Apr 20, 2025, updated at Apr 21, 2025 at 00:04:05 (UTC)

Fedora Linux 42 Now Available

Fedora Workstation 42: A Overview of New Features and Technical Highlights

Fedora Workstation 42 delivers an impressive array of innovations and improvements that benefit both regular users and developers. From a new web-based installer to advanced technical features, this release sets new standards in the Linux desktop space.

The New Anaconda Web UI Installer: Making Installation Easy

Fedora 42 introduces the new web-based Anaconda installer as the standard solution. This fundamental redesign offers:

A modernized, user-friendly interface with intuitive guidance
Clear help text and progress indicators
The option to skip certain installation steps
Significantly simplified partitioning for beginners
A quick installation option for experienced users
Improved support for dual-boot configurations with other operating systems

GNOME 48: Desktop Environment with Numerous Improvements

The Workstation edition ships with GNOME 48 and brings these highlights:

Well-Being Feature: Analyzes screen time and reminds you to take regular breaks
Dynamic Triple Buffering: Provides noticeably smoother animations and reduces stuttering
Stacked Notifications: App notifications are intelligently grouped for better overview
New System Fonts: Adwaita Sans and Adwaita Mono offer a fresh appearance
Extended Image Editing: The image viewer receives basic editing functions
HDR Support: Improved display of HDR content
Time zone function in the calendar app
Better Accessibility: The Orca screen reader is now fully usable under Wayland

KDE Plasma as an Equal Edition for the First Time

A milestone in Fedora history: KDE Plasma is no longer a spin variant but an official main edition on par with GNOME. Version 6.3.4 brings:

Full support on all platforms, including PowerPC and ARM
Emulation of x86 applications on non-x86 systems
The full range of features of the popular KDE interface

COSMIC: The New Rust-based Desktop as an Official Spin

For the first time, the COSMIC desktop developed by System76 is available as an official spin. Although still in alpha stage, it already impresses with:

Efficient window tiling for productive work
Intelligent tab switching
High adaptability to personal workflows
Modern Rust codebase for stability and performance

Windows Integration: Fedora Now Officially Available for WSL

Windows users can rejoice: Fedora 42 offers official images for the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) for the first time. This enables:

Easy entry into the Fedora world without dual boot or virtualization
Seamless integration of Linux development tools in Windows
Official support from the Fedora project

Speech Recognition: IBus Speech-to-Text

The new offline speech control ibus-speech-to-text enables:

Voice input in all IBus-compatible applications
Multilingual support without cloud connection
Privacy-friendly local processing

DNF5: Improved Package Management

The DNF5 package manager brings improvements in system maintenance:

Automatic removal of expired repository keys
Increased security during software upgrades
Simplified package management

Developer Tools Up to Date

Fedora 42 delivers a wealth of updated developer tools:

GCC 15 and binutils 2.44
glibc 2.41 and gdb 15+
Golang 1.24 and LLVM 20
PHP 8.4
Python 3.13.3
Ruby 3.4
PostgreSQL 17

Note: Python 3.8 and PostgreSQL 15 have been removed from the repository, PostgreSQL 16 is available.

Technical Innovations Under the Hood

Copy-on-Write (CoW): All Fedora editions now support CoW based on Btrfs reflinking
Improved ARM Support: Optimizations for Apple Silicon and other ARM systems
FEX Emulation Stack: Enables running x86 applications on ARM hardware

Upgrade to Fedora 42 using the graphical method with GNOME Software

For most desktop users, the easiest way to upgrade to Fedora 42 is to use the graphical software application:

Open the GNOME Software application
Go to the Updates tab
A notification about the new Fedora release will appear. Click Download and begin the upgrade process.

Upgrade to Fedora 42 via Terminal

For those who prefer working with the command line, here are the steps to upgrade to Fedora 42:

# Bring system up to date
sudo dnf upgrade --refresh

# Install DNF plugin for system upgrades (if not already present)
sudo dnf install dnf-plugin-system-upgrade

# Download the upgrade to Fedora 42
sudo dnf system-upgrade download --releasever=42

# Reboot system and perform upgrade
sudo dnf system-upgrade reboot

Important notes:

Be sure to create a backup of your important data before upgrading
Plan enough time, as download and installation can take several hours depending on internet speed and system
Ensure your system is powered throughout the entire process

After rebooting, you'll find yourself in a fresh Fedora 42 installation with all the new features described above.

Farewell and Preview

Fedora 42 marks the end of an era: It is the last release under the leadership of project leader Matthew Miller. His successor will be Jef Spaleta, who will shape the future of the project.

Blog: https://fedoramagazine.org/whats-new-fedora-workstation-42/
Download: https://fedoraproject.org/

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Printed on: April 21, 2025 at 04:04 o'clock

Information RedHat, Fedora, CentOS

Series: Fedora

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