Fedora Workstation
Fresh packages, sane defaults and a large sponsor. The developer's polite favourite.
Facts
- Family
- fedora
- Based on
- independent
- Release model
- New release about every six months
- Current
- 44
- Init system
- systemd
- Default desktop
- GNOME 50
- NVIDIA
- RPM Fusion packages; Secure Boot needs a key enrolled.
- Systemd-free
- No
- 32-bit support
- No
- As of
- 2026-10-09
On the DistroWatch top 10
Tomorrow's Linux, today, whether or not you're ready.
Fedora is the Red Hat-sponsored distribution, started as Fedora Core 1 on 2003-11-04. Releases get about 13 months of support, so staying current is the intended lifestyle. Fedora 44 landed on 2026-04-28 with GNOME 50, and Fedora 45 is targeted for 2026-10-20, which is why this entry carries an expiry date. A KDE edition has existed since Fedora 42. The system wants 4 GB of RAM and 40 GB of disk. Adding RPM Fusion for codecs and proprietary drivers is a traditional rite of passage, performed shortly after install by nearly everyone. Fedora ships new software early so that other distros can find the bugs later, and it does so cheerfully.
How the chooser scores it
Scores run from 1 to 5, and 5 is best for the user. They are opinion with a spreadsheet.
- StabilityStability: 4 out of 5
- Easy installEasy install: 4 out of 5
- Daily comfortDaily comfort: 4 out of 5
- Docs and helpDocs and help: 4 out of 5
- Fresh softwareFresh software: 4 out of 5
- GamingGaming: 4 out of 5
- DevelopmentDevelopment: 5 out of 5
- Old hardwareOld hardware: 2 out of 5
- ControlControl: 3 out of 5
- LightnessLightness: 4 out of 5
- NVIDIA, recent cardsNVIDIA, recent cards: 3 out of 5
- NVIDIA, older cardsNVIDIA, older cards: 3 out of 5
Caveats
- A release every six months means an upgrade at least once a year.
- Codecs and the NVIDIA driver come from the third-party RPM Fusion repository.
Community
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