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Fedora Project

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Fedora Project
Founded22 September 2003; 22 years ago (2003-09-22)
FounderWarren Togami, Red Hat et al.
TypeCommunity
FocusOpen source
ProductsFedora Linux, 389 Directory Server
MethodArtwork, development, documentation, promotion, and translation.[1]
LeaderJef Spaleta[2]
Websitefedoraproject.org

The Fedora Project is an independent project[3] to coordinate the development of Fedora Linux, a Linux-based operating system, operating with the mission of creating "an innovative platform for hardware, clouds, and containers that enables software developers and community members to build tailored solutions for their users".[4]

The project also oversees Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux, a special interest group which maintains the eponymous packages.[5] The project was founded in 2003 as a result of a merger between the Red Hat Linux (RHL) and Fedora Linux projects. It is sponsored by Red Hat primarily, but its employees make up only 35% of project contributors, and most of the over 2,000 contributors are unaffiliated members of the community.[6]

History

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The Fedora Project was founded in November 2003[7] when Red Hat decided to split Red Hat Linux into Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) and a community-based operating system, Fedora.[8] Red Hat Professional Workstation was created at this same time.[9]

Fedora operating system

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Main article: Fedora Linux

Fedora Linux, then known as "Fedora Core," was a fork of RHL launched in 2003. It was introduced as a free-of-cost, community-supported alternative intended for home use, shortly after Red Hat discontinued RHL in favor of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL).[10] RHEL branches its releases from versions of Fedora.[11]

Since the release of Fedora 21 in December 2014, three editions have been made available: personal computer, server and cloud computing. This was expanded to five editions for containerization and Internet of Things (IoT) as of the release of Fedora 37 in November 2022.[12][13] A new version of Fedora Linux is released every six months.[14]

The current release is Fedora 42, which was released on 15 April 2025.[15]

Security intrusion

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In August 2008, several Fedora servers were compromised. Upon investigation it was found that one of the compromised servers was used for signing Fedora update packages. The Fedora Project stated that the attacker(s) did not get the package signing key which could be used to introduce malicious software onto Fedora users' systems through the update process. Project administrators performed checks on the software and did not find anything to suggest that a Trojan horse had been introduced into the software. As a precaution the project converted to new package signing keys.[16][17] Fedora published the full details on March 30, 2009.[18]

Governance

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The Fedora Project is not a separate legal entity or organization; Red Hat retains liability for its actions.[19] The Fedora Council is the top-level community leadership and governance body. The Council is composed of a mix of representatives from different areas of the project, named roles appointed by Red Hat, and a variable number of seats connected to medium-term project goals.[20] The previous governance structure (Fedora Board) comprised five Red Hat appointed members and five community-elected members. Additionally, Fedora Project leader had a veto power over any board decision; in the current model, all voting members can block on issues, with a valid reason.[20] Red Hat at one point announced intentions to create a separate Fedora Foundation to govern the project,[21] but after consideration of a variety of issues, canceled it in favor of the board model currently in place.[22][23]

The community is also involved in organizing lower levels of leadership, both the Fedora Engineering Steering Committee (FESCo) and the Mindshare Committee (responsible for technical and community oversight, respectively) are community-elected bodies which manage significant portions of the project.[24][25]

The project facilitates online communication among its developers and community members through public mailing lists and wiki pages. It also coordinates two main events, known as the Fedora Users and Developers Conference (FUDCon) and Flock (or Flock to Fedora). FUDCon is a free software event held at different locations in the two designated regions of Latin America and Asia/Pacific. Typically, it revolves around some combination of conferencing, social events, and a hackathon.[26] Flock is a similar event which replaced FUDCon in North America and Europe/the Middle East.[27] Task-specific, flexibly scheduled events known as Fedora Activity Days also gather many project contributors together in various regions.[28]

Sub-projects

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Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux (EPEL)

