Fedora 44 Beta: Key Changes and Experience with KDE Plasma

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Fedora 44 Beta arrives packed with new features Both at the desktop and system levels, it's clear that the community-sponsored distribution from Red Hat remains the preferred testing ground for technologies that later find their way into Red Hat Enterprise Linux and much of the Linux ecosystem. This preview version introduces significant changes to the installer, the KDE Plasma experience, and the underlying technical foundation, so if you're keen to experiment with the latest features, this beta is a real treat.

In addition to major headlines such as GNOME 50KDE Plasma 6.6 and the Linux kernel 6.19Fedora 44 Beta introduces improvements designed for everyday use: a more modern live boot mode, improved support for Windows on ARM laptops, a revamped Games Lab focused on Wayland and games, significant advancements in reproducible builds, and a host of updates to development tools and services. Let's break all this down in detail, paying particular attention to the KDE Plasma experience.

What is Fedora 44 Beta and why does it matter?

Fedora 44 Beta is the prelude to the stable release of Fedora 44It is scheduled for mid-April, barring any last-minute setbacks. Like any Fedora beta, it's not just a version for the curious: the project explicitly presents it as an opportunity for users to test, detect problems, and report bugs that can be ironed out before the final release.

Fedora has become a key technological foundation in the Linux worldAnd not just on servers or traditional workstations. Gaming-focused distributions like Bazzite, or to a lesser extent Nobara, rely on Fedora to offer a modern environment, with a highly updated graphics stack and optimizations for gaming on Wayland. Everything debuting in Fedora 44 Beta has a strong chance of influencing what we'll see in other projects in the coming months.

This version consolidates several of Fedora's strategic lines: a firm commitment to Wayland, for the reproducibility of packagesThis is due to the use of cutting-edge development tools and the refinement of the desktop experience, especially in GNOME and KDE Plasma. The transition to atomic (immutable) desktops is also ongoing, and obsolete or problematic components, such as FUSE 2 and certain rules inherited from polkit, are being removed.

It's worth noting that, although the beta version is fairly stable for everyday use, It is not recommended to install it on critical production equipmentIdeally, you should test it on a secondary machine, on a separate partition, or in a virtual machine, precisely so that you can report any remaining bugs without your main system suffering the consequences.

Changes in the Anaconda installer and initial experience

One of the first notable new features of Fedora 44 Beta is in Anaconda, the installer. From now on, only the network devices configured during installation They will be part of the final system configuration. In other words, network profiles will no longer be automatically created for all detected interfaces, a practice that had long caused conflicts and complicated subsequent reconfiguration.

This adjustment seeks to correct long-term network problems These issues affected users with multiple interfaces (Ethernet, Wi-Fi, USB, etc.), causing duplicate profiles or unwanted connections to be activated. Now, if you don't configure an interface during the installer (either through boot options, Kickstart, or the graphical interface), that interface won't have a default profile created in the installed system.

They have also been introduced Improvements to the Live environment This is used both to try Fedora without installing it and to launch the installer itself. The Live boot scripts have been modernized using the new livesys-scripts, and new dracut functionality has been leveraged to support the automatic activation of persistent overlays when flashing the ISO to a USB drive. This makes the behavior of the live media more consistent and user-friendly.

In aarch64 architectures, special work has been done on support for Windows on ARM systemsThe beta version includes automatic selection of the correct DTB on EFI ARM systems, so laptops that originally came with Windows on ARM can boot Fedora Live without having to struggle with manual device configurations. This is an important step towards making these machines a viable Linux option.

Taken together, these tweaks to the installer and the Live environment point to a cleaner and more direct initial experience: fewer redundant questions, fewer annoying network profiles, and more polished support for modern hardware, especially in the ARM field.

Unified experience with KDE Plasma in Fedora 44

If you use KDE Plasma or are curious to try it, Fedora 44 Beta represents an interesting leap forward. The project has been working on a unified “out of the box” experience for all KDE variantsJef Spaleta, current leader of the Fedora Project, highlights that an application called Plasma Setup is now being introduced that runs after installation in all KDE editions.

The idea is that The initial setup focuses on Plasma Setup Instead of being scattered between Anaconda and the desktop's own assistants, the Anaconda configuration has been adjusted in versions that use this new application. This eliminates redundant steps that previously duplicated options you would later see again in Plasma. Less repetition, more consistency, and a smoother initial setup.

