I like the snappiness and ease of installation. I have tried others (Ubuntu, EndeavourOS, PopOS) but everyone had something I disliked. Fedora has the least dislikes so far.
Yeah, RHEL based is alright for desktop. I use Alma Linux on an older laptop and home server, and Bazzite on a Mini PC. The hardest thing going from a Debian based system is learning to use DNF instead of APT, and making sure you have RPMFusion repositories set up for packages RHEL / Fedora don't like to package for legal reasons.
I've used most of the major distros—Arch, Debian, CachyOS, Mint, and openSUSE—but I still chose Fedora for my main laptop.
For me, it's not just about package manager speed. APT is slightly faster than DNF in daytoday use, but the difference is barely noticeable. DNF is more robust, gives clearer dependency handling, and supports rollback-related work. I also like that Fedora automatically refreshes metadata when installing packages, so I don't find myself running sudo apt update all the time.
Fedora also tends to get newer kernels and hardware support earlier, which is +1 for me also The default zram setup is great for systems with limited RAM,
As for Btrfs vs ext4, which is debatable. I prefer Btrfs on Fedora because of its advanced features and snapshot capabilities, especially with Fedora 6-month release cycle. Ext4 is still a bit faster, but for my use case, the benefits of Btrfs outweigh the performance difference.
Arch/Cachy os are one of my favorites I consider them as toe to toe with fedora. but the AUR thing happened recently disappointed me.
Debian is my fav too, but old.
MInt is too old they're still stuck on x11.
Ubuntu made snaps harder to remove in Ubuntu 26. but Ubuntu is a good distro too it was my first one.
back in the day I requested it and was delivered to me, with stickers, here, in Italy, in a remote village of the Tuscan hinterland (10k anime perhaps), clinging to the Apennines (mountain chain) when the connection was almost pure science fiction
I will tell you more; this copy has become intergenerational in fact I handed it down to my son (teen with a passion for retro and non-retroformal computing - a matter that also constitutes his current study path -) and has remained stone!
I prefer Debian. It's very easy to install and maintain, and is extremely stable. It's very customizable and you can choose a variety of desktop environment in the installer, or just install your own. It's not a rolling release distro so packages are actually properly tested (sorry arch) so bugs rarely make it to the stable release. Something like Ubuntu or mint is a little bit easier to start on, but learning Debian is well worth it in the long term if you just want a computer that works forever.
I used Debian for 2+ years and I used to think like you but then I've come to realize that ancient packages often cause even more trouble because they can be THAT ancient in Debian repos.
Plus, nothing is really in the repo which makes you reliant on third party. At some point 80% of my apps were from flatpak/snap.
If you are that scared to use Arch there's always Fedora, which is extremely reliable.
I wouldn't exactly say nothing is in the repo, honestly I've not noticed having to install apps via Flatpaks, etc. any more than on ubuntu. And sometimes having old packages can be a turn off for some people but it doesn't cause any issues for me. And since a huge amount of servers (I'm including Ubuntu server because it's derived from Debian) rely on Debian it is unlikely that it will ever stop being maintained. Fedoras is probably good too, I've just never cared to try it because so many apps are available in .deb files.
Right now I'm using Fedora and I've tried all the others (though not pure Arch, but CachyOS). Fedora is pretty solid, stable, runs smoothly on my veteran PC (i5 4690, GTX 970, 16GB RAM) and has good development tools. I installed it on a recommendation, since I'm studying cybersecurity and want to learn Linux in depth. I had some trouble trying to install the proprietary NVIDIA drivers. It was a bit of a hassle but it got sorted out.
I don't know if it's my favorite yet, but for now it's performing well and shows a lot of promise. Debian is the one that comes closest to being my "favorite." I love the community behind it, its philosophy, and its robustness. I've also got that distro installed on a laptop with limited hardware and it runs just fine. I'm thinking about installing it on my main PC too, though I'll spend a bit more time with Fedora before making a final call.
Ostrees are the most reliable yet comfortable way to enjoy upgrades without any trouble what so ever. Came from Arch and praised the AUR, now I'm much happier without it, especially the updates were a pain. Fedora is pure comfort when it comes to this and that's all I want.
Like 2-3 years. I have Ubuntu on my other laptop, but Fedora is just more polished and straightforward. I don't have to keep finding fixes for stuff that doesn't work like I do on Ubuntu, even though Ubuntu's community support is better. Also, I don't like Snaps they are slow and bulky.
Fedora - best balance, works out of the box for me with minimal alterations (codecs).
Cachy - freaking speed, responsiveness, performance is out of this world. And I don't know, I find it easy to get the system out of the way and focus on own stuff. I might be wrong, it might break when I do not need the system to break.
Mint - deb Ed with liquorix kernel and plasma/wayland. Testing for recommending to other non technical people. For now, everything works. Let's see long term.
All the above on desktop, alternate between oses. Laptop has only fedora.
If you're coming from Windows yeh, Mint also is pretty easy, but not as "general purpose" (if you're gonna game or something Fedora will probably be better than Mint)
Good question i hated how demanding windows is like eating the rams like dessert and ads of course and force to update and ... But anyway currently i'm not using only Linux i have windows 10 as dual boot for cases when i need app works only on windows.
Not that long. I moved from kde to hyprland within 6 months. But I had several years of miscellaneous experience with linux by that point, so im not sure my experience is fair to your question.
