Back in December we reported on drafted plans for revitalizing Fedora Games Lab to be a modern Linux gaming showcase. This Fedora Labs initiative has featured some open-source games paired with an Xfce desktop while moving forward they are looking to better position it as a modern Linux gaming showcase.
The Fedora Engineering and Steering Committee (FESCo) signed off this week on the Fedora 44 change proposal for overhauling Fedora Games Lab. Rather than the Xfce desktop, the KDE Plasma 6.6 desktop will be in use. Going with KDE Plasma allows for better Wayland support and enjoying all of the improvements made to Plasma thanks to Valve’s sponsorship and other contributions.
The change proposal lays out some of the new Fedora Games Lab plans as:
“The Games Lab has been on minimal maintenance for some time, with nearly all members having left. There have been many developments in the ecosystem that benefit gamers that could be pulled into this lab to make it a more compelling offering and potential platform of growth for Fedora. In the past ten years, there’s been signficant effort around Linux gaming, and the past five years have seen a meteoric rise in adoption of Linux for gaming. In that timeframe, technologies like Wayland and PipeWire have matured and now exclusively offer compelling features (such as HDR and VRR) that are increasingly considered critical to gaming.
As part of this rework, we are:
– Refreshing Fedora gaming documentation to showcase the new capabilities of Linux gaming, and give references to game playing, emulation, development, installation, ways to improve, etc.
– Providing an environment to upstream common gaming patches that provide functionality for handhelds and other gaming hardware, that have otherwise stayed within downstreams.
– Showcasing a strong set of open source games and creation tools to demonstrate what an open gaming platform is capable of.
– Leveraging the work of the Fedora KDE Plasma Desktop Edition as the basis for building our experience.
– Emphasizing the role of downstreams (ex. Bazzite) in delivering to the needs of users, by providing a commons for Fedora-based gaming focused downstreams to acheive common goals.”
With FESCo approval, the changes can happen for the current Fedora 44 cycle. It should be a nice improvement over the current Fedora 43 state of Fedora Games Lab:
