Scheduled for release in late October and powered by the Linux kernel 7.2, Fedora 45 Beta is now available for testing, giving users a preview of what to expect from the next major distro release.
On the desktop side, Fedora Workstation includes GNOME 51, while Fedora KDE Plasma Desktop ships with KDE Plasma 6.7.
Another important change is the switch from the old in-kernel fbcon console to kmscon. The new userspace console offers improved font and Unicode handling and more modern rendering.
Moreover, Fedora 45 changes how RPM package signatures are handled. Signature verification is now enforced by default, so unsigned RPM packages are rejected unless the user disables that check.
The installer also gets several updates. Anaconda now supports Stratis partitioning, including manual setup via the web interface and automated installation through Kickstart.
Fedora Atomic Desktops move further toward the web-based Anaconda installer. Their ISO images are built with image-builder, and Fedora continues work on installation flows designed specifically for Atomic variants.
Fedora CoreOS now enables systemd-oomd and zram swap by default, which changes how the system handles memory pressure and swap.
The DNF5 package manager also changes behavior in Fedora 45. By default, it no longer automatically switches an installed package from one vendor to another during upgrades or dependency resolution.
The development stack has been refreshed as well. Fedora 45 includes GCC 16.2, glibc 2.44, Go 1.27, LLVM 23, Perl 5.44, and Python 3.15 as part of the release cycle.
Fedora Linux 45 Beta is available for Workstation, KDE Plasma Desktop, Server, Cloud, IoT, Atomic Desktops, Spins, and Labs. Some individual images are still excluded from the beta, including MiracleWM, Budgie Atomic, and Sway Atomic.
Finally, just to mention that Fedora Linux Asahi Remix 45 Beta is also available for Apple Silicon Macs. This is the first release to add initial out-of-the-box support for Apple M3, M3 Pro, and M3 Max systems.
However, 3D acceleration on M3 hardware isn’t ready yet and will arrive later through a Mesa update; hardware-accelerated H.264 and VP9 video decoding is supported across Apple Silicon Macs, with AV1 decoding available on M3 systems.
As usual, this is still a beta release, so it is meant mainly for testing and bug reporting rather than production use. For additional details, see the announcement.
