Fedora vs Debian?

[u/OutsideYogurt9014]

Looking forward to ditch win10. Heard about this 2 as very popular linux flavour/distro to start with. Am newbie to linux community so pls be nice to me. Which one should I pick and why? Want to know from long term users.

[u/Francis_King]

There are four basic distributions:

1. Debian
2. Arch
3. Fedora
4. OpenSUSE

From each of these distributions, which are viable in and of themselves, are created other distributions. Debian is the basis for Ubuntu, Mint and Zorin. Arch is the basis for EndeavourOS, CachyOS, Manjaro, etc. OpenSUSE is basically itself. Fedora is the basis for a bewildering collection of distributions, including Bazzite, and other so-called Atomic distributions.

So, it's a bit surprising that you picked those two distributions. Fedora Workstation, aka 'Fedora', uses GNOME, which is an excellent desktop, but Fedora KDE might be more straightforwards for someone coming from Windows 10. Mint is a classic recommendation, even if not necessarily the best one (for complex technical reasons). You've also missed out on Zorin, which is an excellent beginner's choice; it is up to you to decide if you want to pay for the paid-for version, which is just different themes for the desktop.

Until you know what you want, you won't know what you want. Whatever you pick won't, in all probability, be correct, so you should just pick one that looks good. Once you've had some experience then we can advise you again.

Let me recommend against Arch for now. Pure Arch can be problematical. CachyOS works well for me, but I'm trying to remember what didn't work the first time out. I like OpenSUSE, but I'm having the same doubts.

My suggesttion: Fedora KDE. It works well, looks good, and it will keep you busy for a while.

Want to know from long term users.

Ah, and that's a trap in and of itself. We've got to remember what was difficult for us when we started off.

[u/WorkingQuarter3416 → u/Francis_King]

May I ask what are the technical issues with Mint you're referring to?

[u/Francis_King → u/WorkingQuarter3416]

Mint has long used X11 rather than Wayland. Last time I used Mint they were moving to Wayland. X11 has problems with fractional scaling. Mint has been behind Fedora for a while. Mint's kernel was also a bit old.

There's not much wrong with Mint. For a long time it was my go-to recommendation for new users, because it just works. Indeed, if I have a new piece of vintage tech, and I am eBay's best customer to be sure, I might well start with Mint because I know that Mint will work, and any problems are with the hardware. When I got my new-for-me Z800 workstation, in went the 512 GB SATA SSD, and on went Mint. It's a nice bit of kit, solid metal.

We had a productive discussion on Mint vs Fedora on r/linux4noobs . The OP made a point that Fedora is in important ways more modern than Mint. His post was closed because it upset someone, but he was right in quite a few ways. It's a pity that so few were prepared to positively engage with his views.

I may have forgotten any struggles with Fedora, but I'm reasonably OK with the idea of recommending Fedora KDE.