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The Fedora 13 “Goddard” Alpha release is now available! You can participate by testing the Alpha release and reporting all bugs to the Fedora QA team. Here’s a message from Jesse Keating:

The Alpha release contains all the features of Fedora 13 in a form that anyone can help test. This testing, guided by the Fedora QA team, helps us target and identify bugs. When these bugs are fixed, we make a Beta release available. A Beta release is code-complete, and bears a very strong resemblance to the third and final release. The final release of Fedora 13 is due in May.

We need your help to make Fedora 13 the best release yet, so please take a moment of your time to download and try out the Alpha and make sure the things that are important to you are working. If you find a bug, please report it — every bug you uncover is a chance to improve the experience for millions of Fedora users worldwide. Together, we can make Fedora a rock-solid distribution. (Read down to the end of the announcement for more information on how to help.)

If you want to be involved with Fedora, this is a great way to make a contribution.

I have been using Linux Mint 8 this past month. I love it. Why the switch from Ubuntu? Well, It’s not just the mint green color, although I think it’s an upgrade from Ubuntu’s drab brown. The Main Edition, the flagship release of Linux Mint, provides full multimedia support out of the box, meaning that you can listen to MP3’s watch DVD’s and view web pages that require Flash technology right after install. Simply put, it just works with minimal tweaking.

Why Mint? There are over 300 Linux distributions. Everyone has their own favorite. I chose Linux Mint because it’s based from Ubuntu. It’s something I’m very familiar with. I was a bit surprised to know that Linux Mint ranks third on the DistroWatch ranking trailing only Ubuntu and Fedora. Linux Mint 8 is my favorite at the moment, until something better comes along. Switching distros for me is easy since I keep all my documents in a USB stick. Reformatting a disk and installing a new distro takes only 15 to 20 minutes.

Here are a couple of Linux Mint 8 reviews from Linux Planet and DistroWatch.

Here’s a nice article to get you started if you are interested in learning how to build a RPM package. If you are running a RPM-based distribution such as Redhat, Fedora, Mandriva, Caldera, Turbo Linux, and many others, this article is for you. The instructions will walk you through a step-by-step process on how to build a RPM package. Read more.

It looks like Fedora will use Moblin for netbooks and portable computers. Moblin is an open source platform optimized for for netbooks, mobile devices, and in-vehicle infotainment devices. It’s similar to Ubuntu’s Netbook Remix. Moblin running in Fedora will most likely be called “Fedora Mini,” which will be part of the upcoming Fedora 12 release.

The long awaited Fedora 11 is finally here. Delayed by two weeks, the Fedora Project Team finally announced just moments ago the release of Fedora 11 a.k.a. Leonidas. You can download Fedora 11 on single CD with either a Gnome or a KDE environment. Fedora boasts a 20 second boot time using the default Ext4 file system. Fedora 11 comes with new versions of KDE 4.2.2 and Gnome 2.26.1, Firefox 3.5 Beta, Thunderbird 3 Beta, new artwork and a host of other things. Read more.