Fedora 13 Spotlight Feature: NetworkManager Gets Even More Connected

As with previous Fedora releases, we’ll once again be highlighting some of the new and improved features in a series of blogs leading up to our latest release, Fedora 13, anticipated in mid-May. First up on our list is NetworkManager.

NetworkManager is used by most modern Linux distributions – not just Fedora – to help users get online quickly and easily. But did you know that NetworkManager was created by a Red Hat engineer? And that it got its start in Fedora?

NetworkManager started in 2005 as the brainchild of Red Hat developer Dan Williams, as his answer to the challenge of making networking in Linux simple and painless for users. NetworkManager rapidly grew from primarily being a wireless helper into a full-featured solution that was still simple and elegant enough to meet the needs of desktop users. This evolution happened as a result of the Fedora community embracing this new idea and helping to nurture it through a process of testing and refinement. Fedora’s success as a community-powered R&D lab for new ideas has resulted in many technologies that are essential parts of the modern Linux desktop, NetworkManager being just one example.

As a result of these rapid iterations and resulting momentum, NetworkManager is used in most major distributions today, including Fedora. Users of Fedora 13 will be able to experience some of the newest features in NetworkManager 0.8.1, including:

• Bluetooth dial-up networking (DUN), which allows connections through older style Bluetooth phones that don’t support newer personal area networking (PAN)
• Mobile broadband status, which gives users a readout of signal strength and roaming before they connect

You can read much more about NetworkManager and its creator here on the Fedora wiki. And to see these features in action, you can try out the Fedora 13 Beta pre-release, which is available here. The final release of Fedora 13 is scheduled for mid-May. Keep your eyes peeled for additional blogs highlighting other cool features slated for Fedora 13.