Fedora 22 Advances Linux for Cloud, Workstations, Servers

by Sean Michael Kerner

As was the case with Fedora 21, Fedora 22 offers three distinct products: Fedora Workstation, Fedora Server and Fedora Cloud editions.

Yum was the predecessor package manager used for Fedora distribution releases prior to the new Fedora 22 milestone. DNF (which stands for Dandified Yum) offers the promise of improved performance and stability over Yum.

With the Workstation release, users have the choice of either a regular GNOME 3 or a GNOME Classic desktop. The GNOME Classic desktop interface provides users with a more traditional GNOME desktop that includes applications, places and files as top menu items, while the GNOME desktop option provides an activities-focused approach.

The Files tools in Fedora 22 have improved to make it easier for users to find, manage and remove files and folders from the desktop.

The Boxes tool which enables the management of virtual and remote machine—benefits from a new box creation assistant—that aims to make it easier for users to get up and running.

As was the case in Fedora 21, Mozilla Firefox is the default browser.

Fedora 22 provides an updated software tool that enables users to find new applications that are not included with the default installation.

Fedora 22’s Cloud Edition has multiple versions depending on how and where a user wants to deploy the operating system. There are base images that are generic, and then there are atomic images that run a minimal server operating system optimized for containers. There are also specific Fedora 22 images optimized for deployment on Amazon’s public cloud.

At the heart of Fedora 22 is the Linux 4.0 kernel, released April 12. The Linux 4.0 kernel introduces a live kernel patching capability, which enables the Linux kernel to be patched without the need to reboot the system.