Fedora Workstation, the flagship open source Linux desktop OS from the Fedora Project, has reached a new milestone with the release of Fedora Workstation 40. This release has been made possible due to the contributions of our global community, including your contributions! Fedora Workstation 40 comes packed with new features and performance enhancements that promise a smoother and more responsive computing experience. Read on to learn about the latest features and improvements in the sections below. You can download Fedora Workstation 40 from the Fedora Workstation webpage, or upgrade your existing install within the Software app or with dnf system-upgrade in your favorite terminal emulator.
GNOME 46
Fedora Workstation 40 features GNOME 46, the latest version of the GNOME desktop environment. Key updates include a notable upgrade of the Files app, introducing new features and enhancements. Additionally, many aspects of accessibility have received improvements, ensuring a more inclusive user experience. The Settings app and other core apps have been refined for better usability. More details can be found in the GNOME 46 release notes.
Many other improvements have been made throughout GNOME 46, such as:
- Grouping of notifications by app. Now, each notification has a header. It shows the app’s name and icon. This makes it possible to see which app sent an alert. Notification now also has an expand button.
- You can now open a new window for apps pinned to the dash by adding the Ctrl modifier. For example: Super+Ctrl+1 opens a new window for the first app in the dash, complementing the existing shortcut of Super+<Number> that launches the app itself.
- By default, Tap to Click is now enabled for touchpad.
- GNOME 46 now features Remote Login option. You can remotely connect using RDP to a new dedicated desktop session when there isn’t an active session.
Core apps
GNOME’s core applications have had significant improvements in the new version. Some of these include:
Settings
GNOME 46 comes with exciting updates to the Settings app, making it more user-friendly than ever. The latest version has more keyboard mnemonics which make navigation easier. It also has a sleek modern interface. The appearance settings load faster than before and with sharper previews. This new release provides more precise control of Wacom stylus pressure.
In addition to the upgrades mentioned above, the Settings app has received major improvements that are worth mentioning:
- The Settings app has a new system panel. It groups Region & Language, Date & Time, Remote Desktop, and About into one settings pane. This new design makes the app easier to navigate.
- GNOME 46 has updated touchpad settings with two new options. The first, called Secondary Click, lets you choose how to perform a right-click on the touchpad: either with two fingers or by clicking in a corner. The second option allows you to keep the touchpad active while typing, which helps in some apps and games where you need to use the keyboard and touchpad at the same time.
Files
- One of the notable upgrades to Files is the introduction of a new global search feature. The global search feature lets you search files across all configured locations. You can search the contents of files, filter files by type and modification date, and search multiple locations at once. Click the icon next to the file path field to activate this feature.
- In GNOME 46, the sidebar dynamic progress section at the bottom allows you to monitor file operations more effectively with more details on their progress.
- Switching between list and grid views in Files now happens quickly. This fixes the lag noticed in prior versions.
Other changes to the Files app include a new search field within the Files preferences. It helps find specific settings. There’s now also an option to show date and time in a consistent format, and improved network discovery. These refinements make managing files more efficient.
Other core applications have also received upgrades
- The Software app now displays verified badges for trusted Flathub apps, ensuring software authenticity.
- Maps app offers a new editing experience, support for dark mode, and expanded public transit routing.
- The Extensions and Calendar apps boast modernized designs and usability improvements.
- GNOME 46 upgrades Clocks and Contacts apps. It lets you set a timer quickly in Clocks. And, import multiple VCard files at once in Contacts.
- The Disks app has a new I/O resource graph for monitoring disk usage.
Performance Improvements
GNOME 46 provides substantial under-the-hood improvements for a more efficient and polished experience. Key improvements include:
- Reduced memory usage in search.
- Significant speed boosts in terminal apps.
- More appealing visuals as app interfaces appear sharper, text on the screen clearer, and UI elements more defined, particularly when using fractional display scales due to GTK’s new renders.
- Experimental support for Variable Refresh Rate (VRR) for smoother video performance. You can enable this feature with the command:
gsettings set org.gnome.mutter experimental-features "['variable-refresh-rate']"
Once enabled, the refresh rate can be set in the display settings.
Under-the-hood changes in Fedora Linux 40
Fedora Linux 40 features many under-the-hood changes. Here are some notable ones:
- IPV4 Address Conflict Detection is enabled by default in NetworkManager to address conflicts caused by duplicate IPV4 addresses in the same physical network.
- Fedora 40 integrates PyTorch directly into its software repository. This makes it easier for users to access the open source machine learning framework for their projects. Installation is now a breeze through a single command:
sudo dnf install python3-torch
- Starting with Fedora Linux 40, the term “immutable” will no longer be used to describe all rpm-ostree based variants of Fedora Linux (Silverblue, Kinoite, Sway and Budgie). Instead, they will be referred to as “Atomic” desktops with Sericea now known as Fedora Atomic Sway. This change is part of a rebranding aimed at simplifying the naming conventions for Fedora spins. More information on this change may be found here.
Also check out…
Cool happenings throughout the Fedora Project!
Stay tuned and get ready to engage with the Fedora community at some upcoming events! In June, join us in Brno, Czechia, for the DevConf CZ conference — a gathering filled with insightful discussions, workshops, and the chance to meet fellow enthusiasts.
Then, mark your calendars for August, when our flagship contributor conference, Flock, takes place. For more details on Flock 2024, check out this post.
