Fedora Desktop
This section details changes that affect Fedora graphical desktop users.
GNOME
GNOME Panel
Previously, users could move the GNOME panels to from one part of the desktop to another by clicking on the gnome-panel, dragging it to another location while holding down and releasing the mouse button. Now, users must also hold down a key on the keyboard while moving the panels. By default, this modifier key is the Alt key, but users may change it to any other key by using the windows preference tool (System>Preferences>Windows).
This change in behavior greatly reduces the chances of a user accidentally moving the panel, and makes moving the gnome-panel the same as moving windows in GNOME.
Bluetooth
The bluez-gnome Bluetooth management tools was replaced by gnome-bluetooth. This adds easy access to switching Bluetooth on/off for laptops, an easier to use new device setup assistant, as well as the ability to connect to input and audio devices.
The ObexFTP browsing code now has full write support, and new support for the Wacom Bluetooth tablet is included.
Bluetooth audio support is included in gnome-bluetooth and pulseaudio as a technology preview.
Root User disabled for GNOME Display Manager
Root user is disabled by defaulf for GNOME Display Manager (GDM) from Fedora 10 onwards. We strongly recommend that you avoid logging in as root user and instead use su - or sudo for running commands requiring root access. If you wish to revert this setting however, refer here.
KDE
This release features KDE 4.2.2. Compatibility libraries from KDE 3.5.10 are provided for the remaining KDE 3 applications.
http://kde.org/announcements/announce-4.2.2.php
KDE 4.2 is the latest release series of KDE 4 and provides several new features over 4.0 and 4.1, in particular most of the features known from KDE 3 and several new ones. KDE 4.2.2 is a bugfix release from the KDE 4.2 release series.
Fedora 11 includes a snapshot of the NetworkManager plasmoid kde-plasma-networkmanagement, which replaces the KDE 3 knetworkmanager snapshot in Fedora 10. As it was not considered ready for production use, the KDE Live images still use nm-applet from NetworkManager-gnome instead, as in Fedora 8, 9 and 10. The gnome-keyring-daemon facility saves passwords for nm-applet. If you wish to try kde-plasma-networkmanagement, it can be installed from the repository.
Software Updates (PackageKit)
As the default updater in KDE is kpackagekit (since Fedora 10), the gnome-packagekit updater is no longer set up to run in KDE (as of Fedora 11). This avoids the situation where both update applets were trying to run at the same time. Users of Fedora 9 or 10 who were running gnome-packagekit under KDE should install kpackagekit when upgrading to Fedora 11.
Desktop Effects
KDE 4.2 improves support for desktop effects in KWin, the KDE window manager, in particular, they should be more reliable, and more effects are provided, including the famous Cube effect known from Compiz. However, desktop effects are still disabled by default in Fedora due to stability and reliability concerns. Desktop effects can be enabled in the Desktop applet of the System Settings application.
Alternatively, Compiz may also be used with KDE. It can be installed from the repository by installing the compiz-kde package. Please note, however, that enabling desktop effects in KWin is the preferred way to use desktop effects in KDE 4.
Package and Application Changes
TODO
Configuring Sudo
Sudo is a convenient way to administrate your system as a desktop user. For more details, refer here.