Fedora version history

Version history

Releases of Red Hat Linux are listed here.

Fedora 25

Fedora 25 was released on November 22, 2016. Some notable changes (see for more) are the use of the Wayland display system, Unicode 9, PHP 7.0, Node.js 6 and IBus Emoji typing.

Fedora 24

Fedora 24 was released on June 21, 2016. Some notable system wide changes (see for more) are the use of GNOME 3.20, GCC6, and Python3.5.

Fedora 23

Fedora 23 was released on November 3, 2015.

It offers GNOME 3.18.

It comes with LibreOffice 5.

The Fedora release updater, fedup, was integrated into DNF.

It uses a Python3 (specifically python3.4.3) as the operating system's default Python implementation.

See also.

Fedora 22

Fedora 22 was released on May 26, 2015.

Major features include:

GNOME 3.16 with a completely redesigned notification system and automatically hiding scrollbars

DNF replacing yum as the default package manager

the default display server for the GNOME Display Manager being Wayland instead of Xorg

Fedora 21

Fedora 21, the first version without a codename, was released on December 9, 2014.

GNOME 3.14

Fedora now has three flavors providing different specialized set of preinstalled packages depending on use purpose: Workstation, Server and Desktop

Fedora 20

Fedora 20, codenamed "Heisenbug", was released on December 17, 2013.

Some of the features of Fedora 20 include:

GNOME 3.10

ARM as primary architecture in addition to x86 and x86_64

Replacement of the gnome-packagekit frontends with a new application installer, tentatively named gnome-software

Fedora 19

Fedora 19, codenamed "Schrödinger's Cat", was released on July 2, 2013. Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 and other derivatives are based on Fedora 19.

Some of the features of Fedora 19 include:

Further improvements to the new Anaconda installer

A new initial setup application

Support to application checkpointing through CRIU

Default desktop upgraded to GNOME 3.8

Updated to 4.10 and MATE 1.6

MariaDB has replaced MySQL

GCC has been updated to version 4.8

RPM Package Manager has been updated to version 4.11

Includes the new Developers Assistant tool

Numerous upstream improvements to firewall and systemd

Improved cloud support, including better compatibility with Amazon EC2

Fedora 18

Fedora 18, codenamed "Spherical Cow", was released on January 15, 2013.

Some of the features of Fedora 18 include:

kernel 3.6.10

Support for UEFI Secure Boot

A rewrite of the Anaconda installer

A new system upgrade utility called FedUp

Default desktop upgraded to GNOME 3.6.3

Updated to KDE Plasma 4.9 and Xfce 4.10

Inclusion of MATE and Cinnamon desktops

Better Active Directory support through FreeIPA v3

Support for NetworkManager hotspots

Support for 256 color terminals by default

Offline system updates utilizing systemd and PackageKit

Better cloud computing support with the inclusion of Eucalyptus, Heat, and OpenStack Folsom

firewalld replaces system-config-firewall as default

Fedora 17

The next release of the operating system was Fedora 17, codenamed "Beefy Miracle", which was released on May 29, 2012.

Some of the features of Fedora 17 include:

kernel 3.3.4

Integrated UEFI support.

Inclusion of Gnome 3.4 desktop, offering software rendering support for GNOME Shell

Updated to latest KDE Software Compilation 4.8.3

A new filesystem structure moving more things to /usr

Removable disks are now mounted under /run/media due to a change in udisks

systemd-logind replaces ConsoleKit, offering multiseat improvements

Inclusion of the libvirt sandbox; virt-manager now supports USB pass-through

Services now use private temp directories to improve security

Fedora 16

Fedora 16, codenamed "Verne", was released on November 8, 2011. Fedora 16 was also dedicated to the memory of Dennis Ritchie, who died about a month before the release.

Some of the features of Fedora 16 included:

kernel 3.1.0

Inclusion of Gnome 3.2.1 desktop

Updated to latest KDE Software Compilation 4.7.2

GRUB2 begun the default boot-loader

Ext4 driver used for Ext3 and Ext2 file systems

HAL daemon removed in favour of udisks, upower, and libudev

Unification of the user interfaces for all problem reporting programs and mechanisms

Virtualization improvements including OpenStack and Aeolus Conductor

Fedora uses UID/GIDs up through 999 for system accounts

Enhanced cloud support including Condor Cloud, HekaFS, and pacemaker-cloud

Fedora 15

Fedora 15, codenamed Lovelock, was released on May 24, 2011. Features of Fedora 15 include:

Inclusion of GNOME 3 desktop

LibreOffice replaced OpenOffice.org

Inclusion of GNU Compiler Collection 4.6

Responsibility for booting is taken up by Systemd

LLVMpipe replacing Mesa software rasterizer

Inclusion of BoxGrinder software

Support for dynamic firewalls with firewalld

Inclusion of PowerTOP 2.x

Adoption of Consistent Network Device Naming

Better support for encrypted Home directories

Fedora 14

Fedora 14, codenamed Laughlin, was released on November 2, 2010.

