All software packages on the 32-bit (x86_32) architecture have been compiled for i686 systems, with optimisations for the Intel Atom processors used in many netbooks. However they remain compatible with the overwhelming majority of CPUs.

There are improvements to the way that updates are added thanks to some code called yum-presto that reduces update size by transmitting only the changes in the updated packages. Also, packages now use XZ rather than gzip for compression, providing smaller package sizes and more efficient handling. This allows more software to be stuffed into each Fedora image and uses less space on distribution mirrors.

There are some NetworkManager broadband enhancements. NetworkManager is the de facto network configuration tool used in many Linux  distributions. The improvements make setting up network and mobile broadband connections easier. There is now Bluetooth support using a click-through process to access the Internet through your mobile phone. IPv6 networking support has also been improved.

PolicyKit integration has been added so configuration and security management can be done via a central policy where needed.

Fedora 12 has also adopted the next-generation Ogg Theora video 1.1, which has a better quality than earlier versions.

In addition it introduces experimental 3D support for AMD Radeon HD 2400 and later graphics cards. Systems with NVIDIA graphics chips also gain initial support for suspend and resume functionality.

There are also upgrades to the Gnome and KDE desktops as well as some virtualisation improvements.