What’s New in Fedora 28 Workstation

Fedora 28 Workstation is the latest release of our free, leading-edge operating system. You can download it from the official website here right now. There are several new and noteworthy changes in Fedora Workstation. Read more details below.

Third-Party Repositories

An exciting feature of Fedora 28 is the inclusion of some popular third-party software repositories. When you launch GNOME Software 3.28 the first time, an alert bar asks about enabling third-party repositories. Selecting Enable enables the following repositories:

  • Google Chrome, the web browser from Google (google-chrome.repo)
  • PyCharm, Python IDE for Professional Developers by JetBrains (_copr_phracek-PyCharm.repo)
  • NVIDIA’s proprietary graphics drivers (rpmfusion-nonfree-nvidia-driver.repo)
  • Steam client, digital distribution platform developed by Valve Corporation (rpmfusion-nonfree-steam.repo)

Once enabled, the third-party packages can be installed either with GNOME Software or dnf. To find out more about third-party repositories in Fedora, visit this Fedora wiki page.

Improved battery life

Battery life on laptops running Fedora Workstation is improved with various hardware power-saving features now enabled by default. These improvements include a new default SATA Link Power Management policy on all Intel mobile chipsets. This policy sets the SATA link to a disk to into low-power mode when idle, saving approximately 1.0-1.5 watts of power on an idle laptop. Additionally, the Intel HDA codec power saving is enabled by default (with a 1 second timeout), saving approximately 0.4 watts of power on an idle laptop. Finally, USB autosuspend for USB Bluetooth receivers is enabled by default, saving approximately 0.4 watts of power on an idle laptop.

GNOME 3.28

Fedora 28 Workstation features GNOME 3.28 as the default desktop environment. GNOME 3.28 includes a wide range of enhancements, including: updates to Files (nautilus), Contacts, Calendar, Clocks and the on-screen keyboard. Additionally, the new application Usage is added as a Technology Preview to “make it easy to diagnose and resolve performance and capacity issues”

GNOME 3.28 provides updated versions of many of the GNOME default applications. The ability to “star” items is added to both the Files and the Contacts applications. This allows the user to star an item — be it a file, folder, or a contact — for quick access later. Calendar now provides a neater month view, and weather updates displayed alongside your appointments.

For more information about all the new features and enhancements see GNOME 3.28’s release announcement and release notes.

Thunderbolt support

The use of Thunderbolt™ 3 peripherals is now supported in Fedora 28. Thunderbolt is the brand name of a hardware interface developed by Intel that allows the connection of external peripherals to a computer.

Fedora 28 ships with both boltd — the system daemon for securely connecting Thunderbolt devices — and changes to GNOME shell to connect these devices. Newly connected Thunderbolt devices are automatically enrolled by GNOME shell via the daemon if the current user is a system administrator and the session is unlocked. Subsequent connections of the same device will automatically authorize the device.

Improved emoji support

The Noto Color Emoji font is now the default for displaying Emoji on Fedora Workstation. This provides support for Unicode 10.0 emoji, including T-Rex (????), Hedgehog (????), Broccoli (????), and Curling Stone (????).

GNOME Photos

Fedora Workstation 28 introduces GNOME Photos as the default photo management application, replacing Shotwell. Photos is a simple application for viewing, browsing and organizing your photo library. In addition to photo organization, Photos also provides basic image editing capabilities, including the ability to add quick photographic filters over your images.

More information about the GNOME Photos application is available on the project’s page on gnome.org

VirtualBox Guest Additions now default

VirtualBox Guest Additions and Guest Drivers are now shipped in the default Fedora Workstation installation. Consequently, any installation of Fedora Workstation as a guest on VirtualBox will have the Guest Additions features working out-of-the-box. Guest Additions add extra useful functionality to VirtualBox guests, including: automatic desktop resizing based on the window-size of the virtual machine, seamless mode (showing only windows from the guest), folder sharing, and copy/paste between host and guest.

Streamlined Installation

Anaconda, the Fedora installation utility, now has fewer steps. Instead, the GNOME Initial Setup Assistant handles creation of a user account and other post-installation steps. Notably, new installations of Fedora 28 Workstation no longer set a root password. Of course, you can still set the root password after installation.

Other notes

These are only some of the improvements in Fedora 28. Fedora also gives you access to thousands of software apps our community provides. Many of these apps and utilities have also received updates since Fedora 27. When you upgrade, you’ll receive them automatically.

Fedora 28 is available now for download.

Fedora Project community

45 Comments

  1. Sergio

    I’m very proud to be part of this even for a small part like giving one of my pics for the additional backgrounds pack!! Great job, thank you to all Fedora teams!

  2. Enrique Betancourt

    I love how Fedora is evolving. I have to say before staying on Fedora I tested several Linux Distributions of any colors and flavors that you might imagine (really a huge list, some of them doesn’t even exist anymore). I started with Fedora when it was on its 20 edition, and since that I haven’t change of OS.

