Fedora 44 will automatically load the NTSYNC kernel module when users install Wine or Steam, making it easier to take advantage of faster Windows game compatibility. The Fedora Engineering and Steering Committee approved the change, which addresses a longstanding usability gap in Linux gaming.
NTSYNC has been part of the mainline Linux kernel for some time, providing a faster implementation of Windows NT synchronization primitives that Wine and Proton need to run games efficiently. The problem is that the kernel module does not auto-load when needed, and since Wine-based software is currently its only consumer, loading it unconditionally wastes resources. The approved solution creates a new RPM package that Wine and Steam can recommend as a dependency, which then configures the system to load NTSYNC at boot via modules-load.d.
The change will benefit both the official Wine package in Fedora's repositories and third-party packages from RPM Fusion, including Valve's Steam client and various game launchers. Wine 10.x development builds and the upcoming Wine 11.0 stable release already support NTSYNC, so Fedora 44 users should see immediate performance improvements when the distribution ships in spring 2025. FESCo also approved several other changes for Fedora 44, including Ruby 4.0, Python 3.15, dropping 32-bit QEMU host builds, and a permanent stable updates exception for GIMP.