Fedora Linux provides a wide variety of users with leading edge open source technology in a community developed and maintained operating system. The Fedora KDE Spin combines the reliable and trusted Fedora Linux base with the KDE Plasma desktop environment and a selection of KDE applications – simple by default, yet powerful when needed.
Back in April 2024, Fedora Linux 40 included the KDE “MegaRelease 6” – the Plasma desktop environment, Frameworks application libraries (with the underlying Qt platform), and Gear application suite were all upgraded to new versions in one fell swoop to deliver improved performance and reliability. Since then, continuous upstream updates by the KDE teams to fix bugs and deploy new features were quickly deployed to Fedora 40 users, including breakthroughs such as Explicit Sync in Wayland (which addressed the most prevalent graphical glitches on Nvidia devices)!
Now, as part of the Fedora Linux 41 release, the KDE Spin again includes the very latest with the recently released KDE Plasma 6.2, up-to-date KDE applications and core system packages, and new ways of using Plasma on different devices:
KDE Plasma 6.2
Plasma 6.2 features numerous bug fixes and additional features to continue building on the modern foundation of Plasma 6:
- Drawing tablet configuration, calibration and pen button binding that are built-in to the System Settings app – no extra software needed
- Color management upgrades all over – Wayland protocol improvements, better brightness handling for HDR and ICC profiles, tone mapping built-in to the KWin compositor, and faster HDR performance add up to a better desktop experience for graphic design, gaming, and multimedia
- Accessibility improvements, by adding the complete “Sticky Keys” feature on Wayland (enabling users with limited dexterity and/or mobility to use keyboard shortcuts more easily), and by providing color blindness correction filters directly in the revamped System Settings Accessibility page
Fedora KDE across devices
ARM-Based devices (AArch64)
The Fedora Project and KDE have both worked to support ARM-based devices like Raspberry Pi and Apple Silicon with high-quality experiences. Beginning with Fedora Linux 41, the KDE Spin for AArch64 will now be “release-blocking”. This means that showstopper bugs impacting the KDE experience on these devices can now qualify as blockers for the overall release, helping ensure that projects such as Fedora Asahi Remix (for Apple Silicon) get the best possible support.
Please note that live ISOs for KDE on AArch64 are not yet release-blocking, and will be coming in a future release
KDE Plasma Mobile Spin & Kinoite Mobile
Built on the foundations of the Plasma Desktop, KDE Plasma Mobile brings its flexibility to devices with a mobile form factor. Although it was originally geared towards phones, the touch-friendly interface works very well on tablets and 2-in-1 laptops, and enables users with an even broader range of devices to join the Fedora community!
This experience will be available in both the traditional distribution format, as the Fedora KDE Plasma Mobile Spin, and in an Atomic Desktop bootable container image, as Kinoite Mobile.
Please note that installation ISOs have not yet been published for Kinoite Mobile on this cycle, but are coming soon!
Fedora Linux 41 general updates
Some of the key updates occurring in the core components of Fedora 41, which specifically impact the KDE Spin, include:
- New power profiles daemon: tuned replaces the old power-profiles-daemon, providing advanced users with more options to fine-tune the power consumption of their system. This change also provides API compatibility for developers, and reduces the number of different approaches for which software maintainers need to account
- Broader laptop camera support: Many recently released laptops include new IPU6 webcams that use a unique bus (instead of USB) and rely on much more software support to function. Fedora Linux 41 includes out-of-the-box support for cameras using the ov2740, ov01a10 and hi556 sensors in applications such as Firefox that can access cameras via Pipewire
Wrap-up
The Fedora Project and the KDE Community hope that you’ll find Fedora KDE 41 to be an easy-to-use, reliable and powerful desktop operating system. When you’re ready to check it out, click here for download links and verification instructions.
If you use and enjoy Fedora KDE, consider getting involved in the Fedora Project, the KDE Community, the Fedora KDE Special Interest Group, or all of the above!
David Legg
Just thought I’d mention that Covenant Books UK is held together with Fedora, Libreoffice and other open source software.
Ivan
‘New power profiles daemon: tuned replaces the old power-profiles-daemon, providing advanced users with more options to fine-tune the power consumption of their system. This change also provides API compatibility for developers, and reduces the number of different approaches for which software maintainers need to account’
The workstation version with Gnome doesn’t have this change?
John Kizer
It does – that Fedora Linux 41 general updates section includes items that benefit all spins of Fedora, those are just a couple that we wanted to specifically highlight since they might be additionally relevant for desktop users who are using the KDE Spin.
Ivan
Nice! Sorry, is just that I looked at the article for Fedora Workstation and didn’t see this listed. Thank you!!!
Pawel
Great, but where is GIMP? Can’t find it in software center.
Gregory Bartholomew
“sudo dnf install gimp” should work. (I never use Software Center anyway. 🙂)
Pawel
Yes, it did the job. Thanks 🙂
Peter
power-profiles-daemon is still being developed and even received some patches from AMD the last few months, so the decision to retire it seems premature.
Sandro Markson
It feels great to upgrade from Fedora KDE 40 and, after a reboot realize that no packages were broken during the process and performance increased. Kudos and thanks to Fedora team and contributors commited to the project.
mars-json
It’s nice to see KDE 6.2 in Fedora. I use Linux system for daily work, and its important to me to have major components of the system up to date.
Besides, I wa snot aware about KDE Plasma Mobile spin. I ertanly would give it a try as soon as I get necessary hardware.
Antonio Pedicini
Fedora 40 Kde is already on Plasma 6.2, so what is changed?
Jay
me alegro que por fin añadan perfiles de energÃa al sistema,
Benjamin
The DNF upgrade is fantastic. I was having issues with dnf hanging for 15-60s on invocation on all of my machines and early usage shows this DNF update rectifies that. Much appreciated!
Fibra
The method to upgrade is only the system-upgrade dnf plugin or is there a way via Discover?
Robert
dnf upgrade to 41. Seemed to go well. However, when I open my file folder, I am immediately logged out. Everything else seemes to work fine. When I select Plasma
amd log in, there is no problem opening a file. Any ideas to fix this?
Thanks,
Robert
Andy Turfer
I’ve never switched to Fedora because video hardware acceleration never worked with VLC (something to do with the wrong version of ffmpeg, something like that). I wonder if VLC will now work with video hardware acceleration on Fedora 41… If so, I may give it a go…
Stuart Gathman
ffmpeg with encumbered IP (like the proprietary video acceleration API you are asking about) require the rpmfusion repos. https://rpmfusion.org/
Jan DeMus
” including breakthroughs such as Explicit Sync in Wayland (which addressed the most prevalent graphical glitches on Nvidia devices”
Is this the reason that for the very first time I can watch Youtube videos without stuttering images using my Nvidia card? I was wondering about this cause I never saw anything about this change. Suddenly the video’s run smooth, as if I use the AMD GPU in my laptop. Great change, best one ever. I do watch Youtube a lot and watching these choppy pictures is terrible. Thank you very much.
Scott
They removed the option to use X11 so if you need it, you’ll have to figure out if there’s a way to install it. That worries me for the older hardware but we’ll see how it works out.
Antonio Pedicini
What about QT?