Fedora (operating system)

Fedora Linux
	Fedora Workstation 35 — its default desktop environment (GNOME 41), background image, and applications
Developer	Fedora Project
OS family	Linux (Unix-like)
Working state	Current
Source model	Open source
Initial release	6 November 2003; 20 years ago
Latest release	37 / November 15, 2022; 17 months ago
Marketing target	Desktop, server, cloud
Package manager	RPM (DNF), Flatpak, OSTree — graphical front-ends: GNOME Software, dnfdragora, KDE Discover
Platforms	Primary: x86-64, armhf, aarch64; Alternative: mips64el, mipsel, ppc64le, RISC-V, s390x;
Kernel type	Monolithic (Linux kernel)
Userland	GNU
Default; user interface	GNOME Shell on Wayland
License	GPL and various free software licenses, plus proprietary firmware files
Official website	getfedora.org

Fedora Linux is a distribution (or distro) of Linux developed by the community-supported Fedora Project and sponsored by Red Hat. It is designed to be safe and is used by companies and governments. Fedora's mission statement is: "Fedora is about the rapid progress of Free and Open Source software."^[7]

Linus Torvalds, author of the Linux kernel, says he uses Fedora because it had fairly good support for PowerPC when he used that processor architecture. He became used to the operating system and continues to use it.^[8]

Releases

Fedora Core 1 - 4

Fedora Core 1 was the first version of Fedora and was released on November 6, 2003,^[9] and 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 version 3.1.4 of KDE (the K Desktop Environment).

Fedora Core 2 was released on May 18, 2004, codenamed Tettnang.^[10] It shipped with Linux 2.6, GNOME 2.6, KDE 3.2.2, and SELinux^[11] 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.^[12] This was the first release of Fedora Core to include the Mozilla Firefox web browser, as well as support for the Indic languages.^[12] This release also replaced the LILO boot loader with GRUB.^[12] SELinux was also enabled by default, but with a new targeted policy, which was less strict than the policy used in Fedora Core 2.^[12] Fedora Core 3 shipped with GNOME 2.8 and KDE 3.3.^[12] 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.^[13] It shipped with Linux 2.6.11,^[13] KDE 3.4 and GNOME 2.10.^[14] This version introduced the new Clearlooks theme, which was inspired by the Red Hat Bluecurve theme.^[14] It also shipped with the OpenOffice.org 2.0 office suite, as well as Xen, a high performance and secure open source virtualization framework.^[14] It also introduced support for the PowerPC CPU architecture, and over 80 new policies for SELinux.

Fedora Core 5 - 6

The last two cores introduced specific artwork for that version. 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.^[15] It was the first Fedora release to include Mono and tools built with it such as Beagle, F-Spot and Tomboy.^[15] It also introduced new package management tools such as pup and pirut (see Yellow dog Updater, Modified). This release replaced the old LinuxThreads, with the Native POSIX Thread Library.^[16]

Fedora Core 6 was released on October 24, 2006, codenamed Zod.^[17] This release introduced the Fedora DNA artwork, replacing the Fedora Bubbles artwork used in Fedora Core 5.^[18] The codename is derived from the infamous villain, General Zod, from the Superman DC Comic Books.^[19] This version introduced support for the Compiz compositing window manager and AIGLX (a technology that enables GL-accelerated effects on a standard desktop).^[18] 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.

None of these distributions are maintained by the Fedora Project.^[20]

Fedora 10

Fedora 10, codenamed Cambridge,^[21] was released on November 25, 2008.^[22]

Version history

Color	Meaning
Red	Release no longer supported^[23]
Green	Release still supported
Blue	Future release

Project Name	Version	Code name	Release date	Kernel version
Fedora Core	1	Yarrow	2003–11–05	2.4.19
	2	Tettnang	2004–05–18	2.6.5
	3	Heidelberg	2004–11–08	2.6.9
	4	Stentz	2005–06–13	2.6.11
	5	Bordeaux	2006–03–20	2.6.15
	6	Zod	2006–10–24	2.6.18
Fedora	7	Moonshine	2007–05–31	2.6.21
	8	Werewolf	2007–11–08	2.6.23
	9	Sulphur	2008–05–13	2.6.25
	10	Cambridge	2008–11–25	2.6.27
	11	Leonidas	2009–06–09^[24]	2.6.29
	12	Constantine	2009–11–17^[25]	2.6.31
	13	Goddard	2010–05–11^[26]	2.6.33
	14	Laughlin	2010-11-02^[27]	2.6.35^[28]
	15	Lovelock	2011-05-24^[29]	2.6.38^[30]
	16	Verne	2011-11-08^[31]	3.1.0
	17	Beefy Miracle	2012-05-29^[32]	3.3.7
	18	Spherical Cow	Late 2012^[33]	3.6
	19	Schrödinger's Cat	2013-07-02	3.9
	20	Heisenbug	2013-12-17	3.11
	21		2014-12-09	3.17
	22		2015-05-26	4.0
	23		2015-11-03	4.2
	24		2016-06-21	4.5
	25		2016-11-22	4.8
	26		2017-07-11	4.11
	27		2017-11-14	4.13
	28		2018-05-01	4.16
	29		2018-10-30	4.18
	30		2019-04-30	5.0
	31		2019-10-22	5.3
	32		2020-04-21