Fedora Linux is retiring the Deepin Desktop Environment package set after FESCo, a key governing body within the Fedora Project that oversees various technical decisions related to the distro’s development, approved the decision.
The decision, initiated by Adam Williamson, was accepted after openSUSE did the same in 2025 due to unresolved security issues and attempts to bypass SUSE’s security review.
The initial concern was whether issues identified by SUSE also affected Fedora packages. Specifically, deepin-file-manager’s D-Bus interface and Polkit rules had been reviewed by SUSE security, but Fedora shipped the package without a similar review. The ticket also cited deepin-api and deepin-system-monitor as packages with related concerns.
Additionally, Fedora’s decision was also influenced by declining maintenance. Several Deepin packages had broken dependencies, failed to build or install, or had already been retired from newer Fedora branches.
As a result of all this, Fedora had already removed Deepin from comps after core desktop packages failed to build and were unavailable in Fedora 43. Deepin was also no longer listed among Fedora Spins, so it had ceased to be a functional official desktop option before the final FESCo decision.
Fedora contributors also raised concerns about the absence of a formal security review process for security-sensitive package changes. Unlike SUSE, which can block packages introducing D-Bus or Polkit components until review, Fedora does not have a mandatory equivalent.
On top of that, Zamir Sun, one of the original Deepin DE maintainers, confirmed that the initial packagers no longer had time to maintain the large package set. He stated there were not enough active maintainers to continue the effort and, unless another maintainer had updates, he supported retiring the Deepin DE packages.
Fully expectably, FESCo approved the retirement of all packages in the Deepin set and instructed Fedora Release Engineering not to restore them unless they pass review again. So, for Fedora users, Deepin Desktop is no longer available as an officially maintained environment through Fedora’s repositories. There is also no Fedora Deepin Spin or maintained package set that supports a full Deepin session.
However, the packages could return in the future, but not by simply reversing the retirement. They would need to pass review again and have active maintainers to ensure functionality and security.
For additional details, see the entire discussion here.
