Linux distro Nobara 42 ships with Brave by default and shifts to rolling release model

Fedora-based Linux distribution Nobara Linux version 42 introduces Brave as the default web browser, applying a custom policy that disables Brave Wallet, Rewards, VPN, AI Chat, and Tor while setting DNS Over HTTPS to automatic. This change follows persistent GPU crashes and hardware acceleration issues experienced with Firefox, Chromium, and Vivaldi, leading the developers to opt for Brave as a more stable alternative.

Alongside this, Nobara has completed its move to a rolling-release model, providing users with regular, ongoing updates rather than fixed-version upgrades. Following the release model shift, KDE Discover and GNOME Software have been replaced by flatpost, an internally developed application that streamlines Flatpak software installation for all users.

Nobara 42 also updates its foundational stack, shipping with Linux kernel 6.14.6, KDE Plasma 6.3.4, GNOME 48, Mesa 25.1.0, and NVIDIA driver 570.144. For gaming and compatibility, Mesa has been patched with additional fixes specifically targeting Wine Wayland and “DOOM: The Dark Ages”.

Completing the update, the driver manager now facilitates easy switching between mesa-vulkan-drivers and mesa-vulkan-drivers-git, as well as between open and closed NVIDIA drivers across all branches, improving flexibility for users requiring custom driver setups.