Features of Fedora 14 include:

Updated Boost to the upstream 1.44 release

Addition of the D compiler (LDC) and D standard runtime library (Tango)

Concurrent release of Fedora 14 on the Amazon EC2 cloud

Updated Fedora's Eclipse stack to Helios releases

Updated Erlang to the upstream R14 release

Replacement of libjpeg with libjpeg-turbo

Inclusion of virt-v2v tool

Inclusion of Spice framework for VDI deployment

Updates to Rakudo Star implementation of Perl 6

NetBeans IDE updated to the 6.9 release

Inclusion of ipmiutil system management tool

Inclusion of a tech preview of the GNOME Shell environment

Python 2.7

Fedora 13

Fedora 13, codenamed "Goddard", was released on May 25, 2010. During early development, Fedora project-leader Paul Frields anticipated "looking at the fit and finish issues. We have tended to build a really tight ship with Fedora, but now we want to make the décor in the cabins a little more sumptuous and to polish the deck chairs and railings."

Features of Fedora 13 include:

Automatic printer-driver installation

Automatic language pack installation

Redesigned user-account tool

Color management to calibrate monitors and scanners

Experimental 3D support for NVIDIA video cards

A new way to install Fedora over the Internet

SSSD authentication for users

Updates to NFS

Inclusion of Zarafa Open Source edition

System rollback for the Btrfs file system

Better SystemTap probes

Support for the entire Java EE 6 spec in Netbeans 6.8

KDE Plasma PulseAudio Integration

New command-line interface for NetworkManager

Fedora 12

Fedora 12, codenamed Constantine, was released on November 17, 2009. Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 and other derivatives are based on Fedora 12.

Some of the features in Fedora 12 are:

Optimized performance. All software packages on 32-bit (x86_32) architecture have been compiled for i686 systems

Improved Webcam support (Cheese)

Better video codec with a newer version of Ogg Theora

Audio improvements

Automatic bug reporting tool (abrt)

Bluetooth on demand

Enhanced NetworkManager to manage broadband

Many virtualization enhancements (KVM, libvirt, libguestfs)

ext4 used even for the boot partition

Moblin interface

Yum-presto plugin providing Delta RPMs for updates by default

New compression algorithm (XZ, the new LZMA format) in RPM packages for smaller and faster updates

Experimental 3D support for ATI R600/R700 cards

GCC 4.4

SystemTap 1.0 with Eclipse integration

GNOME 2.28

GNOME Shell preview

KDE Plasma 4.3, Plasma 4.4 was pushed to updates repository on February 27, 2010 (KDE Spin)

2.6.31 Linux kernel, Kernel 2.6.32 was pushed to updates repository on February 27, 2010

X server 1.7 with Multi-Pointer X (MPX) support

NetBeans 6.7

PHP 5.3

Rakudo Perl 6 compiler

Fedora 11

Fedora 11, codenamed Leonidas, was released on June 9, 2009. This was the first release whose artwork is determined by the name instead of by users voting on themes.

Some of the features in Fedora 11 are:

ext4 as the default file system

experimental Btrfs activated by IcantbelieveitsnotBTR command line option at bootup

faster bootup aimed at 20 seconds.

GCC 4.4

GNOME 2.26

KDE Plasma 4.2 (KDE Spin)

2.6.29 Linux kernel

Eclipse 3.4.2

Netbeans 6.5

nVidia kernel modesetting through the open source nouveau (graphics) driver.

OpenOffice 3.1

Python 2.6

Xfce to 4.6 (Xfce Spin)

X server 1.6

fprint – support for systems with fingerprint readers

Fedora 10

Fedora 10, codenamed Cambridge, was released on November 25, 2008. It flaunts the new Solar artwork. Its features include:

Faster startup using Plymouth (instead of Red Hat Graphical Boot used in previous versions)

Support for ext4 filesystem

Sugar Desktop Environment

LXDE Desktop Environment (LXDE Spin)

GNOME 2.24

KDE Plasma 4.1 (KDE Spin)

OpenOffice.org 3.0

Fedora 9

Fedora 9, codenamed Sulphur, was released on May 13, 2008.

Some of the new features of Fedora 9 included:

GNOME 2.22.

KDE Plasma 4.0, which is the default interface as part of the KDE spin.

OpenJDK 6 has replaced IcedTea.

PackageKit is included as a front-end to yum, and as the default package manager.

One Second X allows the X Window System to perform a cold start from the command line in nearly one second; similarly, shutdown of X should be as quick.

Upstart introduced

Many improvements to the Anaconda installer; among these features, it now supports resizing ext2, ext3 and NTFS file systems, and can create and install Fedora to encrypted file systems.

Firefox 3.0 beta 5 is included in this release, and the 3.0 package was released as an update the same day as the general release.

Perl 5.10, which features a smaller memory footprint and other improvements.

Data Persistence in USB images.

Fedora 9 featured a new artwork entitled Waves which, like Infinity in Fedora 8, changes the wallpaper to reflect the time of day.

Fedora 8

Fedora 8, codenamed Werewolf, was released on November 8, 2007.

