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#Poll for current and FORMER users of #Fedora:

If you currently daily-drive Fedora, or have done so within the past five years, what was your overall opinion of it as a desktop OS?

I'm asking with an eye to stability for work use, and ease of upgrade (whether or not the twice-a-year upgrades ever break).

I'm thinking of switching my work machine over from Debian, and possibly using Fedora as the OS that I wean my coworker away from windows with.

  • Hated it (0%, 0 votes)
  • Disliked it (2%, 1 vote)
  • It was so-so (15%, 6 votes)
  • I like(d) it (17%, 7 votes)
  • I love it! (65%, 26 votes)
40 voters. Poll end: 2 days ago

#Fedora #poll
in reply to R.L. Dane 🍵

Daniel, pined-lizard edition
mastodon - Link to source
Daniel, pined-lizard edition
• •
It's my go to recommendation for linux.
in reply to Daniel, pined-lizard edition

R.L. Dane 🍵
gotosocial - Link to source
R.L. Dane 🍵
• •

How's the biannual upgrades? Does it ever break?

Do they sell support licenses for small businesses? (I'm guessing not, since that would be RHEL Workstation, which is 1) probably quite expensive, and 2) IBM, Ewww)

in reply to R.L. Dane 🍵

Daniel, pined-lizard edition
mastodon - Link to source
Daniel, pined-lizard edition
• •

Gone fine as far as I can remember, but I was never that big of a fan using the GUI to update. I think know of 1 person who had to reinstall, but I think that was for odd linux driver reasons

2nd question.... no idea. I don't think they do

in reply to Daniel, pined-lizard edition

Daniel, pined-lizard edition
mastodon - Link to source
Daniel, pined-lizard edition
• •
Fedora does need a couple tweaks to work well.... Swapping out the fedora flatpak repo for the flathub is the main thing.
in reply to Daniel, pined-lizard edition

R.L. Dane 🍵
gotosocial - Link to source
R.L. Dane 🍵
• •

Yeah, that's... honestly embarrassing, but at least they use Flatpak *cough*!!!

What about AV codecs and such?

in reply to Daniel, pined-lizard edition

JP
mastodon - Link to source
JP
• •

I upgrade using only the GUI and it's always gone great for me.

The main thing working against Fedora is that if you're introducing someone to the default Gnome desktop, you'll also have to introduce them to extensions so they can grab either Dash to Dock or Dash to Panel since Fedora keeps Gnome pretty vanilla. But that's more Gnome's problem than Fedora's. I've always heard good things about the KDE spin too.

in reply to JP

R.L. Dane 🍵
gotosocial - Link to source
R.L. Dane 🍵
• •
Definitely KDE. I think Gnome is written for people who haven't ever used desktops before. I don't get it at all.
in reply to R.L. Dane 🍵

OpenComputeDesign
mastodon - Link to source
OpenComputeDesign
• •
I agree, I _adore_ KDE. Although I will say, they really screwed up System Monitor, and Gnome System Monitor is now better. Although Mate System Monitor is best, imo
in reply to OpenComputeDesign

R.L. Dane 🍵
gotosocial - Link to source
R.L. Dane 🍵
• •

Yeah, I'm still liking the super lightweight one ("System Activity") that comes on 5.27.

I remember when they rolled out the new "System Monitor," it would make my old computer just freeze up within a few seconds!

in reply to R.L. Dane 🍵

OpenComputeDesign
mastodon - Link to source
OpenComputeDesign
• •
Like, this CPU graph is actually _unreadable_, and it doesn't even tell you that the swap space is _full_
a screenshot of KDE System Monitor, showing a bizarre stacked CPU graph where the height of the graph seems to be cumulative of the concurrent usage of all cores? And the RAM and Swap usage, where it doesn't tell you that there's less Swap than RAM, making it look like the Swap isn't full, even though it is. Interestingly enough, the Memory graph is of the older style still, though, so apparently even they don't think their weird cumulative graph is all that great of an idea.
in reply to OpenComputeDesign

R.L. Dane 🍵
gotosocial - Link to source
R.L. Dane 🍵
• •

I'd use MATE more if it actually looked like 2010-era Gnome 2. :BlobCatDerpy:

They've tried to shoehorn in a lot of the terrible UI ideas since then.

I can't remember the specifics, but I recall opening up side-by-side VMs of modern Ubuntu MATE and Ubuntu 10.04 (I think), and 10.04 just looked a lot better, even though some parts were a lot more dated, like the old fashioned start menu (I don't miss that, and I almost never use it in KDE vs just searching, using KRunner, or rofi/fuzzel).

in reply to sotolf

Daniel, pined-lizard edition
mastodon - Link to source
Daniel, pined-lizard edition
• •
I like me some bloated gen-z bait ADHD overkill
in reply to Daniel, pined-lizard edition

R.L. Dane 🍵
gotosocial - Link to source
R.L. Dane 🍵
• •

Blind hackers trying to read btop:

"WTF IS THIS BRAILLE SAYING?!?!???"

Ok, go ahead and report me to @amin, I deserve it.

@Amin Hollon 🏳
in reply to R.L. Dane 🍵

Amin Hollon 🏳
gotosocial - Link to source
Amin Hollon 🏳
• •
Worth noting, I used to use btop but have switched back to htop. ;)
in reply to Amin Hollon 🏳

R.L. Dane 🍵
gotosocial - Link to source
R.L. Dane 🍵
• •

Also, htop has braille graphs available, too. You just have to hunt through the options.

Not quite as purty as btop, but still extremely useful.

Most of the time, I just use this:

alias s='COLUMNS=999 top -bin 1 |head'

Because how often do you just sit there and watch htop? I almost never do. I just want to know right then and there how the system is doing, and what's eating up the resources, and that alias is perfect for that:
~ $ s
top - 12:07:57 up 4 days,  1:50,  7 users,  load average: 3.71, 3.13, 3.12
Tasks: 449 total,   3 running, 446 sleeping,   0 stopped,   0 zombie
%Cpu(s):  5.0 us, 15.0 sy,  0.0 ni, 75.0 id,  5.0 wa,  0.0 hi,  0.0 si,  0.0 st 
MiB Mem :  31811.8 total,  10477.4 free,   9630.5 used,  13957.3 buff/cache     
MiB Swap:  34991.0 total,  33129.0 free,   1862.0 used.  22181.3 avail Mem 

    PID USER      PR  NI    VIRT    RES    SHR S  %CPU  %MEM     TIME+ COMMAND
  15288 root      20   0       0      0      0 I  23.5   0.0   1:49.72 kworker/0:3-events
  26378 root      20   0       0      0      0 R  23.5   0.0   0:37.77 kworker/u32:5+USBC000:00-con2
  11140 root      20   0       0      0      0 I  11.8   0.0   0:20.64 kworker/6:2-events

Note: if anyone's saying "why don't you just use top -w999, the answer is that the alias is written to work on Linux and all of the major #BSDs. ;)

#bsds
in reply to R.L. Dane 🍵

Amin Hollon 🏳
gotosocial - Link to source
Amin Hollon 🏳
• •
Top is neat, I used it solely for a while. There are times I'm looking for something more interactive though, or to monitor CPU use over a compilation process, or whatever.
in reply to Amin Hollon 🏳

R.L. Dane 🍵
gotosocial - Link to source
R.L. Dane 🍵
• •
I do definitely use htop when I want something interactive. It just has so much more details and is far more easily customizable.
in reply to Daniel, pined-lizard edition

R.L. Dane 🍵
gotosocial - Link to source
R.L. Dane 🍵
• •

I've never used it. XD

I wrote my own, [duh]!!


scripts/duh at main

scripts - Some of my scripts that I wrote, which I use daily
Codeberg.org
This entry was edited (2 days ago)
in reply to R.L. Dane 🍵

Ian Molton 🇺🇦🇵🇸🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️
mastodon - Link to source
Ian Molton 🇺🇦🇵🇸🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️
• •
why not Debian?
in reply to Ian Molton 🇺🇦🇵🇸🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️

R.L. Dane 🍵
gotosocial - Link to source
R.L. Dane 🍵
• •

I love Debian. But it gets painfully long in the tooth towards the end of the stable release cycle. I used to just jump to testing after stable was out for the year, but the whole xz thing last year scared me off of that.

I have software I can't update because I'd have to compile the compiler in order to get it to compile, because it's so old. I can't remember what exactly, but I think it's written in Nim.

Don't get me wrong, I do not like the software treadmill. It makes no sense, and it doesn't make for a stable infrastructure. But I don't think there's any changing it, and a two-year update cycle for desktop use is becoming untenable.

The other reason why I'm looking outside of Debian is that I want a linux distro that's as easy to use and seamless as possible. I don't have any serious complaints about Debian in that regard, it's actually a lot easier to use in that regard than people give it credit for. But something that's just a little more windows like, I dunno. For example, graphical boot screens and LUKS password screens. Some distros give you a graphical boot from the very beginning, even when asking for the LUKS password. Some distros also show you a boot screen with the manufacturer's logo taken from EFI.

Really stupid little things like that that don't mean a hill of beans to nerds like us, but they have small, measurable psychological effects on new switchers from windows.

And of course, I'll have my coworker running KDE, because what the heck even is Gnome anymore? Some kind of unusably minimalistic Steve Jobs fever dream, that's what. #HotTake

(To be fair, Gnome is real purty. And there's something to be said for minimalism. Just not that much minimalism.)

#hottake
in reply to R.L. Dane 🍵

as400 🇪🇺 🇺🇦 🐧
mastodon - Link to source
as400 🇪🇺 🇺🇦 🐧
• •

Fedora, in my eyes, gives best of both worlds. Stability of the distros with release cycle and fresh software versions like you have in rolling distros.

It has been rock solid for me but I felt overwhelmed with number of unneeded packages it installs. Also, for me, compiling my own packages with rpm is hell on earth.

in reply to R.L. Dane 🍵

as400 🇪🇺 🇺🇦 🐧
mastodon - Link to source
as400 🇪🇺 🇺🇦 🐧
• •
I was :)
In case there was no package available in repositories. I don't use flatpak.
in reply to as400 🇪🇺 🇺🇦 🐧

R.L. Dane 🍵
gotosocial - Link to source
R.L. Dane 🍵
• •
But why not just compile it directly, rather than going through the odd SRPM build process thingy? Am I understanding this correctly?
in reply to R.L. Dane 🍵

as400 🇪🇺 🇺🇦 🐧
mastodon - Link to source
as400 🇪🇺 🇺🇦 🐧
• •

You do. And yes you can just compile and not use rpm packaging process.

Oh and one more thing... MIcrosoft Systemd :(

This entry was edited (3 days ago)
in reply to R.L. Dane 🍵

Steven
friendica (DFRN) - Link to source
Steven
•

I really, really love Fedora. I started using the KDE edition with Fedora 40. I've switched to Ultramarine recently, because it just has codecs and drivers available by default. That being said, I had to switch away on my workstation because the nvidia drivers created an unbootable system for me. And both Ultramarine and Nobara live CDs were incredibly unstable.

And I love Debian for the same reason, and moved away from Debian on the desktop for the same reason.

R.L. Dane 🍵 reshared this.

in reply to Steven

Steven
friendica (DFRN) - Link to source
Steven
•

BTW, there are updates every day.

Every. Single. Day.

I like the latest and the greatest, but for a business it would feel excessive. And I can't resist but to run updates every time I'm notified.

in reply to R.L. Dane 🍵

Steven
friendica (DFRN) - Link to source
Steven
•
I've never run them. I've only done Fedora 40 and 41 KDE spins, and Ultramarine 41 which is just a transformed Fedora 41.
in reply to R.L. Dane 🍵

Amin Hollon 🏳
gotosocial - Link to source
Amin Hollon 🏳
• •
I liked it a good deal, it was my preferred distro for a couple years. Near the end I was using the Fedora Server spin and installing SwayWM on it, though they've released a Sway spin since then.
in reply to Amin Hollon 🏳

R.L. Dane 🍵
gotosocial - Link to source
R.L. Dane 🍵
• •
I've thought about trying their Sway spin, as I am always having weird issues with Sway (not with Sway itself, but the fact that sway isn't a DE and doesn't do weird DE things that weird written-for-DE-applications expect).
in reply to R.L. Dane 🍵

Amin Hollon 🏳
gotosocial - Link to source
Amin Hollon 🏳
• •
If you're wanting stability on Fedora, your best bet is staying on the latter of the two supported releases at any given time; the newest always gets a bit iffy in the first few weeks.
in reply to R.L. Dane 🍵

Amin Hollon 🏳
gotosocial - Link to source
Amin Hollon 🏳
• •
I'm thinking particularly on GNOME where every extension breaks when you upgrade major versions because the devs have to port it every time.
in reply to Amin Hollon 🏳

R.L. Dane 🍵
gotosocial - Link to source
R.L. Dane 🍵
• •
Ah, yes. I learned the very hard way that Gnome Extensions can conflict in various wonderful ways, including filling up your /var filesystem with logs (which is usually / for me, for extra fun ;)
in reply to R.L. Dane 🍵

Andrew Wedlake
mastodon - Link to source
Andrew Wedlake
• •
I'm actually quite intrigued by Debian 13 coming out this summer. Could be worth trying out, if you're not in a hurry.
in reply to Andrew Wedlake

R.L. Dane 🍵
gotosocial - Link to source
R.L. Dane 🍵
• •

Well, I have one other laptop running debian, and a laptop running Debian-based #Armbian, so I'm sure I'll be on Debian 13 at some point.

As far as my work machine, well, I've invested a good chunk of time getting it to work well, and configured the way I like it, so I'm not in a hurry to jump ship to another distro. I technically have until October (thanks, microsnot!) to replace windows on my coworker's machine, so I might wait and see how Debian 13 shapes up. I'm sure it'll be mostly perfect.

I guess I need to come up with a list of pros and cons for staying with Debian. For me, the software starts getting really outdated after a release is a year old. I do wish they'd switch to a yearly release (that'd be perfect, honestly), but I do understand that it's a proper, true community-run effort, and that would about double the workload.

#armbian
in reply to R.L. Dane 🍵

Jay 🚩
mastodon - Link to source
Jay 🚩
• •
check Kinoite and SilverBlue version of Fedora
in reply to Jay 🚩

R.L. Dane 🍵
gotosocial - Link to source
R.L. Dane 🍵
• •
Don't you lose the ability to set a bunch of settings in the regular KDE Settings app if you use an immutable distro?
in reply to R.L. Dane 🍵

Jay 🚩
mastodon - Link to source
Jay 🚩
• •
I think you can change settings via GUi it works as normal distro in many ways.
in reply to R.L. Dane 🍵

Nick (Alatar the Blue)
gotosocial - Link to source
Nick (Alatar the Blue)
• •
Ive daily driven Fedora for almost 10 years. I’m currently using the Blufin setup of UBlue, and would 10/10 recommend that style of setup (bootc) for most users.
in reply to Nick (Alatar the Blue)

R.L. Dane 🍵
gotosocial - Link to source
R.L. Dane 🍵
• •
Which one would you set up for someone like your mom (assuming she has extensive experience with windows)
in reply to R.L. Dane 🍵

Ian Wagner
mastodon - Link to source
Ian Wagner
• •
twice daily more like. Fedora is isn’t Arch, but it’s a lot closer to bleeding edge than not 😂
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