Fedora 36 is finally available.
While we look forward to every major release, last year, Fedora 35 set up some exciting expectations with GNOME 41 and a new KDE flavor (Kinoite).
Here, I shall highlight the essential details about the new upgrade.
Fedora 36 Release Information
The final release date was scheduled for May 10, 2022 (with multiple delays). Now, it’s here!
You should also note that Fedora Linux 34 will reach its end of life on May 17, 2022.
Fedora 36 Features
Fedora 36 features the latest GNOME and other additions and improvements.
The key highlights include:
1. GNOME 42
GNOME 42 is an exciting upgrade with various visual and functional changes.
It also includes performance and visual tweaks, among other improvements. If you missed GNOME 41 feature additions, you should also check that.
Of course, you should expect to find all the changes with Fedora 36. Here, I shall highlight those details using Fedora 36 (if you didn’t catch up with GNOME 42).
2. System-wide Dark Mode
Fedora 36 enjoys the system-wide dark mode introduced with GNOME 42.
While we had dark mode implementations on other Linux distributions, GNOME 42 helped Fedora 36 become an attractive option for desktop users.
The dark mode blends in perfectly and gives a clean GNOME experience.
3. New Wallpapers
Without a new wallpaper, every other improvement sounds dull.
So, the Fedora Design Team brings along a beautifully crafted wallpaper in Fedora 36, illustrating glass-like elements, that looks interesting.
The default wallpaper has a variant for day/night. As you notice the wallpaper for daytime above, here’s the artwork for the night:
Both look fantastic and soothing to the eyes.
4. Linux Kernel 5.17
Fedora 36 is known to offer the latest Linux Kernel releases. As of now, it is currently running the release candidate versions of the upcoming Linux Kernel 5.17.
With the final Fedora 36 release, you should expect the stable version of Linux Kernel 5.17.
5. Dark/Light Wallpapers
Along with the new default wallpapers for Fedora 36, it also features a dark/light mode wallpaper collection introduced with GNOME 42.
You can find plenty of new wallpapers with the release.
You can choose to select the wallpapers with their available dark/light variants from the appearance menu in the system settings.
6. Screenshot User Interface and Native Screen Recording
The new screenshot user interface introduced with GNOME 42 is a fantastic addition. Also, with just a toggle, you can start recording your screen!
And, you could see that in action with Fedora 36, working perfectly fine.
7. Desktop Environment Updates
For obvious reasons, you should expect the latest desktop environments with Fedora 36.
The bare minimum should be GNOME 42, KDE Plasma 5.24, and Xfce 4.16.
In addition to that, LXQt has been updated to 1.0.0.
8. Important Technical Changes
Along with the visual changes and the Linux Kernel upgrade, there are various technical improvements with Fedora 36.
Some of them worth mentioning include:
- Updated the system openJDK package from Java 11 to Java 17.
- Introducing the upcoming Golang 1.18 version.
- Switching to Noto fonts as the default for various languages to ensure consistency in text rendering.
- The behavior to exclude the recommended packages (considering you do not have them installed) when automatically upgrading in future.
- GNU Toolchain update to gcc 12 and glibc 2.35.
- Fix upgradability issues in some cases.
- Default Wayland session with NVIDIA proprietary driver.
- Updated PHP stack to the latest 8.1.x.
- The RPM database will be relocated to /usr directory, currently it was in /var.
For more technical details, you can refer to the official changeset. If you want to download it, you can grab the ISO from the button below.
Wrapping Up
Fedora 36 is an exciting release.
I’m looking forward to trying the Wayland session with NVIDIA’s proprietary driver on Fedora 36 Workstation when I try it out as a daily driver.
What are you looking forward to in this release? Let me know in the comments down below.
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