“Today, I’m excited to share the results of the hard work of thousands of Fedora Project contributors: our latest release, Fedora Linux 35, is here! While we broke our six-release streak of on-schedule releases, we felt it was more important to resolve a few outstanding blocking bugs. Fedora believes that software has to be usable to be useful, so while we know that a predictable schedule is important, we also ensure that every release meets our criteria, no matter what the calendar says.
A Fedora Linux for every use case
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.
We’re excited for you to try out the new release! Go to https://getfedora.org/ and download it now. Or if you’re already running Fedora Linux, follow the easy upgrade instructions. For more information on the new features in Fedora Linux 35, see the release notes.
In the unlikely event of a problem…
If you run into a problem, check out the F35 Common Bugs page, and if you have questions, visit our Ask Fedora user-support platform.
Thank you everyone
Thanks to the thousands of people who contributed to the Fedora Project in this release cycle, and especially to those of you who worked extra hard to make this another terrific release during a pandemic. Fedora is a community, and it’s great to see how much we’ve supported each other. Be sure to join us November 12–13 for a virtual release party!”