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EPEL is a repository of extra packages published by the Fedora project, which can be expected to work in Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) and Red Hat Enterprise Linux derivatives systems. EPEL is organised by a Fedora Special Interest Group.[5] EPEL packages are usually based on their Fedora counterparts and will never conflict with or replace packages in the base Enterprise Linux distributions. EPEL uses much of the same infrastructure as Fedora, including buildsystem, Bugzilla instance, updates manager, mirror manager and more.[5]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "Projects". Fedora Project. Archived from the original on April 24, 2013. Retrieved July 9, 2013.
  2. ^ "Fedora Project Leader". Fedora Docs. Fedora Project. Retrieved September 23, 2025.
  3. ^ "FAQ". Fedora Project Wiki. Fedora Project. Archived from the original on January 18, 2022. Retrieved January 18, 2022. Is the Fedora Project independent of Red Hat, Inc.? The Fedora Project is a community project, separate from Red Hat, but Red Hat sponsors the Fedora Project and provides a great deal of valuable management and resources to the Fedora Project. Red Hat uses the material that the Fedora Project produces to develop its enterprise platform offerings. Red Hat has a strong interest in Fedora, and the success of the Fedora Project has been thanks to the great contributions of Red Hat.
  4. ^ "Mission Statement". Fedora Docs. Retrieved May 8, 2020.
  5. ^ a b c "Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux (EPEL)". Fedora Docs. Archived from the original on July 20, 2021. Retrieved July 29, 2021.
  6. ^ Miller, Matthew (August 2016). "State of Fedora August 2016" (PDF). mattdm.org. Retrieved May 25, 2017.
  7. ^ Reid, Rebecca (November 7, 2003). "Red Hat parades Fedora Core 1". ComputerWeekly.com. Retrieved June 22, 2022.
  8. ^ "Announcement: Red Hat Linux Merging with Fedora Linux". fedora.us. September 22, 2003. Archived from the original on October 1, 2003.
  9. ^ Prince, Jason (February 14, 2004). "Red Hat Professional Workstation: More Expensive, Fewer features". Linux.com. Archived from the original on December 4, 2007. Retrieved December 21, 2007.
  10. ^ Johnson, Michael K. (September 22, 2003). "Fedora Project: Announcing New Direction". Fedora development (Mailing list). Archived from the original on November 20, 2007. Retrieved October 18, 2007.
  11. ^ Burke, Tim (August 22, 2006). "The Fedora Project and Red Hat Enterprise Linux, Part 4 of 4: Red Hat Enterprise Linux development". Red Hat Magazine, Issue No. 22. Red Hat. Archived from the original on October 12, 2007. Retrieved October 18, 2007.
  12. ^ Gilbertson, Scott (January 16, 2015). "Fedora 21 review: Linux's sprawliest distro finds a new focus". ArsTechnica.com. Archived from the original on November 30, 2018. Retrieved July 15, 2017.
  13. ^ "Fedora". Archived from the original on January 6, 2016. Retrieved February 18, 2023.
  14. ^ "Fedora Linux Releases". Fedora Project. Archived from the original on August 31, 2023.
  15. ^ Miller, Matthew (April 15, 2025). "The answer is 42! Fedora Linux 42, that is". Fedora Magazine. Retrieved April 16, 2025.
  16. ^ Lemos, Robert (August 22, 2008). "Online intruders hit Red Hat, Fedora Project". SecurityFocus. Archived from the original on November 21, 2008.
  17. ^ Frields, Paul W. (August 22, 2008). "Infrastructure report, 2008-08-22 UTC 1200". fedora-announce-list (Mailing list). Archived from the original on August 24, 2008. Retrieved October 9, 2025.
  18. ^ Frields, Paul W. (March 30, 2009). "Update and Report on Fedora August 2008 Intrusion". fedora-announce-list (Mailing list). Archived from the original on April 3, 2009. Retrieved October 9, 2025.
  19. ^ Roblimo (August 18, 2006). "Fedora Project Leader Max Spevack Responds to Slashdot Questions". interviews.slashdot.org. Retrieved February 12, 2007.
  20. ^ a b "Fedora Council Charter". Fedora Project. Retrieved May 27, 2016.
  21. ^ Galli, Peter (June 3, 2005). "Red Hat Creates Fedora Foundation". eweek.com. Retrieved March 29, 2014.
  22. ^ "Foundation". Fedora Project Wiki. Retrieved February 6, 2007.
  23. ^ Spevack, Max (April 4, 2006). "Fedora Foundation". fedora-announce-list (Mailing list). Archived from the original on April 19, 2021. Retrieved October 9, 2025.
  24. ^ "Fedora Engineering Steering Committee". Fedora Docs. Retrieved October 22, 2024.
  25. ^ "Fedora Mindshare Committee". Fedora Docs. Retrieved October 22, 2024.
  26. ^ "FUDCon". Fedora Project Wiki. Archived from the original on October 8, 2007. Retrieved February 12, 2007.
  27. ^ "The Fedora Project Conference". Fedora Project. Retrieved May 25, 2017.
  28. ^ "Fedora Activity Day". Fedora Project Wiki. Fedora Project. Retrieved May 25, 2017.
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