Today, Microsoft announced that Fedora Linux is officially supported as a WSL distribution. The Fedora Project is using WSL’s new tar-based architecture to create WSL images, starting with Fedora 42.
WSL enables developers to run both Windows and Linux simultaneously on a Windows computer without using a virtual machine. With WSL, developers can install several popular Linux distributions, including Ubuntu, OpenSUSE, Kali, and Debian, and use Linux apps directly on Windows.
To install Fedora Linux on WSL, enter the following commands:
wsl –install FedoraLinux-42
wsl -d FedoraLinux-42
After installation, users can enter their username and start using the distribution. By default, the user has no password and belongs to the wheel group, which means they can execute commands with elevated privileges using sudo.
Install Flatpak separately
Since Flatpak support is not included by default in the Fedora WSL image, users who need Flatpak must install it separately. Microsoft emphasized that the Fedora community is working to make several popular projects available on the Fedora WSL image. Popular tools such as GCC 15, LLVM 20, Golang 1.24, Ruby 3.4, PHP 8.4, Python 3.9, and more are already supported.
The support Microsoft now provides further extends the versatility of WSL and offers developers another popular Linux distribution directly within Windows. The ongoing efforts of the Fedora community promise an even better experience and better availability of tools in the near future. Microsoft refers potential users who have little experience with Fedora to a website with tutorials, release notes, and tips.
The Fedora team is working to enable graphical applications to use hardware acceleration on Windows in the future. Work is also underway to improve the Flatpak experience.