I have tried Linux as a DD on and off for years but about a year ago I decided to commit to it no matter the cost. First with Mint, then Ubuntu and a few others sprinkled in briefly. Both are “mainstream” “beginner friendly” distros, right? I don’t want anything too advanced, right?
Well, ubuntu recently updated and it broke my second monitor (Ubuntu detected it but the monitor had “no signal”). After trying to fix it for a week, I decided to wipe it and reinstall. No luck. I tried a few other distros that had the same issue and I started to wonder if it was a hardware issue but I tried a Windows PC and the monitor worked no problem.
Finally, just to see what would happen I tried a distro very very different than what I’m used to: Fedora (Kinode). And not only did everything “just work” flawlessly, but it’s so much faster and more polished than I ever knew Linux to be!
Credit where it’s due, a lot of the polish is due to KDE plasma. I’d never strayed from Gnome because I’m not an expert and people recommend GNOME to Linux newbies because it’s “simple” and “customizable” but WOW is KDE SO MUCH SIMPLER AND STILL CUSTOMIZEABLE. Gnome is only “simple” in that it doesn’t allow you to do much via the GUI. With Fedora Kinode I think I needed to use the terminal maybe once during setup? With other distros I was constantly needed to use the terminal (yes its helped me learn Linux but that curve is STEEP).
The atomic updates are fantastic too. I have not crashed once in the two weeks of setup whereas before I would have a crash maybe 1-2 times per week.
I am FULLY prepared for the responses demanding to know what I did to make it crash and telling me how I was using it wrong blah blah blah but let me tell you, if you are experienced with Windows but want to learn Linux and getting frustrated by all the “beginner” distros that get recommended, do yourself a favor and try Fedora Kinode!
edit: i am DYING at the number of “you’re using it wrong” comments here. never change people.
I do. But only the Ublue variants. Bazzite, Aurora, or Bluefin depending in if someone games or prefers a Windows or MacOS style desktop. Ublue adds so much that makes things “just work” that stock Fedora doesn’t. Drivers, codecs, patches. I had to add GRUB arguments to stock Fedora to even make it boot with my Nvidia card. I never had that problem with Mint, PopOS, or even Arch with archinstall. A noob isn’t doing that.
That said, atomic distros have their own problems. The install order is Flatpak or Brew, distrobox, then layering as a last resort. What happens to the newbie when a Flatpak doesn’t work properly because of some unknown permission issue that needs Flatseal? Or when its objectively worse than the layered counterpart, like Steam? They have to move down the line and at the very least read the docs on how to install each of these things. I had to look up how to enable a Brew service for Syncthing to work just the other day because the Syncthingy flatpak wouldn’t work.