Fedora Linux 42 Has Arrived! What's New?

Posted: April 17, 2025

Okay, I’ve been refreshing the page for weeks, and it’s finally here—Fedora 42 just hit the servers and I’m already downloading it like my life depends on it. If you’re on Fedora already, the upgrade is literally just a dnf upgrade away (yes, I tested it—smooth as butter). And if you’ve been sleeping on Fedora? Bruh, what are you waiting for? The installer’s right there. No more excuses. (Or is just a new piece of shit)

Key Highlights in Fedora 42:

New Editions & Desktops:

KDE Plasma Desktop Elevated: Recognizing its polish and reliability, the KDE Plasma Desktop spin is now officially an "Edition," joining the ranks of Workstation and Server.

Welcome COSMIC: A brand new desktop environment option, COSMIC, built using the Rust language, makes its debut. Definitely one to check out!

Smoother Installation: The installation process has been streamlined for a better user experience right from the start.

Variety of Choices: As always, Fedora offers a wide range of options, including Workstation, Server, Cloud, Atomic Desktops (like Silverblue and Kinoite), and spins featuring desktops like Cinnamon and Xfce.

Heads-Up: A Minor Issue

The team noted a last-minute issue affecting the Live boot media: it might add an extra, unwanted entry to your UEFI boot loader. This mainly impacts dual-boot systems. If you run into this or any other problems, the Ask Fedora user support forum is the place to go.

Community & Leadership Changes

This release marks the end of Matthew Miller's tenure as Fedora Project Leader. Jef Spaleta is set to take over the role in June. It's always inspiring to see the community effort behind releases like this!

Fedora Linux 42 looks like a solid release packed with interesting updates, especially with the promotion of KDE Plasma and the introduction of the COSMIC desktop.

To read the official announcement, check out the Fedora Magazine article.