Nobara Project 39: News of the Fedora-based Distribution
Today, 27/12/23, the development team of the GNU/Linux Nobara Project Distribution has released version 39 of its great Operating System. And since, at the beginning of this year (January 2023) we addressed for the first time the new features of this distribution in its existing version (Nobara Project 37), today we gladly and in a timely manner offer you the most important news about «Nobara Project 39».
And if you are still one of those who know nothing or only very little about this GNU/Linux Distribution, it is important that you keep in mind that this project is based on offer a modified version of Fedora Linux with user-friendly fixes already added. Which it's, aims to fix most initial usability issues, while offering a better gaming, streaming and content creation experience from the start. In such a way, make the Fedora Distribution a friendlier operating system that only requires pointing and clicking the mouse. Thus avoiding and reducing the basic user having to open the terminal for a good number of essential actions.
Nobara Project: New version 37 of the Distro based on Fedora
But, before starting to read this publication about the news of this new version called «Nobara Project 39», we recommend the previous related post with another previous version of the same free and open project:
Nobara Project 39: The System Update app comes with a big modification
News from Nobara Project 39
Among the most notable novelties of Nobara Project 39», which we can see among the many implemented by its developers, in their Official website and more specifically about the Change Logs section, we can mention the following 5:
Changes in the System Update application
It includes a big tweak that allows it to provide a cleaner, more visible GUI while running the update scripts and creating a log in ~/.nobara-sync for the user upon completion. Additionally, and keeping in mind the goal of streamlining package updates in one place and providing fewer popups to the user on a clean install, now when a user performs a fresh installation, they will receive a popup informing them to update the system . And when updating, they will be asked some questions, including updating media codec packs, updating flatpaks, and updating snapshots. And even for the NVIDIA drivers, in case the user decides to manage the possible GPUs on their computer.
Changes in the OBS Studio application
The AMD AMF encoder patch was removed from OBS. This change has been due to the fact that the FFMPEG encoder in OBS has been greatly updated over the last year and now performs on par and/or better than the AMF encoder. Being capable of encoding H264, H265 and AV1, as well as 4K encoding. And in the same direction, also the VAAPI GStreamer encoder has been removed from OBS in preference to the FFMPEG encoder.
Migration from GNOME to KDE Plasma
Nobara Official has now switched to KDE instead of GNOME for several reasons, such as: Being more mature and solid in terms of VRR (Variable Refresh Rate/Freesync) functionality, DRM Lease functionality, Fractional scaling functionality and Drag and Drop capabilities from File Manager. And because of this, many Gnome Shell extension packages modified by Nobara have been removed and/or reverted to their versions shipped by Fedora.
Changes and improvements to Gamescope and Steam gaming apps
That they will facilitate a more pleasant, uniform, and stable user experience, both when starting and closing them, and when playing. Additionally, and due to the change to KDE Plasma there is now better integration with Steam. Which is largely because, by default, Steam Deck uses KDE as its desktop mode. And this inherently means that KDE Plasma receives more desktop-related updates/fixes from Valve, thanks to more active and closer work with KDE developers.
Various minor changes
Among those that can be mentioned are those related to new wallpapers, wallpaper for SDDM, new lock screen and welcome loading, new additional GTK themes, new color palette, and the use of papyrus icons. In addition, the change from Firefox to Chromium as the default browser. Since Firefox's 'kiosk' mode does not work, which is necessary for compatibility with the app EmuDeck.
Summary
In short, and as in previous version releases, the Nobara Project Development team continues to implement great and long-awaited changes, improvements and corrections, which, without a doubt, continue to make its GNU/Linux Distribution based on Fedora an ideal and modern alternative to know, try and use. While, if you are a current user of Nobara Project, we invite you to tell us about your user experience with it and what you think in relation to the new version available, that is, «Nobara Project 39».
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