For a long time, Fedora was a distribution best used by those with a lot of Linux experience. It was a cutting-edge operating system, which meant it shipped with all the newest software. That only creates a difficult situation for new users, as things could tend to break down.
But over the years, Fedora has felt less and less like an operating system that should only be used by those with a lot of experience. And with the release of Fedora 36, now is the time to label the distribution for what it has become: an exceptional operating system, regardless of whether you’ve used Linux or not.
That’s right, I’m here to tell you that Fedora Linux is ready for prime time and can be used by anyone, regardless of whether you’ve touched Linux or not.
But why would you want to? Well, that’s the big question here and the answer comes in many forms, such as:
- You’re tired of Windows crashing
- Random Windows updates have constantly wasted precious time and work
- Your computer is not compatible with Windows 11
- need more security from your operating system. You want your operating
- system to behave as you want it, not as a company has dictated you to use it.
- Chromebooks don’t have enough flexibility and power.
- Apple’s hardware is too expensive.
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.
. You
Whatever your reason, you’re probably looking for something that doesn’t suffer from the above problems. If that’s the case, you have plenty of options. And with the release of Fedora 36, there is one more option that should be shortlisted for those operating systems ready for new users.
Fedora 36 is that good.
What makes Fedora 36 so good?
You’re probably wondering why, out of nowhere, Fedora 36 should now be in contention with Ubuntu Linux, Linux Mint, and ZorinOS. Part of the reason is GNOME 42. This iteration of the desktop environment takes all the amazing new features found in GNOME 40/41 and polishes them to the point of perfection. The horizontal workflow (Figure 1) makes it incredibly easy to get things done.
But instead of going through a list of all the new features found in GNOME 42, I want to demonstrate how the desktop helps make Fedora 36 so easy to use. Let’s examine how you can share folders with other computers on your network. Fedora and GNOME now make this incredibly simple. Here’s what you need to do:
Open settings Go to Sharing Click the On/Off slider until it is in the On position Click
- File Sharing
- , and in the resulting window (Figure 2), click the new On/Off slider until it is in the On position.
Once you’ve taken care of the above, the Public folder in your home directory (i.e. /home/USER/Public – where USER is your Linux username) will appear on the network as an available share (Figure 3).
The new file sharing functionality is a great example of how Fedora 36 goes to great lengths to ensure everything works. And when shipping with the Linux 5.17 kernel, your newer hardware should be automatically recognized without any problems.
Everything works
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Once upon a time that was a mantra that was relegated to distributions like Ubuntu. The fact that Fedora has finally reached that pinnacle of “fair jobs” speaks highly of the work the Fedora team has done for the platform. I’ve installed Fedora 36 several times and haven’t encountered a single problem yet. And since this version is still in beta, that’s saying something.
Features and changes
For those who prefer to know what’s new and improved with their distributions, here is the list of finalists for Fedora 36:
- Wayland is the default X server for those using NVIDIA’s proprietary driver
- Noto fonts are used as the system’s default font
- RPM databases are relocated from /usr to /var.
- The /var directory is now on its own Btrfs subvolume (for Silverblue and Kinoite installations).
- Removed legacy support for network configuration files in NetworkManager.
- CC 12
- GNU Library C 2.35
- LLVM
- Autoconf 2.71
- Cucumber Rubygem
- Ruby on Rails
- OpenJDK 17
- OpenLDAP 2.6.1
- Ansible 5
- Django
- PHP 8.1
- PostgreSQL 14
- Podman
- MLT 7.4
- Stratis
- 3.0.0
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14 OpenSSL 3.0
Ruby 3.1
7.1.0
7.0 Golang 1.18
libffi 3.4
4.0
4.0
The Lonely Weirdness
With the release of GNOME 42, two long-standing applications have been replaced: Gedit and Gnome Terminal. Although Fedora 36 enjoys the replacement of Gedit, Text Editor, it does not include the new terminal application. Why this is the case, I have no idea. I hope that the Fedora developers will take care of including the new Terminal application, as it is a much cleaner and simpler application that fits better with the new look of GNOME. If I had to guess, I’d say the new terminal app just isn’t ready (although it ships with GNOME OS, which is the distribution dedicated to showing what’s new in the desktop environment).
Regardless of that lonely oddity, everything in Fedora 36 looks and feels sublime. Apps open with astonishing speed, look great, and behave exactly as expected. If you’re looking for a new operating system, one that won’t disappoint you, you’d be remiss if you didn’t consider Fedora 36 as one of the top contenders.
To download a copy, visit the Fedora download page.