Fedora 21 released in cloud, server and workstation variants

BANGALORE, INDIA: The Fedora Project, a Red Hat, Inc., sponsored and community-driven open source collaboration, today announced the general availability of Fedora 21. This is the first Fedora release influenced by the Fedora.next initiative, which emphasizes increased modularity and flexibility from the Fedora operating system.  As part of this effort, Fedora 21 offers three variants: Fedora 21 Cloud, Fedora 21 Server, and Fedora 21 Workstation.

While each variant aims to meet specific user demands, all are built from a common base set of packages that includes the same Linux kernel, RPM, yum, systemd, and Anaconda.  This small, stable set of components allows for a solid foundation upon which to base the Fedora 21 variants.

Designed to handle the myriad of computing requirements across different cloud deployments, Fedora 21 Cloud provides images for use in private cloud environments, like OpenStack, and Amazon Machine Images (AMIs) for use on Amazon Web Services (AWS), as well as a base image to enable creation of Fedora containers. Key features of Fedora 21 Cloud include:

The Fedora 21 Server variant offers a common base platform for running featured application stacks (produced, tested, and distributed by the Fedora Server Working Group), providing a flexible foundation for Web servers, file servers, database servers, and even Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) deployments.

Revitalizing the Linux desktop, Fedora Workstation provides a polished, targeted system designed to offer a smooth experience for general desktop use as well as software development, from independent Web developers to corporate coders.

Matthew Miller, Fedora Project Leader, said “There is no place for monolithic technology in today’s computing world — end users are seeking tailored yet flexible platforms to build their own custom solutions, be it a network server environment, a scale-out application, or a comfortable desktop environment serving as an interface to more complex systems. The Fedora community needed to keep pace with these demands while still delivering the cutting-edge Linux innovation for which we are known.  With Fedora 21, we are able to address specific use cases across the desktop, the server room and the cloud,  bringing to light new developer tools, enabling specific server roles, and providing a powerful, lightweight host for containerized applications.”