The final stable release of Fedora 32 is now available for download, packing in six months worth of development.
Now, I know what you’re thinking: this is supposed to be a blog about Ubuntu. But hey: I like to keep an eye on what other Linux distros are up to and, following on from news that Lenovo is putting Fedora on its laptops, the release of Fedora 32 Workstation feels like a natural extension to that.
So, what’s new in Fedora 32 exactly?
Well, this version of the rpm-based Linux distro ships nearly every nut-and-bolt of the recent GNOME 3.36 release, including the blurry new lock screen, UI theme improvements, and do-not-disturb toggle, and features the redesigned GNOME Clocks app as a default app.
Fedora 32 rides atop the latest Linux 5.6 kernel, ships new versions of Mozilla Firefox and LibreOffice, and boasts a neat new low-memory feature called EarlyOOM.
The EarlyOOM system service is turned on by default and will, Fedora say, help to improve the usability of the workstation UI when running in low-memory situations that trigger significant swap usage.
Toolchain and developer highlights in Fedora 32 include GCC 10, Python 3.8 (a legacy Python 2.7 package is available if you need it), and Ruby 2.7.
Alongside the main Fedora Workstation release are various off-shoots, spins, and flavours, including Fedora Server, dedicated 64-bit ARM and IoT builds, plus a new version of the minimal, container-focused Fedora Core.
You can download Fedora 32 as a 64-bit .iso the official Fedora website below:
Running Fedora 31? You can upgrade to Fedora 32 from the previous release using the GNOME Software app or the relevant dnf commands listed on this docs page.
I took Fedora 32 for a spin earlier as a live session (I flashed the .iso to a USB stick using Etcher and booted by laptop from that). My experience was pretty solid considering that Fedora ships open source graphics drivers and Wayland by default. That said, I can’t quite get used to applications not having a visible ‘minimise’ button!
The variety of preinstalled apps is a touch smaller than that of desktop Linux distributions, Ubuntu or otherwise. That said I was pleased to find the GNOME Weather, Clocks, Maps, and Photos apps are available out of the box.