Fedora 39 had hoped to use the DNF5 package manager by default as the next iteration of this package management solution for RPM-based distributions. But DNF5 wasn't ready and then delayed to Fedora 41 -- skipping over the Fedora 40 series due to the RHEL 10 branching from it and not wanting the very new DNF5 to be part of that marge. Now the change proposal has been re-filed for introducing DNF5 by default in Fedora 41.

The change proposal was filed on Thursday by Red Hat engineers for changing the default manage manager to DNF5. DNF5 will provide the /usr/bin/dnf symlink and should be at feature parity to the existing DNF.

DNF5 has a smaller footprint over the existing DNF, provides better performance and concurrency over DNF, lower maintenance burden, and a unified experience with this DNF upgrade.

More details on the DNF5-by-default plans for Fedora 41 via the newest change proposal that succeeds the earlier Fedora 39 efforts.

Fedora 41 is tentatively scheduled to be released in mid to late October.