A regular Fedora image for desktops, workstations, and server users. This spin provides a good upgrade path and similar environment for users of previous releases of Fedora.

One of several Live images that can be run from a disc or USB flash device, and can be installed to hard disk as desired. Refer to the "Live" section for more information about the Live images.

This release features GNOME 2.22. GNOME now includes a webcam photo and video creation utility called Cheese, improved network filesystem support, a new international clock applet, Google Calendar support and custom email labels in Evolution, a new Remote Desktop Viewer, improved accessibility features, and PolicyKit integration.

Online Desktop provides a desktop experience designed around online services. A preview of Online Desktop is provided via BigBoard, which is a optional sidebar in GNOME.

KDE 4.0.2 is available in the KDE Live image as well as the regular DVD.

Xfce 4.4.2 is available as part of this release.

NetworkManager 0.7 provides improved mobile broadband support, including GSM and CDMA devices, and now supports multiple devices and ad-hoc networking for sharing connections.

PulseAudio is now installed and enabled by default. PulseAudio is an advanced sound server compatible with nearly all existing Linux sound systems. PulseAudio allows for hot-switching audio outputs, individual volume controls for each audio stream, networked audio, and more.

Compiz, the compositing window manager that brings eye candy and usability improvements to the desktop, is installed by default, and is easily enabled by both GNOME and KDE users via the System → Preferences → Desktop Effects tool from the Fedora team. While Compiz is not yet robust or mature enough to be enabled by default, ongoing, long term X.Org work by Fedora developers continues. The expectation is that Fedora is going to enable Compiz by default in the next release.

Compiz Fusion, which re-merges Compiz and Beryl, is also available in the Fedora software repository. Users can easily install Compiz Fusion via Applications → Add/Remove Programs tool or with yum.

The Fedora installer, Anaconda, now supports independent locations for the second stage installer and the software packages. A redesigned, larger boot.iso image now features a second stage installer partly for this reason.

The completely free and open source Java environment OpenJDK 6 is installed by default. IcedTea 7, derived from OpenJDK 1.7, is no longer the default. IcedTea includes a browser plugin based on GCJ, and is available for both x86 and x86_64 architectures. GCJ is still the default on PPC architecture.

OpenOffice.org 2.4, with many new features, is available as part of Fedora 9.

Bluetooth devices and tools now have better graphical and system integration.

Laptop users benefit from the "quirks" feature in HAL, including better suspend/resume and multimedia keyboard support.

The swfdec package, which decodes and renders Flash animations and videos, is now installed by default. However, many videos require additional codec support. Refer to http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/AdditionalCodecs for more information.

Fedora now includes Perl 5.10.0, which features a smaller memory footprint and other improvements.

Eclipse 3.3.1 is available as part of this release.

PackageKit, a new set of graphical and console tools for cross-distribution software management, is installed by default in this release of Fedora. The PackageKit graphical updater is also installed by default, instead of Pup. Behind PackageKit , the performance of yum has been significantly improved. Pup and Pirut are still available in the software repositories for users that prefer them.

Transifex provides a web-based translation interface to allow users to contribute translation work for Fedora hosted projects as well as being able to provide translations directly to any upstream project.

Fedora now offers easier rebranding of Fedora derivatives via a generic-logos software package. Changes in Fedora's mirror structure also make creation of derivatives easier.

The pam_console module usage has been removed in favor of access control via HAL, which modernizes the desktop.

Input methods can now be started and stopped dynamically in the GNOME desktop.

This release of Fedora uses Upstart, an event-based replacement for the /sbin/init daemon.

Fedora now includes TeXLive to replace the older, unmaintained TeX distribution.

Fedora 9 features a 2.6.24 based kernel.

Work on the start-up and shutdown in X has yielded noticeable improvements.