this post was submitted on 15 Apr 2025
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Linux

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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

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Fedora Linux 42 released (fedoramagazine.org)
submitted 5 days ago by JRepin@lemmy.ml to c/linux@lemmy.ml
25 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

What’s new?

We’ve promoted our KDE Plasma Desktop offering to “Edition” status. The Fedora KDE team has been hard at work making sure bugs get fixed and everything is polished just so. We’re confident that this can stand along our other amazing flagship offerings.

I know the naming is a bit confusing, with GNOME-powered “Workstation” using a generic label while KDE Plasma Desktop has the tech right in the name. We’ll get that figured out eventually. If you don’t know where to start, don’t panic. Pick one and see how it goes. They’re both excellent desktop environments with great upstream communities, and the same Fedora system underneath it all.

We also have a new alternative desktop choice: COSMIC. This is a modern, written-all-in-Rust desktop environment from our friends over at System 76.

Perhaps most excitingly, we have a new installation interface! The previous UI was designed to manage a lot of before-you-even-start configuration choices. Over the past decade, though, we’ve gone to “get the full system installed with no fuss, then set up what you need from a complete environment”. That made the “hub and spoke” model more confusing than helpful. The new UI is streamlined and sleek, just like the Heart of Gold.

Of course, there are other big changes, as well as the usual updates to thousands of packages. See the Fedora Linux 42 Release Notes for all of the details, and don’t miss the “What’s New?” posts here on Fedora Magazine.

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[–] folekaule@lemmy.world 8 points 4 days ago (3 children)

Looking forward to this. I do have a question for the more seasoned people here: I installed Fedora 41 not too long after its release on a new PC, which has been my daily driver every since. Very happy with it, tweaked everything to my liking. However, by mistake I installed Workstation (with Gnome) and then switched to my preferred KDE Plasma as the DE. This has left some corners of my system with the Gnome look and feel, which is fine, but I prefer if it were more consistent.

My question:

  1. Can I/do you recommend that I upgrade Fedora in place? I prefer this if it means I don't have to reinstall everything.
  2. Or do you recommend I do a fresh install anyway for a clean upgrade and at the same time clean up my DE? What is the least disruptive way to do this?
[–] CaptDust@sh.itjust.works 7 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (1 children)

Which corners are you referring to, specifically? There are some applications that use GTK components, those are styled seperately in the settings under "GNOME/GTK Application Style". They will never look exactly like a native KDE/QT based application, but you can get them closer.

Likely you had a lot of GTK apps included with Workstation, you could also look into Qt alternatives to replace them - for example Gedit does not conform in KDE, but Kate will.

If you wipe and start fresh with the KDE install, it will prefer Qt applications. So that may be a worth while endeavor. Once you are settled, there is no reason to not upgrade in place. My install has been upgraded in place since fedora 32.

[–] folekaule@lemmy.world 2 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Thank you for replying, very informative. I think I have most of the actions/types I wanted associated with my preferred ones now. The most noticeable one is Firefox when I open downloads from the menu. I'm not sure if Firefox uses xdg or not? I don't mind GTK or Gnome at all, in fact I probably have spent more time on Gnome, but I do like when things are consistent.

[–] CaptDust@sh.itjust.works 2 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Ah yeah, Firefox is GTK too, and annoyingly hides xdg behind a setting. I apologize in advance as my knowledge here is bit limited, but if firefox is installed with RPM, I think you'll need xdg-desktop-portal-kde installed, then in firefox's about:config set widget.use-xdg-desktop-portal = true. I'm not sure how it works with flatpak though.

But hopefully that helps, best of luck!

[–] folekaule@lemmy.world 4 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (1 children)

That's a great tip! It turns out I must have already tried some of that. I found multiple settings in about:config. Anything with a file picker works (open, save as), but the "open folder" from the Downloads dialog must just not use xdg-open, since none of the settings had an effect on that. It's not the end of the world, but it would be nice to have my Dolphin bookmarks and places.

Edit: Adding this here in case someone in the future finds this searching for the problem. It looks like I'm bitten by the bug described in comment 55 (near the bottom) of this Firefox bug report. TL;DR: it works if I have Dolphin open already, but if not, it starts Nautilus. While this isn't great, at least I have a workaround.

[–] Vincent@feddit.nl 3 points 4 days ago

Can I just say: hats off to the bug archaeology you've done there :)

[–] Vincent@feddit.nl 5 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (1 children)

If you do a reinstall, I'd recommend going with a Kinoite install. It's like regular Fedora KDE, except that it avoids this problem of traces of past experiments everywhere.

[–] BlackEco@lemmy.blackeco.com 5 points 4 days ago (1 children)

It's like regular Fedora KDE, except that it avoids this problem of traces of past experiments everywhere.

Kinoite is much more than that: it is an atomic and immutable spin of Fedora KDE. This has big implications but the gist of it is that:

  1. You can roll back to any previous version if anything breaks

  2. The base system cannot be modified

  3. If you need to install RPM packages, you do that by adding "layers" on top of the base system, and these can be removed if needed to go back to a clean base system

  4. You can switch from one spin to another by "rebasing", but it is recommended that you remove any additional layer first and that you stick to the same desktop environment

[–] Vincent@feddit.nl 1 points 4 days ago

Heh yes, but for the purposes of this post I wanted to focus on why it wasn't just another distro recommendation, but one tailored specific to their use case :) (I don't even use Kinoite myself, so it's extra genuine.)

[–] BlackEco@lemmy.blackeco.com 5 points 4 days ago

My experience on other distros was that upgrading in place a system that deviated too much from "stock" would wreck the install. I would personally play it safe and backup my home folder and do a fresh install.

Just don't forget to test your backup before formatting your drive!