Today the Fedora Project announced the launch of Fedora 13 beta, codenamed Goddard, after the rocket scientist of the same name.

"Rather than spend our time inefficiently trying to depart from the collaborative model, we embrace it. That means that our distribution serves as a force to better integrate technology from upstream -- not hack around it," said Paul Frields, Fedora Project Leader.

With Goddard comes a number of updates and new features for end users and developers alike. For the first time in Fedora history it's possible to install a Python 3 stack in parallel to the current Python 2.6, allowing developers to better optimize and increase the compatibility of their work.

Another treat for developers is an improved GNU debugger that allows unified information for C/C++ libraries and Python, all in the same running process.

Sys admins can now roll back entire file system states thanks to improvements to the btrfs file system.

In addition to plenty of improvements for developers and sys admins, The new release includes some new features for end users. Zarafa replaces Exchange as the included email client and PackageKit, an entirely new application, detects a user's actions and offers to install software assistants.

These automated features help to make Fedora more accessible, something Frields and his team strive for with each release of the OS. "I'm very excited about the improvements we've made to how the hardware 'just works' in Fedora."

Included in the beta are open source drivers for most NVidia, ATI and Intel video cards, automatic print driver support, automatic codec installation, and automatic content syncing for music devices –– yes, even for the iPhone and iPod line. The Fedora 13 beta runs the Gnome 2.30 desktop as its default UI.

The beta, documentation, and wiki can be found here. Frields says the beta period will last through May 4 and recommends that people interested in the beta create a live USB key. Instructions on how to do that can be found here.

"The feedback we get from community testers is a vital part of open source development. We can't fix bugs we don't know about," he said.