Fedora Core and Fedora Extras cannot include support for MP3 or
        DVD playback or recording because [these] formats are patented
        and the patent owners have not provided the necessary licenses."

Web stuff:
- Apache v2.2
- all modules for 2.0 must be rebuilt for 2.2
- php 5.1

Samba stuff:
- browsing of Windows shares now possible

-- Doc
Robert G. (Doc) Savage, BSE(EE), CISSP, RHCE | Fairview Heights, IL
Fedora Core 4 kernel 2.6.14-1.1656_FC4 on a P-III/M IBM Thinkpad A22p
            ** Bob Costas for Baseball Commissioner **


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