Fedora Linux[7] is a Linux distribution developed by the Fedora Project.
It was originally developed in
2003 as a continuation of the Red Hat Linux project. It contains software distributed under various free
and open-source licenses and aims to be on the leading edge of open-source technologies.[8][9][10] It is
now the upstream source for CentOS Stream and Red Hat Enterprise Linux.[11][12]
Since the release of Fedora 21 in December 2014, three editions have been made available: personal
computer, server and cloud computing. This was expanded to five editions for containerization and
Internet of Things (IoT) as of the release of Fedora 37 in November 2022.[13][14] A new version of
Fedora Linux is released every six months.[15]
As of February 2016, Fedora Linux has an estimated 1.2 million users,[16] and is also the distro of choice
by Linus Torvalds (as of May 2020), creator of the Linux kernel.[17][18][19]
Features
Fedora has a reputation for focusing on innovation, integrating new technologies early on and working
closely with upstream Linux communities.[10][20] Making changes upstream instead of specifically for
Fedora Linux ensures that the changes are available to all Linux distributions.
Fedora Linux has a relatively short life cycle: Each version is usually supported for at least 13 months,
where version X is supported only until 1 month after version X+2 is released and with approximately 6
months between most versions.[21] Fedora users can upgrade from version to version without
reinstalling.[22][23]
The default desktop environment is GNOME, and the default user interface is the GNOME Shell. Other
desktop environments are available, including KDE Plasma, Xfce, LXQt, LXDE, MATE, Cinnamon, i3,
Budgie, and Sway.[24][25]
A live media drive can be created using Fedora Media Writer or the dd command,[26] allowing users to
try Fedora Linux without changing their hard drives.
Package management
Most Fedora Linux editions use the RPM package management system, using DNF as a tool to manage
the RPM packages.[27] DNF uses libsolv, an external dependency resolver.[27] Flatpak is also included
by default, and support for Snap packages can be added. Fedora Linux uses Delta RPM when updating
installed packages to provide delta updates. A Delta RPM contains the difference between an old and
new version of a package. This means that only the changes between the installed package and the new
one are downloaded, reducing network traffic and bandwidth consumption.
The Fedora CoreOS and Silverblue editions use rpm-ostree,[28] a hybrid transactional image/package
system to manage the host. Traditional DNF (or other systems) should be used in containers.
Security
Fedora Linux uses Security-Enhanced Linux by default, which implements a variety of security policies,
including mandatory access controls, which Fedora adopted early on.[29] Fedora provides a hardening
wrapper, and does hardening for all of its packages by using compiler features such as position-
independent executable (PIE).[30] Fedora also ships with firewalld as a default firewall.
Software
Fedora Workstation comes preinstalled with a wide range of software such as LibreOffice and Firefox.
Additional software is available from the software repositories and can be installed using the DNF
package manager or GNOME Software.
Additionally, extra repositories can be added to the system, so that software not available in Fedora
Linux can be installed easily.[31] Software that is not available via official Fedora repositories, either
because it does not meet Fedora's definition of free software or because its distribution may violate US
law, can be installed using third-party repositories. Popular third-party repositories include RPM Fusion
free and non-free repositories. Fedora also provides users with an easy-to-use build system for creating
their own repositories called Copr.[32]
Since the release of Fedora 25, the operating system defaults to the Wayland display server protocol,
which replaced the X Window System.[33]
