Fedora now features a curated set of third-party software repositories, containing software not traditionally available Fedora, like Google Chrome and Steam. By default, Fedora only includes free and open source software. However, with the introduction of these curated third-party repositories, users can opt-in to enabling selected extra sources. Some software in these optional sources is proprietary, and may have restrictions, including access to the source code. Read on for more information on how this works.

This brand new feature is part of the upcoming Fedora 28 release. However, recent updates to Fedora 27 provide changes to easily enable these repositories as well. Some of the third-party sources contain software that can only be installed on Fedora 28.

Third-party repositories available

Currently, enabling the new third-party repositories allows easy installation of the following software:

Google Chrome — a web browser (Fedora 27 & Fedora 28)

— a web browser (Fedora 27 & Fedora 28) PyCharm — a Python IDE (Fedora 27 & Fedora 28)

— a Python IDE (Fedora 27 & Fedora 28) NVIDIA graphics drivers (Fedora 28 only)

(Fedora 28 only) Steam — a digital distribution method primarily used for games (Fedora 28 only)

Enabling the repositories

After enabling the third-party repositories, the software contained in them is easily installed and updated using the normal methods in Fedora. This includes either using the Software application to search and install, or DNF on the command line.

Using the Software application

After upgrading to Fedora 28 (or updating Fedora 27), the Software application will show a notification on next launch asking if you want to enable the repositories. Click the enable button, and the software will appear for download in the Software app.

Alternatively, use the Software sources dialog to enable or disable the third-party repositories.

Using DNF

The fedora-workstation-repositories package in Fedora contains the third-party repo definitions. Install this package to enable the third-party repositories. Using DNF with sudo:

sudo dnf install fedora-workstation-repositories