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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE April 8, 2014 Read it online: http://bit.ly/1hUQw2G Fedora 4 Call to Action–Test Your Favorite Feature! Winchester, MA A Fedora 4.0 beta will be released in time for Open Repositories 2014. The full list of features to be included in the 4.0 beta and the release is available here. One of the primary goals of Fedora 4 is to produce stable, production-ready software that can be used by the entire repository community. The objective of the 4.0 release is to give the development team an opportunity to receive feedback from early adopters and improve the stability of the software before recommending it for existing Fedora 3 repositories. To this end, the initial Fedora 4.0 release is targeted at new installations, not migrations from existing Fedora installations. There are a number of desirable features, including support for migrations from earlier versions of Fedora, that are not scheduled to appear in the 4.0 release. Instead, these features will be scheduled, based on priority and available development resources, for upcoming releases in the 4.x line. Migration support is a particularly important feature, so this is likely to be included in the 4.1 release. All planned features, along with their associated use cases, can be found on the wiki. The timeline for the 4.0 release, along with further releases in the 4.x line, is subject to the level of community engagement. Fedora 4 is designed, developed, tested, and documented entirely based on community contributions. For Fedora 4 to be a successful project these contributions need to continue. There are at least three ways to contribute: Acceptance Testing Fedora 4.0 features are tied to use cases submitted by members of the community. Once a use case is considered to be satisfied by the development team, it goes back to the community for acceptance testing. No use case or feature is considered complete until it has been validated by the community. The 4.0 feature set, with associated use cases, can be found in the wiki. Acceptance testing can be as simple as loading up the one-click installer, testing a specific feature, and providing feedback. More information can be found on the Acceptance Testing page in the wiki. If you are interested in testing a use case or feature, please contact David Wilcox ([log in to unmask]). Beta Pilots In addition to acceptance testing, we also need more in-depth testing in the form of Beta Pilots. Institutions participating as Beta Pilots will sign a letter of agreement to commit to a 4-6 month testing phase where they will install the Fedora 4.0 beta, ingest a variety of content, and test the software as extensively as possible. The Fedora Product Manager and Fedora Tech Lead will work with these institutions to hold regular update meetings and to produce a detailed report at the end of the six month Beta Pilot period. Participating institutions will have access to support from the Fedora 4 developer community, including the Fedora mailing lists, IRC channel, and regular meetings. They will also be referenced in press releases and other materials relating to the launch of Fedora 4.0. Developer Commitments Fedora 4 is developed entirely by volunteers from the community. The current set of volunteer commitments extends until the end of June, so we need to line up the following six months of commitments soon. These commitments are essential to Fedora 4 development; without them, we will be unable to deliver a 4.0 release or subsequent releases in the 4.x line. The Fedora 4 development team follows an Agile “Scrum” methodology; developers sign up for a number of two-week code sprints, and they are expected to be fully committed to the development team for the length of each scheduled sprint. Any institution that commits a developer for at least 0.5 FTE over the six month period is eligible to sit on the Leadership Group, which helps guide the software in the right direction. Please contact Andrew Woods ([log in to unmask]) to sign up and join the team!