Today the Fedora Project is pleased to announce the general release of Fedora 24. Download it now from our Get Fedora site:

Another Step in the Fedora Journey

The Fedora Project has embarked on a great journey… redefining what an operating system should be for users and developers. Such innovation does not come overnight, and Fedora 24 is one big step on the road to the next generation of Linux distributions. But that does not mean that Fedora 24 is some “interim” release; there are great new features for Fedora users to deploy in their production environments right now!

Workstation

The Fedora 24 Workstation release features GNOME 3.20, with many usability improvements such as easier input device and printer settings, a better search interface, shortcut windows for keyboard commands, and more convenient music controls.

Flatpak (formerly xdg-app) is another building-block feature, with Software able to track installed Flatpaks and adding more features in the future as the technology develops. The Software app has also grown features to provide a full system upgrade directly from the desktop from one Fedora release to the next, and the ability to provide labeling as well as reviews of available software.

Fedora 24 continues our work on the X replacement, Wayland, a next-generation graphics stack. Although this release will not default to Wayland, it includes many improvements and is available as an option for users to try out, and potentially will be the default stack in Fedora 25.

Server

Fedora 24 Server edition is more streamlined and introduces more modularity, which will become a major factor in future Fedora releases, even as unnecessary packages were removed and the installer has a smaller footprint.

FreeIPA 4.3 is a major feature for Fedora 24 Server. FreeIPA is an integrated security information management solution. This new version of FreeIPA features simplified replica installation and improved replication technology management.

Cloud

Fedora is on its way to being the best platform for containerized applications, from base Fedora container images to a full-featured platform as a service to run and manage them.

As we continue on this part of the journey, we are packaging OpenShift Origin so it is easy to deploy. OpenShift Origin is a Platform as a Service system based around Kubernetes, a production-grade container orchestration project. OpenShift Origin is optimized for application development and deployment. Origin makes it easy for developers to get started building applications in containers and for operators to manage them.

While not shipped in Fedora 24, per se, we have new infrastructure for developing container images with applications layered on top of the base Fedora Docker image. Fedora Developers will also see a layered image build service, which provides tools for Fedora contributors to start creating and shipping layered container images in Fedora 25 and beyond.

Spins and Labs

Fedora Spins and Labs are alternative Fedora versions that offer additional desktop environments, or other custom collections of software, alongside the three editions that are the primary focus for the project.

Our Spins make it easy for people to use other desktop environments. Everyone has different needs and Spins are a great way for us to meet them. The Fedora 24 spins release showcases KDE Plasma, Xfce, LXDE, Mate-Compiz, and Cinnamon, all on the same Fedora base. Fedora Labs offer collections of software for specific purposes: Games, Robotics, and so on. They are pre-selected sets of software ideal for events or audiences with specialized interests that need corresponding software. Fedora 24 comes with a new lab focused on Astronomy, which contains a set of tools for astronomers and astrophysicists.

ARM

ARM images are available, as usual, for several use cases. Fedora 24 ships desktop images, such as Spins and Workstation, but also provides a Server image. A minimal Fedora image completes the wide set of install options for your ARM board.

Alternate Fedora Architectures

For the first time, all of our secondary architectures, AArch64, Power64 (ppc64, ppc64le) and s390x, are released simultaneously, rather than trailing a little behind. This includes the Server edition for all architectures and the Cloud and Docker base images for AArch64 and Power64. Along with all the same enhancements as in the primary architectures in Fedora 24, AArch64 and Power64 now have support for golang, nodejs, mongodb; along with numerous other architecture-specific enhancements. The architecture release notes pages on the wiki have more specifics for each. Download these from https://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/fedora-secondary/releases/24/.

Atomic Host

Fedora Atomic Host releases on a two-week schedule, and each release is built on the latest released Fedora version. This schedule means the Atomic Host will now be currently built on Fedora 24.

You can try one of the newer features with recent Fedora Atomic Host builds today. Since Fedora 23 was released, Atomic Host has added a developer mode that gives a better developer experience overall. When running in developer mode, the host will download and start Cockpit and a tmux session to make it easier to work at the console and obtain necessary information such as the root password or IP address.

Make Fedora Even Better

If you want to take an active hand in making Fedora even better, there are many ways you can contribute. There are many roles that you can participate. Visit http://whatcanidoforfedora.org/ for more information!

While this is a general release, there is always a chance you may encounter bugs or missing features. To report issues encountered during testing, contact the Fedora QA team via the mailing list or in #fedora-qa on Freenode IRC. As testing progresses, common issues are tracked on the Common F24 Bugs page.

For tips on reporting a bug effectively, read “how to file a bug report.”

Flock 2016: Krakow, Poland

If you want to be a part of the journey that Fedora is taking, either as a current or interested Fedora contributor, one way to engage with our community is through Fedora premier events. The annual North American/European conference for Fedora contributors is Flock, which takes place August 2-5, 2016 in Krakow, Poland. Registration is now open at https://register.flocktofedora.org. For more information about our Latin American and Asia-Pacific Conferences, stay tuned for announcements on the Fedora Community Blog: https://communityblog.fedoraproject.org.