Fedora Editions are targeted outputs geared toward specific “showcase” uses on the desktop, in server & cloud environments, and for the Internet of Things.
Fedora Workstation focuses on the desktop, and in particular, it’s geared toward software developers who want a “just works” Linux operating system experience. This release features GNOME 41, which builds on the reimagining of desktops in GNOME 40 (which shipped in Fedora Workstation 34). GNOME 41 includes improvements in power management. GNOME Software has also been overhauled in GNOME 41 to make it easier to browse and discover applications. It also introduces Connections, a new client for VNC- and RDP-based remote desktop.
We’ve made some improvements in Fedora Cloud for this release. Since many public cloud providers now support UEFI boot, Cloud images have hybrid boot support, unifying the legacy (BIOS) and UEFI boot modes. Following the change to BTRFS as the default file system in Fedora Linux 33, Fedora Cloud 35 now uses BTRFS.
Of course, we produce more than just the Editions. Fedora Spins and Labs target a variety of audiences and use cases, including Fedora Comp Neuro, which provides tools for computational neuroscience, and desktop environments like Fedora LXQt, which provides a lightweight desktop environment. New in Fedora Linux 35 is Fedora Kinoite: a reprovisionable desktop system featuring the KDE Plasma desktop. And, don’t forget our alternate architectures: ARM AArch64, Power, and S390x.
Desktop improvements We switched the default audio system to PipeWire in Fedora Linux 34, and now we’re improving this by adding the new WirePlumber session manager. WirePlumber allows for more customization of the policy and rules for audio and video. It provides a richer development experience and adds bindings for most languages.
If you enable the third-party repositories that ship in Fedora Linux desktop variants, those repositories are now immediately available. Additionally, enabling third-party repositories now makes selected Flathub applications available via a filtered Flathub remote. This eases access to a curated list of applications that will not cause legal or other problems for Fedora to point to, does not overlap Fedora Flatpaks, and works reasonably well. Of course, you can always get the full set of applications available in Flathub by adding the remote.
Other updates No matter what variant of Fedora you use, you’re getting the latest the open source world has to offer. Following our “First” foundation, we’ve updated key programming language and system library packages, including Python 3.10, Perl 5.34, and PHP 8.0. Fedora Linux 35 also includes the 1.0 release of firewalld, the modern firewall service.
