Fedora 41 beta is blazing fast and a great reason to try a new Linux distro

ZDNET’s key takeaways

• Fedora 41 beta is available now for testing purposes. 
• The latest iteration of Fedora Linux is blazing fast, reliable, and offers access to the upcoming GIMP 3.0 image editor.
• Fedora 41 ships with very few pre-installed applications and it’s still in beta.

For about five years now, I’ve become rather enamored of the Fedora Linux distribution. Yes, I’ve known about it for far longer, but for much of its existence, I saw Fedora as a distribution mainly for developers and those already quite familiar with the open-source operating system. Fedora was bleeding edge and would often break.

That was then. Today, Fedora is a different beast — fast, stable, secure, and easy enough for anyone to use. Fedora went from a niche distribution to one that can be used productively by anyone.

With the release of version 41 beta, the Fedora team demonstrates this once again. Version 41 has far more changes than one might expect from a release that’s not a major milestone — v30, v40, v50, etc — and all the changes come together to make a truly fantastic operating system.

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The changes

I’m going to lead with one change that has me very excited but may not apply to most users. Fedora 41 beta is the first distribution I’ve seen to include the ability to install the early version of GIMP 3.0. I use the GIMP image editor daily and have been anticipating this release. The GIMP development process is slow, so when a major release is on the horizon, there’s reason to be excited. I covered what has me most excited about GIMP 3 and the top three contenders are non-destructive editing, font handling, and new layer features. To test GIMP 3, install it with the command:

Beyond the addition of GIMP 3, there are plenty of other changes that should make plenty of users happy, such as:

• No more Python 2
• Proprietary NVIDIA driver installation available with Secure Boot
• DNF 5 and RPM 4.20
• The new fedora-repoquery tool
• KDE Plasma Mobile Spin
• LXQt 2.0
• OpenSSL now distrusts SHA-1 signatures by default
• Systemd service hardening features added for default system services
• Wayland-only GNOME Workstation

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Another little something new to the Fedora ecosystem with version 41 is the new Miracle Spin, a version of Fedora that uses the new Fedora Miracle tiling window manager. This window manager was built on Mir and is very much in the style of i3 and sway. Given how popular tiling windows have become, Fedora’s release of such a spin isn’t exactly happenstance.

OK, a lot is going on under the hood. But why would any of that appeal to every type of user? Honestly, for those new to Linux, it’s not the low-level changes that have me excited. (As Fedora has become somewhat of a darling to many in the Linux community, the developers are smart not to make major changes.) Above the underbelly of Fedora 41, it’s a lot of polish that comes together to make a cohesive, well-designed, and wonderfully performing distribution. I’ll say it again: Fedora is one of the best-performing operating systems I’ve used in a very long time. 

Testing this beta version makes it apparent that Fedora’s speed and reliability haven’t just been maintained but continue to improve. When Fedora 40 beta was released, I proclaimed it one of the fastest operating systems I’d tried. Version 41 seems to have found yet another gear. It may not be as fast as Redox OS but it’s close.

Click an app launcher and it opens almost immediately. Hide a window and it vanishes in an instant. Applications install very quickly, and animations are buttery smooth.

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There’s another cool new feature that comes by way of GNOME: The ability to quickly take a screenshot from a window. Right-click the window title bar and select “Take a screenshot” and an image of the window you’re using will be saved to ~/Pictures/Screenshots. No, this feature isn’t unique to Fedora 41 (I can also use it on Pop!_OS) but it’s just another cherry on top of an already delicious pie.

Pre-installed apps

Out of the box, there aren’t a lot of applications to be found. There’s Firefox, LibreOffice, GNOME apps (such as Weather, Maps, Videos), Boxes, Rhythmbox, Fedora Media Writer, and not much more. Fortunately, the GNOME Software includes Flatpak support, which delivers a wealth of applications available for free. Thanks to the Flatpak support, you can add apps like Slack and Spotify with a simple click.

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It really is about speed

With Fedora, I always come back to speed. It never ceases to amaze me how fast this distribution is. I remember, years ago, how doggedly slow Fedora was. Now this open-source distribution can hang with the fastest OSs on the market. If speed is your thing, you will not be disappointed by Fedora 41.

If I’ve piqued your interest, you can download an ISO image of Fedora and install it free of charge on as many computers as needed.