Fedora Linux 40 Released: GNOME 46 and KDE Plasma 6

What happened

Fedora Linux 40 was released on April 23, 2024, according to the official Fedora Magazine announcement, which noted the project was back on an on-time release schedule. The 40th release was a milestone number for the long-running community distribution.

Desktop updates

Fedora Workstation 40 featured the GNOME 46 desktop environment. The KDE spin shipped KDE Plasma 6 and ran on Wayland out of the box, a notable step as the KDE community completed its move to the new Plasma generation. Fedora also revived the Fedora Atomic Desktop brand for its image-based, ostree-provisioned variants such as Silverblue and Kinoite, providing a clearer grouping than the imprecise immutable label.

Tools for AI development

Fedora 40 shipped the project's first-ever PyTorch package. PyTorch is a widely used deep-learning framework that can be difficult to install with matching driver and library versions, so packaging it was aimed at making a reliable starting point. The initial package supported CPU execution only, with GPU and NPU acceleration planned later, and the release also shipped ROCm 6, AMD's open-source GPU compute stack.

Why it mattered

Fedora 40 delivered current GNOME and KDE desktops, with the KDE spin's move to Plasma 6 on Wayland being especially significant for that community. The first PyTorch package signalled Fedora's intent to make AI and machine-learning tooling easier to install reliably, continuing the distribution's tradition of bringing new technology to users early.

Related on Skillo

See also: Fedora Linux 41 and DNF 5.

Sources

• Announcing Fedora Linux 40 (Fedora Magazine)

Published date reflects the original event date (2024-04-23). This article is original Skillo editorial written from the sources above; facts were verified in September 2026.