    • I started on version 9 -if I am not mistaken- on October 2008.
      I was done with a world known and widespread operating system.
      A burglar stole my original installation disk and the company caught me with a pirate verision because I didn’t want to pay US $200 for the legal version.

      Besides, knowing of software support, I was also done with the constant need of reinstalling from scratch due to the corruption of “the Registry”.

      A friend told me: –go install Linux.
      And like a frightened mouse towards the unknown I started searching.
      A very good friend of mine and very skilled in computing had worked with “the penguin”, so I looked into Red Hat and found the free version named Fedora.

      So, full of fear of not knowing what was ahead I started downloading Fedora -took one full night- and copying into an iso image DVD.

      From that time to the fully automated update I did yesterday there are lightyears of difference.
      Needless to say I stepped out of that commercial operating system to not go into it again.

      Thank you, Red Hat and Fedora teams.
      Thank you Ken Thompson and Dennis Ritchie for developing UNIX.
      And thank you, Linus Torvalds for developing Linux.

  3. snoze

    There are few bugs in fedora 28. GCC nan error message. NAN is non detectable and grub customizer is not working. My code is working fine with all old version of GCC but not with gcc 8. At NAN it print program crash. Any help

  4. This is very exciting. I too agree that Fedora is evolving nicely. What makes trying the next release so easy is the rock solid upgrade process. They’ve come a long way with that process and it is top notch now.

    For the emoji support is this in native chat clients or throughout the system? Could I write some notes in gedit and litter it with emoji’s?! ????

    • You can use the emoji selector in gedit with the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+;

  5. Leslie Satenstein

    I am addicted to Fedora. I became addicted 10 years ago beginning with Fedora core. Gone are the days when Fedora would fit onto a 800megabyte CD.
    I have two Fedora versions installed. Gnome 3.28 and KDE. On even days of the month I use F28 Gnome and on the odd days “KDE” plasma.
    I cannot say which of the two I prefer.

    And yes, every release of Fedora is better than the previous.

    Accolades to all the contributors. Without you, …..

  6. Bobby Joel

    Hello, I see NVIDIA drivers are now a third party enableable repo. Is the same available for AMD graphics? How do I do.

    • Frederik

      Free software drivers for AMD GPUs are superior to the drivers released by AMD. There’s absolutely no reason for you to install AMD’s drivers.

      • Vikingman

        I think the Radeon Pro drivers still have better Vulkan performance in places, though I generally agree with you; Mesa is crushing it.

  7. Dylan

    Why just PyCharm? It should be a COPR with all the JetBrains tools, similar to this Ubuntu PPA: https://github.com/JonasGroeger/jetbrains-ppa

  8. ossama

    Fedora is the perfect mix between modern Linux, developper station and general usage computer, because I need them all, I’m always on Fedora. I’m very grateful for the continuous quality work. Thank you

  9. badbanana

    i shifted from Debian to Fedora because only Fedora works out of the box on any laptop/server i installed it on. 🙂

  10. Martin Sehnoutka

    Gnome photos, really? I still have no idea how to use it. There is no tutorial, no man page, nothing. All it does is to display every photo I have in the ~/Pictures directory in one giant group with no structure. I really like Gnome and I would like it to be better, but this is just too much. Photos are not simply, it is useless.

    • Brian

      Do yourself a favor and install Geeqie image browser and viewer from the Fedora repository.
      If you need to do it from the command line
      ‘ sudo dnf install geeqie ‘
      it has one or two small dependencies that will be included. It should be no problem.

    • Brian

      You might also consider taking a good look at KDE Plasma desktop. I’ve been using it since Fedora was still RedHat 7.2-kde. It’s a bit bulkier, but much more versatile than Gnome in my opinion. The Konqueror browser is an excellent desktop file browser, although I don’t use it on the web. I like to keep things separate.

  11. Humphrey

    I really love Fedora improvement, because this is my third month am using it without any problem

  12. lcividin

    Upgrade was a painless experience love it!

  13. Esteban

    DId the bluetooth issue got fixed for Fedora 28? I still cannot use bluetooth speakers on Fedora 27, since I upgraded from Fedora 26. Speakers worked on Fedora 26 out of the box.

    • Tolu Eri

      Have you tried deleting the speaker previously added and adding again? That should work. Upgraded Fed 25 to 26, then to 27 on my Dell Inspiron 5577 laptop.

      • Esteban

        Yes I did delete the old one. Actually the system will not turn on bluetooth no matter what I do. bluetooth.service – Bluetooth service
        Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/bluetooth.service; enabled; vendor pr
        Active: inactive (dead)
        Condition: start condition failed at Wed 2018-05-16 07:31:43 CDT; 37min ago

  14. Jonathan Bell

    Easy upgrade, makes Fedora my choice for work and home.

  15. Scott

    I am trying to go from 27 to 28 and it will not let me download because of some error with fwupdate-efi-8-4.fc26

    • Looks like you might have some stale Fedora 26 packages installed. Try running

      dnf distro-sync

      before running

      system-upgrade

      .