Some of the new features and updates in Fedora 8 included:

PulseAudio – a sound daemon that allows different applications to control the audio. Fedora was the first distribution to enable it by default.

system-config-firewall – a new firewall configuration tool that replaces system-config-securitylevel from previous releases.

Codeina – a tool that guides users using content under proprietary or patent-encumbered formats to purchase codecs from fluendo; it is an optional component that may be uninstalled in favor of GStreamer codec plug-ins which are free of charge.

IcedTea – a project that attempts to bring OpenJDK to Fedora by replacing encumbered code.

NetworkManager – faster, more reliable connections; better security (through the use of the keyring); clearer display of wireless networks; better D-Bus integration.

Better laptop support – enhancements to the kernel to reduce battery load, disabling of background cron jobs when running on the battery, and additional wireless drivers.

Fedora 8 also included a new desktop artwork entitled Infinity, and a new desktop theme called Nodoka. A unique feature of Infinity is that the wallpaper can change during the day to reflect the time of day.

In February 2008, a new Xfce Live CD "spin" was announced for the x86 and x86-64 architectures. This Live CD version uses the Xfce desktop environment, which aims to be fast and lightweight, while still being visually appealing and easy to use. Like the GNOME and KDE spins, the Xfce spin can be installed to the hard disk.

Fedora 7

Fedora 7, codenamed Moonshine, was released on May 31, 2007. The biggest difference between Fedora Core 6 and Fedora 7 was the merging of the Red Hat "Core" and Community "Extras" repositories, dropping "Core" from the name "Fedora Core," and the new build system put in place to manage those packages. This release used entirely new build and compose tools that enabled the user to create fully customized Fedora distributions that could also include packages from any third party provider.

There were three official spins available for Fedora 7:

Live – two Live CDs (one for GNOME and one for KDE);

Fedora – a DVD that includes all the major packages available at shipping;

Everything – simply an installation tree for use by yum and Internet installations.

Fedora 7 featured GNOME 2.18 and KDE 3.5, a new theme entitled Flying High, OpenOffice.org 2.2 and Firefox 2.0. Fast user switching was fully integrated and enabled by default. Also, there were a number of updates to SELinux, including a new setroubleshoot tool for debugging SELinux security notifications, and a new, comprehensive system-config-selinux tool for fine-tuning the SELinux setup.

Fedora Core 5–6

These two Core releases introduced specific artwork that defined them. This is a trend that has continued in later Fedora versions.

Fedora Core 5 was released on March 20, 2006, with the codename Bordeaux, and introduced the Fedora Bubbles artwork. It was the first Fedora release to include Mono and tools built with it such as Beagle, F-Spot and Tomboy. It also introduced new package management tools such as pup and pirut (see Yellowdog Updater, Modified). It also was the first Fedora release not to include the long deprecated (but kept for compatibility) LinuxThreads, replaced by the Native POSIX Thread Library.

Fedora Core 6 was released on October 24, 2006, codenamed Zod. This release introduced the Fedora DNA artwork, replacing the Fedora Bubbles artwork used in Fedora Core 5. The codename is derived from the infamous villain, General Zod, from the Superman DC Comic Books. This version introduced support for the Compiz compositing window manager and AIGLX (a technology that enables GL-accelerated effects on a standard desktop). It shipped with Firefox 1.5 as the default web browser, and Smolt, a tool that allows users to inform developers about the hardware they use.

Fedora Core 1–4

Fedora Core 1 was the first version of Fedora and was released on November 6, 2003. It was codenamed Yarrow. Fedora Core 1 was based on Red Hat Linux 9 and shipped with version 2.4.19 of the Linux kernel, version 2.4 of the GNOME desktop environment, and K Desktop Environment 3.1.

Fedora Core 2 was released on May 18, 2004, codenamed Tettnang. It shipped with Linux 2.6, GNOME 2.6, KDE 3.2, and SELinux (SELinux was disabled by default due to concerns that it radically altered the way that Fedora Core ran). XFree86 was replaced by the newer X.org, a merger of the previous official X11R6 release, which additionally included a number of updates to Xrender, Xft, Xcursor, fontconfig libraries, and other significant improvements.

Fedora Core 3 was released on November 8, 2004, codenamed Heidelberg. This was the first release of Fedora Core to include the Mozilla Firefox web browser, as well as support for the Indic scripts. This release also saw the LILO boot loader deprecated in favour of GRUB. SELinux was also enabled by default, but with a new targeted policy, which was less strict than the policy used in Fedora Core 2. Fedora Core 3 shipped with GNOME 2.8 and KDE 3.3. It was the first release to include the new Fedora Extras repository.

Fedora Core 4 was released on June 13, 2005, with the codename Stentz. It shipped with Linux 2.6.11, KDE 3.4 and GNOME 2.10. This version introduced the new Clearlooks theme, which was inspired by the Red Hat Bluecurve theme. It also shipped with the OpenOffice.org 2.0 office suite, as well as Xen, a high performance and secure open source virtualization framework. It also introduced support for the PowerPC CPU architecture, and over 80 new policies for SELinux.

Fedora gallery

Fedora default UI screenshots