Frederico
Great! Keep the good work! 🙂
René Genz
Thanks. Please, replace the curly with straight quotation marks in order to make the command copy-pasteable, i.e. change from:
gsettings set org.gnome.mutter experimental-features “[‘variable-refresh-rate’]”
to:
gsettings set org.gnome.mutter experimental-features “[‘variable-refresh-rate’]”
René Genz
In my message the website system replaced the straight lines with curly quotation marks. Let’s try with backticks:
1:
2:
3: “`”[‘variable-refresh-rate’]”
“[‘variable-refresh-rate’]”““`
Richard England
Noted. Hopefully it is in better form, now.
René Genz
Yes. thank you.
John
Thank you Fedora, GNOME, KDE , kernel, and all other communities!
Renich Bon Ćirić
My precioussss! Nice work of the community!
Paradroid
Great work everyone – Fedora is the best OS out there today.
Cornel
“The Disks app has a new I/O resource graph for monitoring disk usage. ”
Is this true? i don’t see it. Could it have been added in the “System Monitor” instead?
Niko
Small heads up: The link from the Software app points to the non-existent /whats-new-fedora-40-workstation page.
Gregory Bartholomew
It should be fixed now. Thanks.
James
FYI the link to view this post using gnome software is wrong. It links to https://fedoramagazine.org/whats-new-fedora-40-workstation instead of https://fedoramagazine.org/whats-new-fedora-workstation-40.
Gregory Bartholomew
Thanks for letting us know James! I’ve added a redirect to fix that for now. I’ll try to get it fixed in GNOME Software so that the link will be correct for the next release.
Donald Sebastian Leung
Glad to see a new release of Fedora Workstation, the most polished desktop Linux distribution I’ve used to date – I’ve distro-hopped a few times since my first proper encounter with Linux in 2020 but eventually settled on Fedora, and it (Fedora Workstation 39) now runs on my Lenovo Yoga S740 laptop like a charm!
One thing though – I’ve tested the latest Fedora Workstation 40 live ISO in QEMU/KVM and it ran like a charm as expected; however, after burning it to a USB stick and booting the live USB on the same laptop, I observed a few anomalies which suggest the current release might not be fully compatible with my hardware (might be an issue with the dual Intel + NVIDIA GPU setup?):
I get an array of ACPI and BIOS warning messages in the systemd boot logs prior to reaching the graphical environment
The “try or install Fedora” dialog box isn’t properly sized and I have to drag the corners to get the entire contents of the dialog box to properly show up
When I click the Settings icon in the system tray to the top right, the Settings app never shows up and I can no longer click on anything else
Switching virtual terminals (VTs) using Ctrl+Alt(+Fn)+F1-7 has no effect either
For this reason, I’ve held up on upgrading my current Fedora Workstation 39 installation to 40 and hesitant to proceed with the upgrade especially since it’s my only (usable) laptop at the moment 🙁
Donald Sebastian Leung
Just tried Fedora 40 KDE spin and glad to see that the KDE spin is much better polished than the default GNOME edition and has none of the issues I observed with the GNOME edition when booting the live USB on my only laptop 😀
Now I can upgrade to Fedora 40 with confidence, knowing I can simply restore my data on a fresh Fedora 40 KDE installation if the upgrade goes awry. Let’s see how the upgrade goes 😉
Donald Sebastian Leung
Just upgraded to Fedora Workstation 40 and everything seems to be working properly 🙂 Glad to know that I don’t have to reinstall but you can never be too careful (-:
Terry
Looks like progress to me, guys. Congrats!
taezea
Error running transaction: package displaylink-1.14.4-1.x86_64 is already installed
file /usr/libexec/displaylink/libevdi.so.1.14.4 from install of displaylink-1.14.4-1.x86_64 conflicts with file from package displaylink-1.14.4-1.x86_64
Gregory Bartholomew
That is an odd error. Sometimes, you can “get away with” ripping a bad package off your system with, e.g., “sudo rpm ‐‐nodeps -v -e displaylink-1.14.4-1.x86_64” and then immediately re-running the “sudo dnf update” command to fix any missing dependencies. (Note that you will not be able to copy-and-paste the provided command from this comment because this website corrupts the hyphen (‐) characters. You will need to type those commands out by hand to get them to work.)
Kamronbek
i installed fedora-39 and my laptop’s sound is off, what should i do to turn it back on
Gregory Bartholomew
You are likely to get better user support by posting your question to https://ask.fedoraproject.org/
Chris
If you meant Fedora 40 instead of 39, this discussion thread might help you.
Steve
Note that Gnome’s new remote login functionality is broken by bug 2271661 out of the box. selinux blocks the function if it is in enforcing mode.
Dragon Tesa
I’m so happy to get better Fedora.
Thanks a lot to better Fedora enhancements.
Ishira
PSA : If your home, work, or school WiFi router has MAC Filtering, you need to ask for new access or note down your old MAC Address because Fedora 40 has WiFi MAC Randomization, which will generate new MAC for each AP you connected to.
Just upgraded today and greeted with no internet access until 1 hour later I realized my MAC Address has changed. Some of my remote configs are set to my IP so I rather change my MAC address back instead of changing a lot of configs.
It would be nice for launch info posts like this to mention or highlight changes that possibly impact a lot of people like this MAC Randomization.