  16. Magnus Vindican

    Upgrade on a 6yr old Dell 15R was painless. It keeps getting easier and reliable to upgrade. thanks to all involved.

  17. 蔡鹏辉

    i love fedora because i love! – ..-

  18. tux4me

    Imagine ….
    … i even get to just push upgrade, on my Raspberry Pi, too, and get the same version as on my desktop Computer !
    …. from FC5 to Fedora 28 , now as a gaming rig too !
    It support every bit of electronic device i got in my life, and im all digital, like media servers streaming flac to HIFI and mkv to TV, Netflix and even using Chromecast etc. etc.
    And as i read , now with Thunderbolt 3 support too !
    .
    Even seems like getting nVidia, chrome and codecs cant get any easier now … its a nice move, especially for newer members of this lifestyle 🙂

  19. Adrian

    I just back-up my config files and home dir and do a fresh install. With my experience, I find less things break and it’s easier in the long run than trouble-shooting problems after an upgrade.

    • Elijah Beale

      TBH, that’s what I normally do. But this past week has been nuts, so I decided to try the upgrade route because I could script it. I’ve upgraded 2 machined this way. My work machine was in the middle of the upgrade when I left work today (fingers crossed). So far, though, it’s been basically painless (I had to recompile my password manager…not in repos). I guess I’ll see about my work machine tomorrow!

  20. Abinas

    I am unable to upgrade from 27 to 28. I followed the dnf method and tried the updating method from the software repository, in both the cases I get the following error. << https://ibb.co/d3awdn >> . I tried multiple times, the issue persists.

    Please help, I am new to Fedora and can’t help myself.

    • Elijah Beale

      Does this happen when you boot up or shut down? And I’m guessing you are using LVM?

      I would go post this in Ask Fedora, or the Fedora Reddit and give as much information as possible.

      • Abinas

        Hi!

        Thanks for your reply. The error shows up when (after installation of the updates) I restart my system. As I mentioned, I tried updating using both the GNOME and by command line, so far tried 4/5 times, failed.

        Incidentally, sometimes – the same error appears when shutdown my system, though the system shutdowns after the error message.

        I am not sure if I am using an LVM or not. I am using Mac with Fedora. If it helps, I am adding another image with my system information << https://ibb.co/bUnkr7 >>.

      • Abinas

        Also, I posted the same on Reddit << https://www.reddit.com/r/Fedora/comments/8hpbdi/error_while_upgrading_from_27_to_28/ >>, didn’t get any support, except for one comment which I didn’t find much helpful., or may be I didn’t understand the message behind that reply.

    • Tolu Eri

      So after rebooting, what happened?

      • Abinas

        Hi,

        Thanks for your reply. After rebooting, the error message appeared, and my system is still 27. So it didn’t upgrade.

  21. Chris

    I’ve never liked an OS like I love Fedora! I’m very thankful for the work you all do!

  22. Hi guys,

    How the impact of upgrade from fedora 27 to 28 in Lenovo L460

    Processor: Intel® Core™ i5-6300U CPU @ 2.40GHz × 4
    Graphics: Intel® HD Graphics 520 (Skylake GT2)
    Gnome version: Version 3.26.2
    SSD: 56 Gib
    Memory: 8 Gig

    • Elijah Beale

      Does this happen when you boot up or shut down? And I’m guessing you are using LVM on top of encryption?

      I would go post this in Ask Fedora, or the Fedora Reddit and give as much information as possible.

  23. When I install Fedora27 I was really impressed. It was good OS and It is realy ergonomic in use. All staff works nice.

    Fedora 28 for me sucks. no root account, 2 times freeze due installation and one time freeze on start. This system is evolving to new Windows. Sorry. I stay on Fedora27 until I will find something new. With my laptop battery life is better on 27.

    I am really disappointed,

  24. Lluís Riera

    Now, Everything works like a charm including Gnome.
    I believe it failed because locale glibc-langpack-ca file was not installed with the upgrade.
    God save Fedora my beautiful and favourite OS since the beginning of the ages.

  25. Antonio Ramírez

    How can I setup the root password in this Fedora because I don’t feel so sure to use it without that.

  26. jerrrre

    Best upgrade in fedora history

  27. Andre Gompel

    I have like most Fedora Version, especially when enhanced as “Korora”.

    Sorry to find Fedora 28, so buggy (still on May 26, 2018)
    Issues with Qt Libraries , several Qt based apps do not work,
    Issue with TPM, a grub bug which was fixed by Matt Garret one year ago is there again (Grub loader hangs as TPM is disabled).
    This release should still be called Beta, so major bugs could be fixed…
    Then call it with a good name !

  28. ANUPAM MITRA

    When I pressed Updates button in Software, “Fedora 28 Now Available” was popped up. I eagerly pressed ‘Download’ button, but unfortunately following lines were emerged.
    “Unable to upgrade to Fedora 28:
    Failed to load/etc/yum.repos.d/home:sarimkhan.repo:Key file does not start with a group.”
    Need help to resolve the issue from the experts.

  29. Lev

    Congrats to the team and thank you for a wonderful release.

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