Fedora Linux this year continued in punctually shipping the very latest upstream Linux innovations from the freshest Wayland components to Linux kernel features and continuing to leverage other improvements in the open-source world.
Fedora enjoyed the successful Fedora 42 and Fedora 43 releases this year, including going with Wayland-noly GNOME and further phasing of 32-bit packages. Fedora’s KDE spin continued improving too and the Red Hat sponsored Linux distribution enjoyed a wealth of other improvements this year.
In reliving some of the best moments for Fedora Linux in 2025, below is a look at the top 30-most-viewed Phoronix articles this year around Fedora. I continue enjoying the latest Fedora Workstation releases on my main production laptop as well as various other systems in the lab and certainly look forward to see what they’ll introduce in 2026.
Fedora 43 Is Not Ready For Release Next Week
Fedora 43 had been planning for an early final target release date of 21 October. Unfortunately, that’s not going to happen as a “No-Go” was declared at the Fedora Linux 43 release meeting.
Fedora 42 Will Be Released Next Tuesday
Well here is a pleasant surprise, especially for those that recall the days long ago where Fedora Linux releases tend to be notoriously delayed… Fedora 42 is cleared for releasing next week Tuesday, 15 April, in meeting its “early target” release date.
Fedora 42 Looks To Ship Optimized Executables For Different x86_64 Capabilities
Fedora Linux has already supported making use of glibc HWCAPs for allowing libraries to be built for different x86_64 micro-architecture feature levels for performance-sensitive code where it can pay off when leveraging AVX/AVX2 or other newer Intel/AMD CPU instruction set extensions. For Fedora 42 is now a proposal to extend that further to allow binary executables to also leverage glibc HWCAPs for better performance.
Fedora 42 Released As A Fantastic Update To This Leading-Edge Linux Distribution
Fedora 42 is out today as a fabulous update to this prominent leading-edge Linux distribution sponsored by Red Hat. I’ve been running Fedora 42 on several systems already — including upgrading my main production system to it — and it’s been working out very well. Fedora 42 is packed full of new features and software updates making it a great H1’2025 Linux operating system release.
Fedora Linux 43 Now Available For Download
It’s Fedora 43 release day! This latest installment of Fedora Linux is now available for download with Fedora Workstation 43 using the GNOME 49 desktop, the modern Linux 6.17 kernel powering this distribution release, and many exciting improvements and other leading-edge software updates powering this Red Hat sponsored Linux distribution.
Fedora Linux 43 Cleared For Release Next Week
Fedora 43 complete with its rocket-themed default desktop background on Fedora Workstation 43 is cleared for lifting off next week.
Fedora Will Allow AI-Assisted Contributions With Proper Disclosure & Transparency
The Fedora Council has finally come to a decision on allowing AI-assisted contributions to the project. The agreed upon guidelines are fairly straight-forward and will permit AI-assisted contributions if it’s properly disclosed and transparent.
Fedora KDE Plasma Edition Aims To Appeal To Multimedia Enthusiasts & Content Creators
Back in November it was decided that the Fedora KDE Desktop Spin would be promoted to the same tier as the GNOME-based Fedora Workstation. Fedora KDE as an “Edition” status for Fedora 42 will now be on the same level as Fedora Workstation Edition. More details on those Fedora KDE Edition plans have now come to light.
Proposal To Ship XLibre As X11 Server Packages On Fedora Linux Is Withdrawn
The controversial proposal to replace the upstream X.Org X11 server packages on Fedora Linux with XLibre is not going to happen… At least not for now. The change proposal has been withdrawn prior to being voted on by the Fedora Engineering and Steering Committee (FESCo).
Fedora 43 Landing Emergency Change To Increase /boot Due To NVIDIA GPU Firmware & Other Bloat
Fedora 43 is working its way toward release in the coming weeks and is now going through a very late change. A change was announced and accepted today for increasing the size of the /boot partition. This is driven by the ever-increasing number of firmware files needed for different devices to function under Linux with open-source drivers. A large motivator to this change was the very large and growing NVIDIA GPU firmware file sizes for Nouveau and the future Nova driver.
New Features Approved For Fedora 43
With Fedora 42 having released last month, feature work on Fedora 43 continues heating up in working toward this next major Fedora Linux release due out around October.
Fedora Games Lab Looks To Be Revitalized As Modern Linux Gaming Showcase
One of the lesser known Fedora spins under the “Fedora Labs” initiative is the Fedora Games Lab that showcases some open-source games and can serve as an easy demonstrator for Linux gaming. Looking forward to 2026 with Fedora 44, there is a proposal to revitalize Fedora Games Lab to become a better showcase for the modern potential of Linux gaming.
Fedora 43 Beta Being Released Next Week
Fedora 43 Beta is declared a “GO” and ready for release next Tuesday.
Fedora 43 Cleared To Ship With Wayland-Only GNOME
The Fedora Engineering and Steering Committee (FESCo) today signed off on the planned change for Fedora 43 that the GNOME desktop will be Wayland-only: the GNOME X11 packages will be removed in this next Fedora Linux release.
