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Select Flathub applications available in GNOME Software

Fedora 35 aims to make it easier to install a selection of popular third-party software from Flathub via GNOME Software.

Enabling third-party software repositories will make a filtered list of Flathub apps available, via a Flathub remote repo managed by the Fedora project. This means that many of the most popular applications on Flathub (meeting some eligibility requirements of the Fedora Project) will be available in GNOME Software and on the flatpak command line.

Learn more about the criteria for software selection and how this change fits within the Fedora Project’s third-party software policies at the wiki.

As with previous versions, users may still install a completely unrestricted Flathub remote (instructions). There are no changes to the Flatpak binary already shipped by Fedora.

Fedora Kinoite

Fedora Kinoite is an immutable desktop operating system featuring the KDE Plasma desktop. It is based on the same technologies as Fedora Silverblue (rpm-ostree, Flatpak, and podman) and created from official RPM packages from Fedora. Fedora Kinoite is to the Fedora KDE Spin what Fedora Silverblue is to Fedora Workstation.

Kinoite’s immutable design is intended to make it an excellent platform for containerized applications as well as container-based software development. Applications and containers are kept separate from the host system, improving stability and reliability.

More information, download links and documentation can be found at the Fedora Kinoite website.

Switch to WirePlumber as the PipeWire session manager

WirePlumber is a modular session/policy manager for PipeWire. It is written using GNOME technologies, and allows developers and external tools to more easily manage PipeWire. The WirePlumber daemon implements the session & policy management service. It follows a modular design, having plugins that implement the actual management functionality.

In Fedora 34, PipeWire was managed via a simple example session manager with mostly hardcoded logic and rules. For Fedora Linux 35, WirePlumber brings these improvements:

  • Drop-in replacement session manager for PipeWire, implements the exact same features as the example session manager.

  • Built with GObject, which provides a richer development experience and adds bindings for most languages.

  • Extensible with loadable modules.

  • Scriptable policy using small LUA scripts.

  • Better integration with desktop settings.

Enabling Third-Party Software for GNOME Software

Fedora 35 Workstation offers a new way to enable third-party software in GNOME Software. Post-installation, a new page in the GNOME Initial Setup offers to enable third-party software repositories. If selected, third-party software repositories are available in GNOME Software from the first use.

In Fedora 34 and earlier, an initial opt-in to third-party software (typically seen at the first run of GNOME Software) installed the repositories but did not enable them, requiring a user to perform an extra step before the software was available in GNOME Software.

This change does not change the software selection on offer via the repositories; it simply makes enabling the third-party software more intuitive for the user.

Power profiles are available in GNOME

You can now switch between several power profiles in the Power panel of Settings in the GNOME environment. The power profiles optimize various system settings for the selected goal.

The following power profiles are available:

Performance

Optimizes for high system performance and reduces battery life. This profile is only available on certain selected system configurations.

Balanced

Provides standard system performance and power consumption. This is the default profile.

Power Saver

Increases battery life and reduces system performance. This profile activates automatically on low battery.

Your power profile configuration persists across system reboots.

The power provides functionality is available from the power-profiles-daemon package, which is installed by default.