Fedora creates an innovative, free, and open source platform for hardware, clouds, and containers that enables software developers and community members to build tailored solutions for their users.
Fedora Workstation is a reliable, user-friendly, and powerful operating system for your laptop or desktop computer. It supports a wide range of developers, from hobbyists and students to professionals in corporate environments.
Features
Sleek User Interface.
Focus on your code in the GNOME 40 desktop environment. GNOME is built with developer feedback and minimizes distractions, so you can concentrate on what’s important.
Complete Open Source toolbox
Skip the drag of trying to find or build the tools you need. With Fedora’s complete set of open source languages, tools, and utilities, everything is a click or command line away. There’s even project hosting and repositories like COPR to make your code and builds available quickly to the community.
Virtualization.
Get virtual machines up and running quickly to test your code on multiple platforms using GNOME Boxes. Or dig into powerful, scriptable virtualization tools for even more control.
Containerize. Hack. Deploy.
Containerize your own applications or deploy containerized applications out of the box with built-in Open Container Initiative (OCI) image support.
If you are interested in giving Fedora a try on your current computer without running any risk, please check out our Guide: Running Linux From a USB Drive As a Virtual Machine or Bootable Disk.
Other Features:
- 100% Free & Open Source
- Fedora is 100% gratis and consists of free & open source software.
- Thousands of Free Apps!
- With thousands of apps across 10,000+ packages, Fedora’s got an app for you.
- Virus- and Spyware-Free
- No more antivirus and spyware hassles. Fedora is Linux-based and secure.
- Worldwide Community
- Built by a global community of contributors, there’s a local website for you.
- An Amazingly Powerful OS
- Fedora is the foundation for Red Hat Enterprise Linux, a powerful enterprise OS.
- Share it with Friends!
- Fedora is free to share! Pass it along to your friends and family, no worry.
- Beautiful Artwork
- Compute in style with many open & beautiful wallpapers and themes.
- Millions of Installations
- Fedora has been installed millions of times. It’s a large community to join.
What’s New
Complete release notes can be found here.
Tools for AI development
Fedora Linux 40 ships with our first-ever PyTorch package. PyTorch is a popular framework for deep learning, and it can be difficult to reliably install with the right versions of drivers and libraries and so on. The current package only supports running on the CPU, without GPU or NPU acceleration, but this is just the first step. Our aim is to produce a complete stack with PyTorch and other popular tools ready to use on a wide variety of hardware out-of-the-box.
We’re also shipping with ROCm 6 – open-source software that provides acceleration support for AMD graphics cards. We plan to have that enabled for PyTorch in a future release.
GNOME 46
Fedora Workstation 40 features GNOME 46, the latest version of the GNOME desktop environment. Key updates include a notable upgrade of the Files app, introducing new features and enhancements. Additionally, many aspects of accessibility have received improvements, ensuring a more inclusive user experience. The Settings app and other core apps have been refined for better usability. More details can be found in the GNOME 46 release notes.
Many other improvements have been made throughout GNOME 46, such as:
- Grouping of notifications by app. Now, each notification has a header. It shows the app’s name and icon. This makes it possible to see which app sent an alert. Notification now also has an expand button.
- You can now open a new window for apps pinned to the dash by adding the Ctrl modifier. For example: Super+Ctrl+1 opens a new window for the first app in the dash, complementing the existing shortcut of Super+
that launches the app itself. - By default, Tap to Click is now enabled for touchpad.
- GNOME 46 now features Remote Login option. You can remotely connect using RDP to a new dedicated desktop session when there isn’t an active session.
Core apps
GNOME’s core applications have had significant improvements in the new version. Some of these include:
Settings
GNOME 46 comes with exciting updates to the Settings app, making it more user-friendly than ever. The latest version has more keyboard mnemonics which make navigation easier. It also has a sleek modern interface. The appearance settings load faster than before and with sharper previews. This new release provides more precise control of Wacom stylus pressure.
In addition to the upgrades mentioned above, the Settings app has received major improvements that are worth mentioning:
- The Settings app has a new system panel. It groups Region & Language, Date & Time, Remote Desktop, and About into one settings pane. This new design makes the app easier to navigate.
- GNOME 46 has updated touchpad settings with two new options. The first, called Secondary Click, lets you choose how to perform a right-click on the touchpad: either with two fingers or by clicking in a corner. The second option allows you to keep the touchpad active while typing, which helps in some apps and games where you need to use the keyboard and touchpad at the same time.
Files
- One of the notable upgrades to Files is the introduction of a new global search feature. The global search feature lets you search files across all configured locations. You can search the contents of files, filter files by type and modification date, and search multiple locations at once. Click the icon next to the file path field to activate this feature.
- In GNOME 46, the sidebar dynamic progress section at the bottom allows you to monitor file operations more effectively with more details on their progress.
- Switching between list and grid views in Files now happens quickly. This fixes the lag noticed in prior versions.
- Other changes to the Files app include a new search field within the Files preferences. It helps find specific settings. There’s now also an option to show date and time in a consistent format, and improved network discovery. These refinements make managing files more efficient.
Other core applications have also received upgrades
- The Software app now displays verified badges for trusted Flathub apps, ensuring software authenticity.
- Maps app offers a new editing experience, support for dark mode, and expanded public transit routing.
- The Extensions and Calendar apps boast modernized designs and usability improvements.
- GNOME 46 upgrades Clocks and Contacts apps. It lets you set a timer quickly in Clocks. And, import multiple VCard files at once in Contacts.
- The Disks app has a new I/O resource graph for monitoring disk usage.
Performance Improvements
GNOME 46 provides substantial under-the-hood improvements for a more efficient and polished experience. Key improvements include:
- Reduced memory usage in search.
- Significant speed boosts in terminal apps.
- More appealing visuals as app interfaces appear sharper, text on the screen clearer, and UI elements more defined, particularly when using fractional display scales due to GTK’s new renders.
- Experimental support for Variable Refresh Rate (VRR) for smoother video performance. You can enable this feature with the command: gsettings set org.gnome.mutter experimental-features “[‘variable-refresh-rate’]”
Once enabled, the refresh rate can be set in the display settings.
Under-the-hood changes in Fedora Linux 40
Fedora Linux 40 features many under-the-hood changes. Here are some notable ones:
- IPV4 Address Conflict Detection is enabled by default in NetworkManager to address conflicts caused by duplicate IPV4 addresses in the same physical network.
- Fedora 40 integrates PyTorch directly into its software repository. This makes it easier for users to access the open source machine learning framework for their projects. Installation is now a breeze through a single command:
- sudo dnf install python3-torch
- Starting with Fedora Linux 40, the term “immutable” will no longer be used to describe all rpm-ostree based variants of Fedora Linux (Silverblue, Kinoite, Sway and Budgie). Instead, they will be referred to as “Atomic” desktops with Sericea now known as Fedora Atomic Sway. This change is part of a rebranding aimed at simplifying the naming conventions for Fedora spins. More information on this change may be found here.