Fedora’s FESCo To Decide Whether To Replace Upstream X.Org Server With XLibre Fork
In addition to the Fedora Engineering and Steering Committee (FESCo) having to decide on whether i686 support should end for Fedora Linux (including multilib), another contentious proposal is on replacing the X.Org X11 Server with the controversial XLibre fork.
Fedora 43 Change Proposal Filed For Removing GNOME X11 Packages: Wayland-Only GNOME
Following a lot of work in this direction toward the end goal of removing GNOME X11 support, this milestone may finally be acheived for the Fedora 43 cycle due out by the end of the year. A change proposal has been filed for removing the GNOME X11 packages in the repository and in turn making the GNOME desktop Wayland-only on Fedora Linux.
Fedora Cloud Looks To Switch /boot To Btrfs Subvolume
With Fedora 43 releasing in the coming weeks, Fedora stakeholders are beginning to plot their feature ideas for next year’s Fedora 44 release. One of the early F44 feature submissions pending approval is switching /boot on Fedora Cloud images to being a Btrfs file-system subvolume.
Fedora 44 Granted Approval For A Nicer NTSYNC Experience For Wine & Steam Play
Fedora stakeholders have been eyeing a nicer experience for NTSYNC usage with Wine and Steam Play by being able to have the NTSYNC kernel module load when it’s likely to be used. That approval has now been granted by the Fedora Engineering and Steering Committee (FESCo) for the Fedora 44 release.
Fedora 44 Looks To Drop i686 Support: No More Multi-Lib / x86 32-bit Packages
Fedora Linux for a while already stopped building i686 kernel releases and dropped their dedicated i686 repositories while now for the Fedora 44 release there is a proposal to take things further: finish gutting the i686 support. The new change proposal seeks to no longer include packages built for the i686 architecture and thereby dropping multi-lib support for 32-bit packages on 64-bit hosts. There wouldn’t be any packages built any longer for i686 under this F44 proposal.
Out-Of-Date OpenH264 On Fedora Is Frustrating Users With A High Severity CVE
While OpenH264 support coming to Fedora was widely celebrated as part of offering a better codec experience on Fedora Linux, an increasing number of Fedora users have grown frustrated with the OpenH264 packaging in that it’s been out-of-date for several months with a high severity security vulnerability.
Fedora 44 Looking At Replacing FBCON With KMSCON As Default VT Console
Fedora 44 is looking at replacing the Linux kernel’s console “FBCON” with the user-space-based KMSCON implementation. Eventually the hope remains to deprecate the FBCON/FBDEV code within the Linux kernel.
Fedora 42 Boot Splash Screen Looks To Workaround GPU Drivers Taking Too Long To Load
Linux kernel graphics drivers have been growing too much in size that they are taking too long to load at boot time for quickly lighting up the display to present the nice Plymouth boot splash experience. This has led to situations of the Plymouth boot splash screen falling back to its simple text-based interface after timing out. As a workaround, Fedora 42 is looking to use the generic “SimpleDRM” driver during this initial boot splash screen experience to initially avoid the bulky DRM drivers.
Nix Package Tool Approved For Availability In Fedora 44
Following approval of the /nix top-level directory with Fedora Linux, the Fedora Engineering and Steering Committee (FESCo) has additionally signed off on allowing the Nix package tool to appear in the Fedora 44 repository.
Fedora 42 Beta Released With Countless Improvements
The beta of Fedora Linux 42 is out this morning with countless improvements over the prior release. There is the near-final GNOME 48 desktop packages and a whole host of other software updates for living on the leading-edge of open-source software as well as boasting a number of new innovations that were made by Red Hat engineers.
Fedora Forge Announced For Modernizing Fedora’s Development & Collaboration
The Fedora Forge has been soft-launched for Fedora contributors to help modernize the development and collaboration tools around the Linux distribution.
Fedora 44 Cleared To Replace Kernel Console With User-Space KMSCON
A proposal was raised a month ago for Fedora Linux 44 to replace the kernel’s frame-buffer console “FBCON” with KMSCON in user-space. The Fedora Engineering and Steering Committee (FESCo) has now granted approval for making this change in Fedora 44 as part of a larger foal to eventually deprecate FBCON/FBDEV emulation in the kernel.
A Number Of Fedora 43 Features/Changes Delayed To Fedora 44
A number of yet-to-be-completed changes/features have been delayed from Fedora 43 to Fedora 44 while permission is granted for a few features to still land late in the Fedora 43 cycle.
Fedora Stakeholders Have Been Debating Whether To Retire GlusterFS
A discussion that originally started last summer has been reignited: whether it’s time to retire GlusterFS within Fedora Linux. But following discussions in recent days, there may be a new packager willing to take over but it doesn’t change the fact of declining upstream activity around GlusterFS.
Fedora SIG Proposed To Improve Production Stability
A Fedora special interest group is being proposed to help improve production stability of Fedora Linux and better handling incident management when problems do arise.
Fedora 44 Change Proposal Aims To Ensure A Nice Wine/Proton + NTSYNC Experience
A change proposal filed for next year’s Fedora 44 release wants to aim for a nice experience when running Wine or the Proton variants supporting the Linux kernel’s NTSYNC driver for better emulating the Microsoft Windows NT synchronization primitives.
