AIGLX, from the Fedora Rendering Project, is part of the upstream X.org 7.1 release included in Fedora Core 6. X.org compositing is enabled by default in this release. Compositing features in Metacity, the default window manager provided in GNOME, are disabled in this release. When desktop effects are enabled, Metacity is replaced by Compiz, an OpenGL compositing window manager that uses AIGLX to provide desktop effects.

To enable the fancy desktop effects, follow these steps:

If you get stuck, refer to the following thread:

A list of hardware that supports these effects is available at http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/RenderingProject/aiglx.

The performance for the yum software management utility has been greatly improved in Fedora Core 6. The repository metadata parser has now been implemented in C. A new mirror management infrastructure also ensures better mirror selection and, in most cases, faster performance. The Pirut package management tool and the Pup software update utility are based on yum, so their performance is likewise improved.

This release features GNOME 2.16. Many of the changes in GNOME 2.16, such as Tomboy and the GNOME Power Manager, were added in Fedora Core 5. Fedora Core 6 also features the Orca screen reader, and the Alacarte menu editor previously available from Fedora Extras.

The GNOME Power Manager utility now provides detailed, graphical information about power consumption. To access this information, right click on the applet and select the Information menu item.

The GNOME splash screen has been disabled upstream intentionally. To enable it, use gconf-editor or the following command:

gconftool-2 --set /apps/gnome-session/options/show_splash_screen --type bool true 

The lock screen dialog theme is not connected to the selected screensaver in this release. To enable it, use gconf-editor or the following command:

gconftool-2 --set  --type string /apps/gnome-screensaver/lock_dialog_theme  "system"  

There is no longer a browser suite package contained in Fedora Core 6. The mozilla package has been removed. For equivalent functionality, use firefox as a web browser and thunderbird as a mail client, or use seamonkey, a browser suite distributed in Fedora Extras.

To better support certain scripts (such as Indic and some CJK scripts), Fedora builds its Firefox using the Pango system as its text renderer. Pango is used with the permission of the Mozilla Corporation. This change may negatively impact performance on some pages. To disable the use of Pango, set MOZ_DISABLE_PANGO=1 in your environment before launching Firefox.

export MOZ_DISABLE_PANGO=1
/usr/bin/firefox

Gecko based browsers Firefox and Epiphany now properly render MathML when using the Pango text backend. Additionally, several issues with the rendering and behavior of text when using the Pango text backend have been resolved. Epiphany now renders using Pango by default.

Thunderbird in Fedora now enables Pango by default for all locales with permission from the Mozilla Corporation. This change may negatively impact performance on some pages. To disable the use of Pango, set MOZ_DISABLE_PANGO=1 in your environment before launching Thunderbird.

export MOZ_DISABLE_PANGO=1
/usr/bin/thunderbird