So… What is the difference between a fully up-to-date Fedora 43 install (sudo dnf check-update returns nothing) and a fully-up-to-date Fedora 44 install? My Fedora 43 is running KDE 6.6.4 and Kernel 7.0.4 – same as Fedora 44 would be, right? So what is going to be different if I update to Fedora 44 from 43?
Well there are more bugs in KDE F44, so you get to test those…
Chances are you won’t actually run in to any. But if you want to play it safe, that is totally fine, you have six months before F43 no longer gets updates.
Right, but then I’d have F45 to deal with… I was just wondering what the actual differences are between releases, seeing as how each individual package in both releases will be the exact same thing, no? Is there some point where the individual packages will begin to diverge?
Yes, I was looking for that but got distracted Releases/44/ChangeSet - Fedora Project Wiki
I think in KDE you will notice an update to Plasma Login Manager, maybe a few new KDE tweaks.
When F45 comes out, you can update to 44. Stay six months behind. Personally, I go a couple of months ahead, but I’m not on KDE or Gnome.
Some packages WILL get bumped up to a new version. This is done in major releases. But do you use those packages? Do you need the features? You can find packages and versions at https://packages.fedoraproject.org/
Ok… Interesting…
Does that mean NTSync is only enabled in the Fedora 44 version of Kernel 7.0.4 and not in the Fedora 43 version of that same kernel? Because that would very much be a reason for me to upgrade…
For the kernel and Plasma, there isn’t really a big difference. The kernel is constantly updated and KDE Plasma has an update exception and is also updated even on older Fedora releases.
I think the main difference is KDE Gear, most notably Dolphin, which is on 24.04 on F44 but still on 23.12 on F43. As far as I understand, this is due to a problematic dependency and KDE’s release exception not extending to the dependency, thus keeping Gear on 23.12 on F43.
It’s all the other packages that do not have an exception and are still on lower versions on F43, like Fish 4.2 vs 4.7 or LibreOffice 25.8 vs 26.2, that make up the main difference between the two versions.
Just out of morbid curiosity, what do you run in lieu of KDE or Gnome?
Looking at Changes/NTSYNC-Contained - Fedora Project Wiki
And checking dnf info wine-ntsync and my local /usr/lib/modules-load.d/ I can’t see that the change as mentioned has been added to my system, which I installed as F44 beta.
Sway WM. Cut the cruft, double the work 
It is very responsive.
Ok, gotcha. I thought all the packages were updated in a similar fashion to the KDE and Kernel packages… I see now that there are potentially significant differences, which will become even more significant as time goes on, as the non-updated packages get older…
I figured there had to be something different, otherwise Fedora would just be a rolling release like Arch… I just couldn’t find an actual list of differences…
Maybe Fedora’s Updates Policy will be an interesting read in this context, especially the Stable Releases section.
Gotcha. Figured it was probably some kind of window manager. Been looking at a couple different WMs, but I’m not sure I want to make that plunge yet, having never used a WM before. I do see their potential, but it seems the learning-curve is steep.
LOL – seriously off-topic. Sorry…
There are usually changes that will need investigation. There are differences depending on whether you upgrade to a new version or use a fresh install.
Over years of using Linux, some packages disappear either because they are no longer being maintained, have been moved into a large library, or were dropped in favour of a “new improved” package with similar functionality. If you use TeX, many F43 packages have been combined into a much smaller number of packages in F44, but some less widely used packages remain. Upgrading requires removing most older packages to avoid conflicts. I found it easier to remove all F43 texlive packages and then install the 3 missing packages I need in F44.
Haven’t gone through all of the changes myself but I do know that there was a switch to plasma manager and also an upgrade to DNF5.
The biggest difference is the Login Manager for the average User like myself.
SDDM Was problematic on my Laptop Framework 16 Ai9. I would randomly end up with a black screen, requiring to jump into TTY2 and start Plasma from there. Changing over to the Wayland Login Manager in Fedora KDE44 completely fixed that and its now bullet proof.
Note: If you “Upgrade” from 43 to 44, then it will still run SDDM. You have to force it onto the Wayland Login Manager using Konsole and a few commands.
A fresh install comes with the Wayland Login Manager by default.
Ho Lee Schitt. I’ve been having that exact same black-screen login problem, and I was blaming KDE for it. I was this close to dumping KDE for something – ANYTHING – else that wouldn’t black-screen me on the login. Because it always happens at the most inconvenient time.
A potentially noob question here – but how are you getting into TTY2 and starting Plasma from there? The old Ctrl+Alt+F2 keyboard shortcut doesn’t work for me for some reason. It’s like the extra TTYs don’t exist at all – which I figured was a KDE thing also. I’ve been having to ssh into my Fedora machine from my MacBook in order to reboot it to fix that black-screen issue.
Sounds like I’ve been blaming KDE for quite a few things that aren’t KDE’s fault.
Right, I forgot about that. You can easily switch from SDDM to PLM on F43, I have done that successfully on my machines:
$ sudo dnf install plasma-login-manager kcm-plasmalogin
$ sudo systemctl enable --force plasmalogin.service
$ sudo systemctl reboot
$ sudo dnf remove sddm sddm-kcm sddm-wayland-plasma # after you have verified that everything works
BTW, if you upgrade from F43 to F44 (instead of a fresh install), your system also stays on SDDM. You can perform the same steps on an upgraded F44.
A lot of Laptops require CTRL+FN+ALT+F2. So you hold down ctrl and fn with one finger, alt with another of the same hand and then hit F2 with the other hand. Sometimes I even had to do it twice.
But just follow Lars steps to force Wayland in either F43 or F44 and you are good to go.
How about Gnome?
I upgrade from F43 to F44 by command line and then reboot, but I do not see any difference on new Gnome 50 and I think something are missing or not upgrade fully and right now my Gnome is like Gnome of F43.
F2 doesn’t work for me either on KDE, but F3 thru F6 should.