Another important decision is the use of Plasma Login Manager (PLM) as an access manager PLM is the default in KDE editions, replacing SDDM. It is more aligned with the rest of the Plasma ecosystem, allows for more consistent visual integration, and facilitates session management (especially in Wayland) without relying on an external component like SDDM.

In Fedora 44 Beta, the official KDE edition incorporates KDE Plasma in its 6.6 branch, based on Qt6 and WaylandA very ambitious version of the environment that brings custom global themes, text recognition in captures with Spectacle, a revamped on-screen keyboard, Automatic screen brightness with ambient light sensorsQR code scanning for Wi-Fi networks and a good handful of usability improvements and polished details throughout the desktop.

These changes are expected to occur. eventually arrive in Fedora Kinoite as well, the atomic variant based on KDE. Although torrents for all atomic editions are not yet available in the beta, the move towards PLM and a unified post-installation configuration makes a lot of sense precisely in this type of immutable desktop environment, where the goal is for the base system to change as little as possible and customization to be managed in layers.

GNOME 50 and other desktop editions

The other big star of the desktop is GNOME 50, which arrives in Fedora Workstation 44 Beta as the default environmentThis version of GNOME takes a significant step forward in key areas of the graphics stack: stable support for variable refresh rate (VRR), substantial improvements in HiDPI, and advances in color management thanks to sdr-native.

El VRR is now established as a stable feature In GNOME 50, compatible monitors can dynamically adjust their refresh rate to reduce screen tearing and improve smoothness, especially in video games and fast-moving content. Combined with HiDPI improvements, this makes the visual experience on high-resolution displays significantly smoother.

GNOME Software, the application hub of the environment, wins support for offline updatesThis means that the most sensitive updates are applied upon restart, reducing the risk of inconsistencies when updating critical packages while the system is active. There are also changes to color management aimed at improved sRGB representation with sdr-native, benefiting those who work with images or simply want more accurate colors.

In the realm of alternative flavors, the Budgie edition stands out, which in Fedora 44 Beta jumps to Budgie 10.10 and migrate from X11 to WaylandThis transition puts Budgie in a more sustainable long-term position, aligned with the path taken by GNOME and KDE, and lays the foundation for the next major version of Budgie focused almost entirely on Wayland.

There are also other updated desktop options, such as the variant with a modernized Budgie, not to mention that Fedora maintains Spins with several environments for different tastes. But it's clear that the priority remains... GNOME and KDE as flagshipsAnd in this beta, it's especially noticeable due to the care put into VRR, HiDPI, Plasma Setup, and PLM.

Games Lab and gaming enhancements

Fedora has been gaining prominence among Linux gamers for some time now, largely thanks to projects like Bazzite and Nobara, which are based on its core. Fedora 44 Beta further develops this aspect through a Games Lab fully modernized, designed to offer the latest technologies for video games on Wayland.

This Games Lab leaves behind its previous approach with Xfce and adopts KDE Plasma as desktopSpecifically, to take advantage of the cutting-edge Wayland stack and Plasma 6.6's capabilities in multi-monitor setups, VRR, and more. The goal is to provide a ready-to-play environment for game development, with updated components and a polished experience.

Along with this, Fedora 44 Beta brings in its base Linux kernel 6.19 and Mesa 25.3.5This translates into greater support for modern hardware and improvements in graphics performance, especially in Laptops with NVIDIA and Ryzen AIAlthough both the kernel and Mesa continue to be updated throughout Fedora's lifecycle, starting with these beta versions puts the distribution in a very competitive position with regard to recent graphics cards and new driver features.

Another key component in the multimedia and gaming experience is PipeWire, which arrives in version 1.5.58. Along with systemd 259 and fwupd 2.0.19These components form the core of the system's services. In practice, only systemd remains frozen at a specific version throughout the lifecycle of Fedora 44, receiving only security patches and bug fixes, while the other components will be updated more frequently.

This combination of Games Lab, Wayland, VRR, kernel and recent Mesa This positions Fedora 44 as a very interesting platform for gaming, either directly or as a base for more specialized distributions. If you like having the latest in graphics and multimedia support, this beta is a good way to see what's in store.

