First off, there will be a huge increase in the programming tools available for users. There will now be support for a new programming language, called D. According to documentation on the Fedora Project Website, D is "a systems programming language combining the power and high performance of C and C++ with the programmer productivity of modern languages such as Ruby and Python." There will also be updates to the Python and Perl packages. Python will be upgraded to 2.7, and Perl is going from version 5.12 to version 5.2.

For IDEs, Netbeans and Eclipse will be sporting new releases as well. Netbeans will be migrating to version 6.9, and Eclipse to the Helios Release. There is also a new IDE called GNUStep. This will allow for development of Objective-C programs that it compatible with the Cocoa framework. Hmm, that combination of language and framework sounds familiar. I certainly hope that goes in the direction I am thinking it's going.

This is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to developer-specific improvements made in Fedora 14, not to mention the overall improvements made to other areas of the operating system. To get your copy of this OS, head over to FedoraProject.org to download the free liveCD, or to find upgrade instructions if you are already running Fedora on your system. I happen to still be a little gun-shy from my last Fedora upgrade, but after seeing what I'm missing out on, I plan on taking the plunge sooner than later.