Another six-month cycle has passed, and the highly anticipated Fedora 43 release is finally here, now available for download, powered by the latest and greatest Linux kernel 6.17.
The biggest change in Fedora 43 is the removal of GNOME X11 sessions. All users are now migrated to Wayland, marking the end of X11 support in Fedora’s GNOME edition. Wayland offers improved security, smoother graphics, and better handling of modern multi-DPI displays—solidifying Fedora’s role as a proving ground for the next-generation Linux desktop experience.
Under the hood, Fedora 43 updates its GNU Toolchain to GCC 15.2, binutils 2.45, glibc 2.42, and GDB 17.1. The new RPM 6.0 brings improved signature verification, tighter integrity checks, and refined performance when handling large package repositories. Developers will also benefit from LLVM 21, Golang 1.25, and Perl 5.42.
Moreover, Fedora’s Anaconda installer now uses DNF5 as the package management backend during installation, replacing the aging DNF4. DNF5 is faster, cleaner, and more modular—helping speed up installations and simplify dependency resolution. Meanwhile, Anaconda WebUI, Fedora’s browser-based installer, becomes the default for most Fedora Spins.
On the software side, Fedora 43 comes packed with updated software stacks and toolkits that touch nearly every development and desktop workflow:
- Python 3.14 — the newest major release of the Python programming language.
- Java 25 (OpenJDK 25) — now the preferred JDK, as the system-wide default JDK concept is retired.
- Ruby on Rails 8.0 and PostgreSQL 18 — providing modern frameworks and databases out of the box.
- MySQL 8.4 — replacing MySQL 8.0 as the default.
- Dovecot 2.4 and Tomcat 10.1.x — ensuring better mail and web application performance.
Fedora 43 also introduces Zstd-compressed initrd images for faster boot times and enables Debuginfod IMA verification by default to strengthen system integrity. Additionally, the system now uses lastlog2 for better login tracking and drops outdated components such as the python-nose testing framework and YASM assembler.
Lastly, for Fedora Kinoite users, automatic updates via rpm-ostree are now enabled by default, making system maintenance seamless. Fedora’s shift to container-based builds for CoreOS, coupled with support for Intel TDX confidential virtualization, shows the project’s deep investment in modern, cloud-native, and secure Linux technologies.
For more information about all novelties in Fedora 43, visit the release announcement. The ISO installation images are available from the project website’s download section.