Live media, ARM architectures and technical improvements

Beyond the interface, Fedora 44 Beta brings significant changes to how systems are built and used. live media (LiveCD/LiveUSB)As mentioned earlier, the use of configuration scripts in the live environment has been modernized, and dracut is now used to automatically enable persistent overlays when burning the image to a USB drive. This is another step towards making the "Fedora Live" you try before installation behave more like a real system.

In AArch64 architectures, the automatic selection of DTB for EFI systems aims to Live Images work seamlessly on Windows laptops on ARMThis is a niche that's generating increasing interest. The idea is that you can boot the ISO directly, without having to delve into device trees or complicated configurations.

It has also been noted that the Fedora CoreOS edition on its “next” channel It automatically overwrites the Fedora beta content on the same day it's released, something that was initially announced incorrectly (a one-week difference was mentioned) and later corrected as an editorial error. If you want to try CoreOS using the Fedora 44 Beta base, simply use that "next" channel.

The beta is available for download in several versions: Fedora Workstation, Fedora KDE Plasma Desktop, Fedora Server, Fedora IoT, Fedora Cloud, as well as Spins and Labs. If you already have a Fedora system installed, you can also Upgrade to beta using dnf system-upgrade, assuming the typical risks of a pre-release version.

We must not forget that, for now, Torrents have not been published for all atomic beta versions (or at least they are not visible on the dedicated torrent page), so you may have to resort to direct downloads or other common methods to get the image you are looking for.

Development tools, reproducibility, and Nix

In terms of development and packaging, Fedora 44 Beta comes loaded with changes. To begin with, the GNU toolchain to very recent versionsincluding gcc, glibc, binutils, and gdb. This ensures that the distribution keeps pace with the latest compiler and library features, with performance improvements, new language functionalities, and security fixes.

One of the most ambitious goals is the reproducibility of the packetsIn recent versions of Fedora, the build infrastructure has been adapted to allow reproducible builds, and around 90% of packages are now reproducible. With Fedora 44, the goal is to go even further: all packages are expected to be reproducible by the final release, with the explicit intention of exceeding 99%.

When non-reproducible packets are detected, Bugs will be exploited against those packages. so that maintainers can correct the root causes (timestamps, random paths, non-deterministic dependencies, etc.). In parallel, a default hardlink strategy is being introduced for identical files under /usr in all Fedora packages, as a post-installation action.

This automatic hardlink mechanism is designed to Avoid race conditions in reproducibility validationsThis is a typical problem with traditional hardlinking approaches. Automatically linking identical files in /usr reduces the space occupied and strengthens the system's internal consistency, which aids both reproducibility and integrity checks.

Another relevant detail is the Introduction of the Nix package manager as a development toolFedora's DNF and RPM package system are not being replaced; instead, Nix is ​​being added as a tool available to developers who want isolated, replicable, and declarative environments. This brings Fedora closer to workflows that are becoming increasingly common in modern development environments.

Changes in the package and CI ecosystem

Fedora 44 Beta is also making progress in modernizing its continuous integration infrastructure. Integration continues with... Packit as the default CI system for dist-gitThis completes the final phase of a long-standing plan. This facilitates a more consistent and centralized execution of automated tests associated with packages in Git.

Work is also continuing on the removal of python-mock, a Python testing library that became obsolete with the evolution of the language itself and has been marked as deprecated since Fedora 34. Although it is still used in quite a few packages, the plan for Fedora 44 is to review the remaining uses, migrate to modern alternatives (such as Python's own unittest.mock) and be able to retire python-mock from the distribution.

In the field of the R language, Fedora introduces new specific rpm macros to standardize and automate common tasks of packaging R modules and libraries. This significantly simplifies RPM spec files, makes package structure more predictable, and makes it easier for new maintainers to join without having to learn a thousand details.

These less flashy but profound changes reinforce Fedora's position as reference platform for developersnot only for having the latest versions of compilers and libraries, but also for taking care of the quality and homogeneity of the package ecosystem.

Updates to languages, databases, and key tools

In terms of software versions and languages, Fedora 44 Beta comes with Golang 1.26 as the default versionStaying close to the latest stable branch of Go allows you to avoid known vulnerabilities, enjoy the latest language features, and provides a reliable foundation for both developing in Go and running applications built with it.

