The Fedora community will celebrate the release of Fedora Linux 43 with a virtual Release Party on Friday, 21 November, 2025. For a few hours, Fedora contributors and leaders will speak about recent changes in Fedora Linux 43 and the Fedora Project. Our global Release Parties are a great way to learn more about the latest Fedora Linux release and also an opportunity to get to know the Fedora contributors behind it all.
We hope you will join us in a celebration of our last six months and the people who make it possible!
Logistics
This section contains the practical information you need to know for participating in this Release Party event.
Platform & Registration
The event will be hosted on Matrix in a dedicated event chat room. An embedded live stream will be shared in the Matrix room for synchronous watching, but a view-only stream will also be available on YouTube. Registration is free but it is required to gain access to the Matrix room. Attendees will receive an invitation to the Release Party room before the event begins.
- Platform: Matrix (Element client recommended)
- Registration: https://rsvp.fedoraproject.org/releases/f43/
Date & Time
- Friday, 21 November 2025
- Expected Timeframe: 13.00 - 16.00 UTC
Event Programming & Speakers
Fedora Linux Release Party content and speakers are scheduled by invitation. The programming is managed by Jef Spaleta and Shaun McCance.
If you have an idea for a 10-minute presentation about a new feature in Fedora Linux 43, an update from your team or SIG, or another interesting topic, please send an email to Jef and Shaun to pitch your idea. We strongly prefer pre-recorded presentations, but live sessions are also possible.
Highlights for this party
To be filled out once speaker list is confirmed
Schedule
Friday, 21 November
| Time (EST, UTC-5) | Time (UTC) | Session title | Name of speaker | Delivery | Description | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 08:00 - 08:15 | 13:00 – 13:15 | Opening Remarks | Jef Spaleta, Justin Wheeler | Live | Join the Fedora Project Leader and Community Architect as we kick off the celebration for this release, look back on the last release cycle, and share news from around the Fedora Project | |
| 08:15 - 08:30 | 13:15 – 13:30 | Installer Web UI for Live spins | Martin Kolman | Live | In Fedora 42 the Workstation spin started using the new Anaconda installer WebUI. In Fedora 43 we switched the remaining Live pins to use the Web UI as well.While this looks like a simple change, we had to expand what the Web UI covers quite a bit as well has had to address some quite complicated last minute challenges. | |
| 08:30 - 08:45 | 13:30 – 13:45 | Packit as a Fedora dist-git CI is coming | František Lachman | Live | It's finally here. Packit is going to take care of the Fedora dist-git CI. Expect info about the change itself and what are the plans around dist-git CI in general. | |
| 08:45 - 09:00 | 13:45 – 14:00 | Fedora Docs: New Future | Peter Boy, Petr Bokoč | Live | Discover the ambitious new "Fedora Docs 2025" initiative, aimed at revitalizing our documentation ecosystem and community. The team will outline their roadmap for the coming year, including a redesigned user experience, integrated authoring tools, and new onboarding pathways for contributors. Come learn how you can help flatten the "roller coaster" and build a stronger, more accessible knowledge base for Fedora users. | |
| 09:00 - 09:15 | 14:00 – 14:15 | Atomic Desktops | Timothée Ravier | Live | Discover what is new for the Fedora Atomic Desktops family, including Silverblue, Kinoite, Sway Atomic, Budgie Atomic and COSMIC Atomic. We will cover the changes that have been done for each variant. Join us to hear directly from the maintainers about the future roadmap toward Bootable Containers. | Slides |
| 09:15 - 09:30 | 14:15 – 14:30 | Fedora Workstation 43 - What's new? | Matthias Clasen | Live | Explore the flagship features of Fedora Workstation 43, headlined by the refined GNOME 49 desktop and its new productivity-boosting Focus Mode. We will cover the complete transition to a Wayland-only experience, highlighting the smoother visuals and improved hardware support it brings. The session also introduces Showtime, the modern GTK 4 video player replacing Totem. | |
| 09:30 - 10:00 | 14:30 – 15:00 | Break | -- | -- | Take that coffee break, meet with your boss, pump out that Pull Request… you do what you need to! We will be back with more scheduled programming soon. | -- |
| 10:00 - 10:15 | 15:00 – 15:15 | Wayland-only GNOME | Neal Gompa, Michel Lind | Live | Join the Change owners for a look behind the decision to retire the GNOME X11 session in Fedora Linux 43. We will discuss the technical drivers, including upstream GNOME development shifts and maintenance realities, and what this means for the future of the Fedora desktop. Learn how this transition streamlines the graphics stack while preserving support for your X11 applications. | |
| 10:15 - 10:30 | 15:15 – 15:30 | My Outreachy journey with the Fedora Project | Cornelius Emase | Live | Hear from Cornelius Emase about his transformative journey from an Outreachy intern to a key driver of Fedora's growth in East Africa. He will share highlights from his work with the DEI Team and how he is actively building the next generation of contributors through hands-on workshops at Kenyan universities. This session explores the tangible impact of mentorship and the power of local community building. | |
| 10:30 - 10:45 | 15:30 – 15:45 | 2G /boot | Chris Murphy | Live OR Pre-Recorded | What seems like a simple tweak—increasing the default /boot partition to 2GB—was actually a race against time to ensure future-proof upgrades. Join Chris Murphy for a "behind the scenes" look at this emergency change, driven by the reality of ever-growing firmware and initramfs sizes. Learn why this late-breaking decision was critical for the longevity of Fedora installs and the complexities involved in pushing it through for Fedora Linux 43.
|
|
| 10:45 - 11:00 | 15:45 – 16:00 | RHEL 11 and Fedora 43 | Scott McCarty | Pre-Recorded | Celebrations of people, technology and milestones on our road to RHEL 11 | |
| 11:15 - 11:30 | 16:00 - 16:15 | Fedora -> Forgejo Community Initiative Progress Report | Akashdeep Dhar, Tomas Hrcka | Pre-Recorded | Progress report for the Git Forge initiative since the Fedora Linux 42 Release Party. From Forgejo Actions, to caching improvements and from migrator enhancements to copious documentation, we would also cover where we plan on taking the initiative next and how you can join us. |
How to Get Involved
This event is organized by the Fedora Community Operations (CommOps) team, but we need your help to make it a success! This is a great opportunity to get involved and meet other Fedorans. We are looking for volunteers in several areas:
- Content & Promotion: Help get the word out! (Led by Robert Wright)
- Design: Create assets and visuals for the event. (Led by Emma Kidney)
- Speaker Management: Coordinate with our presenters. (Led by Jef Spaleta and Shaun McCance)
- Event Production: Manage the live stream and Matrix room. (Led by Neil Hanlon)
If you are interested in helping, the best ways to get involved are:
- Comment on the official GitLab planning ticket.
- Join the Fedora CommOps team in our Matrix room at
#commops:fedoraproject.organd introduce yourself!
Announcement links
Here will be where the links to the various announcements that will be shared during the opening and closing sessions will be.
Recordings
The (unsplit) recordings will be available on Fedora's YouTube channel post-event.
