To cater for different needs and types of users, Linux has a vast list of distributions, which have their own features, packages, commands and other elements. In turn, a very successful distribution is Fedora, which is based on Red Hat.
This week, the Fedora Workstation version, intended for home PCs, has just reached its 31st version and brings some important new features to the system that should make life easier for many people. Check out the main news of Fedora Workstation 31 below.
Tip
Before proceeding to the news of the Fedora 31 distribution, it is worth remembering that it can be run from a USB stick without having to be installed, making it ideal for testing. For this you need some program like Rufus on Windows or Etcher.
After you have placed the Linux image on the flash drive, you will need to have the computer give it the boot priority. This can usually be done in the motherboard BIOS or by pressing the F2 / F11 button after turning on the PC.
Where to download Fedora
Fedora can be downloaded from its official website for free through this link to the Fedora Workstation 31 release.
Fedora 31 What's New
For this latest release of Fedora, its developers have brought new features to different parts of the system, which concern both its aesthetics and its security.
Changing wallpapers just got easier
For the most visual part, aside from having new wallpapers for your desktop, Fedora made it easy to apply them. With a simple click of the right mouse button, you already have access to the menu and can even set a wallpaper for your lock screen along with the desktop.
Group applications into folders
Another new feature of Fedora is that there is now a way to group apps into folders similar to what we do on Android or iPhone. For example, just dragging one icon from one program on top of another in Gnome's main interface and a folder will be created for them, making it easier to organize your application list.
In the example above, you dragged the LibreOffice icon to create a folder with only the programs that make up your suite. Thus, the result of this operation can be seen in the image below.
32-bit support has been decreased
When downloading the new Fedora, you should note that there is only one image available, which has support for 64-bit platforms. As other distributions are doing, Fedora is decreasing support for some 32-bit packages, but famous programs that make use of them like Steam and Wine will still work.
Available in different graphic environments
As you may have noticed from the download page and even the news, by default, Fedora comes with Gnome's graphical environment installed, but that doesn't mean it doesn't have any other graphical environments available. Fedora 31, in turn, can be downloaded in different versions, which may come with KDE Plasma, XFCE, LXQT, MATE-COMPIZ, Cinnamon, LXDE and SOAS.
If you are interested in one of these versions, just visit this Fedora Spins link.
Changes to make the system more secure
In addition to the news described above seen more in its interface, of course, Fedora has also improved security for this new version and updated some parts of the system. For example, root login is now disabled in SSH to avoid problems.
Python 2, in turn, had its package removed and now Fedora now handles Python 3 packages just like Python. The full list of Fedora 31 changes for this can be found in its official Changelog.
How to install Fedora 31
The installation of Fedora 31 is done graphically, as it is in other Linux distributions like Ubuntu, however, it has some details. Here's how a clean install of Fedora 31 was done:
- On the main Fedora screen, click on "Activities" and then on the Fedora icon as shown in the image below;
- Select the desired language to install the system and click "Continue";
- On the next screen, make sure your keyboard and time settings are correct. Then click on “Installation Destination”;
- In the new screen, select the hard drive or SSD where Fedora should be installed and click "Done." If you have more than one partition, this screen will also display them. Here you can also leave your files encrypted and resize the hard disk space. For the tutorial, the installation was done on a virtual machine with only one virtual hard drive;
- Back to the previous screen, click "Start installation";
- Wait for the software to be installed before you can proceed with Fedora setup;
- Click “Finish Installation and restart the computer. At this time, remember to change the boot order to give priority to the hard drive where Fedora was installed.
After the first boot, you will be able to configure some extra settings like create a user, set your password and integrate or not some service accounts.
Ready! Now you can use Fedora installed on your computer and enjoy all the news.
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