Fedora 9 is out. Red Hat says its community-driven operating system features the first non-destructive live USB with persistence – which Red Hat thinks is a first of a kind anywhere – and marks the first major KDE 4-based distribution.

Other highlights include improvements and enhancements for OpenJDK6, a completely open source implementation of Java SDK Standard Edition; GNOME 2.22; NetworkManager, which supports mobile broadband, multiple connections and connection editing and sharing; PackageKit, the default cross-distribution software package manager; the Anaconda installer; and Firefox 3 Beta 5 browser.

Fedora 9 Live images can now be added to an existing USB key using either a Linux or Windows application, without removing data, or repartitioning or reformatting the USB key, to get a bootable, portable Fedora system. And using the persistence feature, users can download and store data, and remove and add software as on any normal Fedora system.

KDE 4 includes a new desktop and panel, an integrated desktop search feature, a new visual style, and a new multimedia API and hardware integration framework. Fedora 9 also includes FreeIPA, a new toolset for system administrators to manage identity policy and auditing across mixed computing environments.