Ubuntu is the leading distro, if I’m not mistaken. It’s also compatible with Mint, Zorin, Xubuntu, etc, which are another leading distros than Fedora. Is it only for redhat users or secondary distro?
Ubuntu (which is based on Debian) can be too slow to adopt newer software.
Arch on the other side is too quick.
Fedora is a good balance in-between.
Nearly all other distros are derived from these 3 families.
That and Ubuntu’s obsession with Snaps is unhealthy. So many people recommend Debian or Mint over Ubuntu, if you want something very stable.
I was going to say, Fedora is not trying to push a bunch of snap apps up the users ass.
Not enough people in here mentioning how nice a base vanilla DE experience is. I love vanilla gnome and it’s so refreshing to set up a fresh fedora install and have it so clean.
It’s also compatible with Mint, Zorin, Xubuntu, etc, which are another leading distros than Fedora.
What do you mean? Any distro is compatible with any other distro.
Ubuntu forces Snaps (app packaging format) down your throat that take up more space and RAM than Flatpaks, were developed with powerful servers in mind first and common user second and are less commutity-developed standard. Also, last time I checked it had some sponsored bloatware.
They might be thinking of .deb vs .rpm
I haven’t touched it in a few years but I had to switch distro because (X)Ubuntu filled my system SSD with multiple copied of every single Snap it had installed. Iirc it saved the last 3 versions and there was no way of turning it off
IMO Ubuntu is a good fit for people who don’t want to learn anything about computers and have no opinions about how their OS should work, so they want someone else to make all decisions for them. Nothing inherently wrong with that, it’s just not for me. I switched to Fedora because I want to be in control of my computer
If you are comfortable using fedora or if you are fine learning about fedora, use fedora.
I personally wouldn’t use Ubuntu with it’s recent controversy in specific the “explicit AI features” planned to be implemented within ubuntu. I’d suggest avoiding it out of privacy concerns even if it runs locally on your system.
the general trend for AI adoption, is to make it accessible for anyone to onboard, and then slowly control the users by (for example) making users connect to their servers to use their chatbot which then they can train, and have a better profile of you.
Canonical never mentioned that, in fact they mentioned quite the inverse. but any implementation of an AI chatbot, Tech companies aren’t doing it because of how revolutionary AI is. The AI is the product and your data is what they want.
I’m not saying canonical is pursuing that initiative, but that’s generally how it goes for most tech companies. Don’t take my word for it, ask yourself, “what service does Ubuntu provide? what financial backing (sponsorships) do they have?” I’ve looked far and wide and the only thing I’ve found is, they offer a free OS install as their consumer grade product, and a subscription service to their enterprise network that is clearly not a sustainable business model (from an engineering perspective) for a multi-thousand employee company.
Ubuntu is the leading distro
Leading in what? By most users? With that argument we should install Windows, because its the leading platform.
The only reason is f*ck snap and Ubuntu for forcing it onto users
-
the corporate side of Red Hat is far less evident on Fedora than Canonical’s on Ubuntu
-
vanilla UX
-
Atomic editions
-
fast yet stable updates
-
more lightweight ISO
it also has disadvantages, specially for nontechnical folks
- Free Software Policy (NVIDIA drivers and some codecs not pre-installed)
- non LTS version available (Atomic desktops are easier to manage if keeping un-updated for very long periods)
- it uses RPM packages which are good, but there might be some software only offering DEBs (containers and extraction tools can help with that)
- non LTS version available (Atomic desktops are easier to manage if keeping un-updated for very long periods)
Fedora is a semi-rolling release distribution, so this isn’t really a problem for a desktop or laptop. It’s really an advantage for desktops and laptops.
- it uses RPM packages which are good, but there might be some software only offering DEBs (containers and extraction tools can help with that)
A lot of software is packaged as a Flatpak image, so less of a problem then it used to be.
-
Another user mentioned a handful of benefits. I would add that Fedora is more secure than Ubuntu or any of the derivatives you mentioned out of the box. In fact, it’s more secure than most other regular Linux distros.
I also like that it uses vanilla versions of Gnome and KDE. They leave the customization to the end user.
Speaking of KDE, if you prefer it, there are few distros that do it better. Maybe OpenSUSE Tubleweed or
Open Mandriva ROME. For me, Fedora KDE Plasma fits my needs almost perfectly.Finally, I think the installer is way better. Ubuntu’s has become less flexible over the years. Fedora’s is still super easy but offers a lot more options.
The one potential drawback I can think of is that official versions of some software are only available as a .deb. That’s more and more rare in my experience.
I recently learned that OpenMandriva’s president (warning, lunduke link as evidence) has declared the project “non-woke” and “anti-DEI”, which has resulted in it attracting a hard right community. IMO, a good reason to avoid it.
Fedora with KDE is the bees knees. I used Pop OS! for a while but the slow update cycle sucked. I also work with Redhat a lot, and moving to Fedora felt more familiar. All the multiple computers in my home run it, and have for years fine. Minor problems here and there. My main PC has been running it since 42 and now 44, no problems upgrading when it was time.
I have a few PCs running with Nvidia GPUs, you do need to do a few extra steps for the drivers but no problems otherwise.
It’s really a choice on what you prefer, and I just find Fedora better.
Personally, I really like dnf over apt, SELinux over apparmor, and firewalld over ufw, but it’s all personal preference.
I second all of this.
Removed by mod
Avoid Fedora Flatpaks (their repo, not Flathub) because of broken apps. OBS got pissed at them a while back for user reporting bugs that were only present in the downstream repackaging by Fedora. Broken af.
Removed by mod
#Ubuntu has snaps which are a really annoying way to distribute software updates. I was a long term #Ubuntu user but have moved to #debian, with #Kde if I need a GUI instead of that horrid #gnome rubbish. All the third party software I use works just as well on debian as it did in ubuntu.
with #Kde if I need a GUI instead of that horrid #gnome rubbish
Well it’s not like you cannot use KDE with Ubuntu. There is Kubuntu for that, if you don’t like GNOME.
I’m currently maintaining a laptop with kubuntu (for someone else), and I honestly cannot recommend it.
They have kind of messed up the updates in their Plasma flavor, Discover routinely just fails to do the updates with a completely meaningless error message. I suspect the underlying issue is lock contention with the background service “unattended-upgrades.service”, but I’m not sure, because, again, that error message is ridiculously unhelpful. Also, said unattended-upgrades service does not seem to actually be doing any upgrades.
On the last install, also, the attempt to upgrade from Ubuntu 24 to 26.04 LTS, the upgrade failed in a spectacularly fashion that left the system mostly bricked in ways that could only be solved by a fresh reinstall. During the process, a few error messages made it look like the problem was hardware faults on the SSD, except when I then tested the SSD from a rescue disk using dd, smartctl, and iotester from https://github.com/guidow/iotester, I could find absolutely no indication of any faults on that drive whatsoever…
Granted my opinion on kubuntu may be a bit colored, because right this moment, I’m quite frustrated with it.
Also, installing massively important software like Firefox or Thunderbird through snaps instead of packaging them properly is just asinine.
You are right, the app management philosophy for Kubuntu is not quite right. Canonical put their effort towards providing Ubuntu with Gnome.
I had very similar issues, and since I wanted KDE (so many machines in my house already using KDE and I’m starting to get really comfortable with it) and I needed to use a specific app without containerization and the developer only makes a deb and rpm, I ended up trying Fedora with KDE. The DE bundled there is quite unadulterated, it’s basically a near latest stock KDE desktop. It was very seemless, you almost need to know nothing specific about Fedora, just use you muscle memory navigating the desktop.
I see. Need to read more about the current state of Kubuntu, because I don’t want recommend something that might be not in a good state. Kubuntu was a good choice in the past.
Granted my opinion on kubuntu may be a bit colored, because right this moment, I’m quite frustrated with it.
I don’t think your opinion is less worth just because you experience problems.
Discover in Kubuntu works a little differently than you would expect if you used KDE elsewhere.
What do you mean “differently”? I know that “Discover” only works for Flatpak in Arch based systems, such as EndeavourOS and on SteamOS. I never used Kubuntu or KDE on Ubuntu.
I can’t remember exactly. There are two app stores and Discover is one of them. If I was you I would boot into a live or virtual environment and check it out. I think it’s explained in the welcome screen.
Sorry I can’t remember.
No worries. As for checking it out myself, its a bit too much work to download iso and install the operating system just to check something for a random question. :D And searching the web is a bit difficult because of the name of the app “Discover” is not very unique. I’m not planning on using Kubuntu anyway, it was a curious question, so not important at all.
I know that Discover does not support native repositories on Arch based systems. So my expectation is it has something to do with that. On Kubuntu there is also Snap, on top of Flatpak and native packaging. I assume it was confusing to deal with all of that. It’s not really a unique “problem” to Kubuntu. Just looking here a bit https://kubuntu-docs.readthedocs.io/en/22.04.0/software-management/repositories.html .
Thanks for the replies, never mind and have a nice day.
Snap has advantages though, apps works across different distros I think?
Snaps only work on ubutnu based distros. Flatpak apps are what you need for multiple distros.
Ubuntu is the most broken distro I have ever used. From when it first came out until today.
Pick anything over Ubuntu.
I do really like fedora. If you want the latest stuff as fast as a rolling distro, with zero update issues, you want fedora.
Ubuntu may have experienced a downturn but there was a time where Red Hat and later on Fedora wasn’t very user friendly. Ubuntu dramatically increased Linux adoption so I will always like it for that, but I think you are correct nowadays.