In databases, the distribution adopts MariaDB 11.8 as the default version in packages without a version suffix. Multiple MariaDB packaged branches still exist, but this is the one presented as "default" in the repositories. For those maintaining applications dependent on earlier versions, the corresponding versioned packages can still be used.

The Python ecosystem is also being updated with Django 6.x is available in the repositoriesThis allows developers to use the latest branch of the popular web framework. For those who rely on extensions or plugins that are not yet compatible with 6.x, the option to use python3-django5 is offered, enabling a gradual transition.

IBus is updated to version 1.5.34, improving the Wayland support and emoji-related featuresThis may seem minor, but it impacts the writing experience in multiple languages ​​and the full adoption of Wayland on the desktop. TagLib is moving to branch 2, ensuring compatibility with future versions and allowing for the maintenance of multimedia metadata manipulation libraries.

On the DevOps and cloud tools side, Fedora introduces Helm 4 as the default helm packageWith changes intentionally incompatible with Helm 3, Ansible Core 2.20 is being released. For those still relying on Helm 3, a parallel installable package (helm3) is available to facilitate the transition without disrupting workflows. Ansible is also being updated to version 13 with Ansible Core 2.20, integrating significant robustness and security fixes into the template engine. However, these fixes may reveal previously undetected playbooks with incorrect behavior.

TeXLive 2025 and changes in documentation

For users of LaTeX and technical documentation, Fedora 44 Beta includes TeXLive 2025 with a new modular packaging modelThe classic monolithic spec “texlive” has been divided into a set of collection packages and schemes that follow the categorization defined by the TeXLive upstream project itself.

This modular approach allows Install only the packages that are truly necessary This also makes it easier for updates to better align with the upstream pace. Each collection package includes immediate component dependencies as subpackages, resulting in a clearer, easier-to-maintain TeX ecosystem that's less prone to accumulating tons of unnecessary content.

Those coming from earlier versions of Fedora will notice that TeXLive's naming and package structure has changed, but the benefit is a system more flexible, aligned with how TeXLive organizes its own moduleswhich simplifies both packaging and daily use for advanced users.

Removals: QEMU 32-bit, FUSE 2 and pkla rules

As with every major Fedora release, Fedora 44 Beta takes the opportunity to eliminate outdated or problematic technologiesOne of the most significant changes is the end of QEMU builds for 32-bit hosts (i686). This aligns the distribution with the decision of the QEMU project itself, which has deprecated support for 32-bit hosts and plans to adopt 64-bit atomic operations in all future builds.

This does not mean that they cannot be done virtualize 32-bit operating systems as guestsRather, the host running QEMU must already be 64-bit. In practice, the impact is limited, because most Fedora installations on modern hardware have been 64-bit for years.

Another delicate point is the FUSE 2 removal on atomic (immutable) desktopsRemoving FUSE 2 binaries and libraries in these editions means losing support for formats or applications that depended on that older version, such as AppImage in many cases. This is a tough step for those who relied on AppImage in atomic desktops, but it's consistent with the shift towards more modern and maintainable stacks.

Compatibility with the following is also eliminated: polkit pkla rules on atomic desktopsThis is an outdated and deprecated configuration method. Removing it forces the adoption of more current authorization mechanisms that are consistent with the rest of the system, at the cost of requiring the revision of older configurations that depended on pkla.

These cutbacks may be inconvenient in the short term, but they are part of Fedora's philosophy of Move forward quickly, shed excess baggage, and don't drag along obsolete technologies for too many cycles.

Overall, Fedora 44 Beta looks like a very powerful release: it refreshes the technical core with kernel 6.19, Mesa 25.3.5, systemd 259, PipeWire 1.5.58, and an up-to-date GNU toolchain; it refines the experience in GNOME 50 and KDE Plasma 6.6 with VRR, improved HiDPI support, Plasma Setup, and Plasma Login Manager; it modernizes the Games Lab and the Live environment, simplifies things for Windows on ARM laptops, pushes package reproducibility above 99%, incorporates cutting-edge tools like Nix and Helm 4, updates key languages ​​like Go and Django, and at the same time dares to leave behind QEMU 32-bit host, FUSE 2, and pkla rules on atomic desktops, solidifying Fedora as one of the most advanced and courageous platforms in the Linux landscape.