Fedora Core 3 also sees the introduction of the Mozilla Firefox browser and Thunderbird email client to the community developed and supported Linux distribution. Though Fedora Core 3 receives no formal support from Red Hat, the code will eventually find its way into Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4.
The major change in version 3 of the Fedora Core is the new targeted policy for the Security Enhanced Linux (SELinux) functionality originally developed by the National Security Association. First included in Fedora Core 2, SE Linux is an implementation of Mandatory Access Control in the Linux kernel, and provides granular permissions for users, programs, processes, files, and devices.
The rigorous nature of the original NSA strict policy for SELinux usage saw it being applied to all packages and environments, causing problems for some users and environments that led to the functionality being turned off by default in Fedora Core 2.
SELinux is now turned on by default with Fedora Core 3 but with a new targeted policy that locks down specific daemons, especially those most vulnerable to attack or that would have the most impact if compromised. Those programs not specified under the targeted policy run under standard Linux security conditions, while the strict policy can still be applied to the entire system if required.
Also new in Fedora Core 3 are version 3.4 of the GCC compiler, version 2.8 of Gnome, version 3.3 of KDE, version 2.0 of the Evolution mail client, and new remote desktop, terminal services functionality based on the open source Virtual Network Computing software.
The release of Fedora Core 3 means that the original Fedora Core 1 release has now moved into the hands of the Fedora Legacy Project, a community-supported open source project that is not actually part of Red Hat but does have its approval. While Fedora Core 1 is no longer being developed, the Fedora Legacy Project will continue to provide security and critical bug fixes for the code.
