The community of open source software developers behind the Fedora Linux distribution announced this week the release of version 15. The update brings an overhauled desktop user interface and a number of noteworthy architectural improvements under the hood.

Fedora is a community-driven Linux distribution that is sponsored by Red Hat. It is released twice a year on a six-month development cycle and typically ships with the latest cutting-edge Linux software. Fedora is known for riding ahead of the curve and is often the first Linux distro to introduce major new features. It also serves as an incubation space for emerging Red Hat technologies, particularly in areas like virtualization. It lacks the usability and robustness of some other distros, but its unique technical advantages and high commitment to open source ideology are appealing to system administrators, software developers, and software freedom advocates.