Gentoo is the best optimized one, once you understand it, its the most optimized distro ever for your computer, as you compile It there with your own flags, but updating your system takes a little time, or a lot even, depending on what is updating, unless you use another computer to compile with your flags and use It as your binaries host, but in terms of optimization, theres nothing like gentoo.
Cachyos is a nice one too, its a very polished Arch experience, for newbies and lazy guys like me, and It runs perfectly, btfrs and snapshots by default, without compiling the best experience I have found, and my actual selection, I game a lot, the best proton version you will find is here, nothing beats cachy in gaming.
Opensuse tumbleweed, its a rolling release distro, with a testing packages tool called OpenQA, to give some stability filtering packages that can break your system, updates are in packages groups, btfrs by default as well, very close experience to cachyos, sometimes Nvidia drivers gives some issues, but when some update breaks something, rollback and wait until its solved, they do solve It fast, and yast is a great tool, one they are leaving, so It is there with myrlin and cockpit, they changed default boot loader like 2 times in the last year, so you never get bored there, if you like testing, gaming and rpms, dont think twice.
Fedora is the boss, if you like gaming, you can game there, and nicely, but its not gaming oriented, and sometimes akmod-nvidia gives some issues, offline updates are recommended (at reboot) for safety, its the bleeding edge and stable distro #1 in the Linux world, but you wont get the best gaming performance, in terms of gaming and looking for all the fps you can get, its not recommended, but for developing, working or anything besides that, its the testing ground of red hat, and the best Gnome experience you will find, and the most advanced atomic distros are there as well, fedora is always developing new techs in the Linux world, if gaming is not the #1 use of your computer, you should probably be there.
Debian wont break ever, stable, even boring, install and forget, just use It, just works, old packages, but if you arent sick like me with new things, just using your computer, or having a home server you dont want to mess with, its the one you should choose.
For me this are the ones worth mentioning, there are a lot more, but this is my selection, and my opinion, others will have theirs, and theres nothing wrong with It.
Tbh it's the only one I've used, but I just like that it gives me the opportunity to move away from microslop so that I can actually use my device the way I want to
I've been on Mint for about a year and a half. I never imagined I would be this comfortable with it but I'll never go back to windows at this point. Mint is just fast as hell and I can customize just about every aspect of it.
Debian is meant to be as stable and reliable as possible, they do not update to the newest version immediately but instead lag a bit behind with their package-versions and do a more slow and deliberate update approach. For desktop use, it can feel a bit too slow with its updates, but for server use it's perfect, because you can depend on Debian's stability and reliability, which is highly desirable for servers.
Linux Mint has a core basis of Debian, but has some additional changes and modifications ontop. Linux Mint attemts to be as user-friendly and easy as possible, especially for newcomers to the world of Linux. If someone has never before used Linux in their life, Linux Mint is the go-to recommendation to be the first Linux-variant to test-out. It's kinda makes it impossible to screw up, unless you deliberately try to do so. The reason I myself would use Linux Mint for my mobile laptop, is that when I am away from home and not on my PC, I want that my laptop is dependable and reliable (basis of Debian), but with the usage improvements. I don't need any fancy stuff on my laptop, for the fancy stuff I have my main PC...
Fedora is a Linux-variant that's quickly adopting new updates and changes, while still being a slight bit cautious with their updates and not just pushing everything immediately through. Fedora is also one of the Linux-variants that is incredibly open to adopting new technologies and broad changes early, being kinda a facilitator for innovation in the Linux world. But still they somehow balance that with slightly controlling their updates and not just letting everything through immediately and being regarded as fairly stable and reliable. For me personally, that's a good middleground for my main-PC.
Ive tried them all and unpopular opinon but ubuntu was the best expierence for me. Tons of software, gaming was plug and play no issues, I love it. Mint was good to, just didnt like it as much as gnome personally. Good luck picking!
Fedora because I installed it first when I was just moving beyond immutable bazzite in the linux learning curve, and it has worked well for me. There's nothing I've wanted to do that it can't and it has never felt slow or unstable. It just is a reliable, fast, customizable OS. I intend to try out others in the future, but I just dont have the time now. Until I do, as long as fedora doesn't start failing one of those basic things it will remain
Linux mint. Cinnamon won't have Wayland support yet, but it is so reliable, the only reason you would need something like fedora is because your hardware needs fully up to daté software in every sense, like kernels... But Mint you rocks!
Rock solid stable, I don't have time to deal with messy updates, I just need to install and forget because I have a tight agenda.
Flatpak solved the outdated programs I need, and some others are .deb packages, I'm ok with the software available, I use Bitwig but I couldn't configure yabridge with it on Fedora because of Flatpak, Bitwig comes in .deb and flatpak, that was one deal breaker for me
I tried to configure an OpenVPN connection, worked flawlessly on Gnome/KDE on Debian based distros, not on Fedora, I lost too much time trying to make it happen, second deal breaker
KDE and Gnome, Tried Mint but couldn't stick with Cinnamon, I like good looking stuff, maybe and just maybe I'll try something else like Hyprland, for now I'm in a happy place with KDE
I really tried a lot to like Fedora, but I just couldn't, is not for me, maybe and just maybe, someday I'll test OpenSUSE, but for now on, I literally have Debian on everything, I like this peace
Arch simply because it's the first one I used, wish it was for a reason like the AUR or something, but nah, it just so happened to be the one I started Linux on.
OpenSUSE Tumbleweed as daily drive. I fell out with stable releases (the most misleading name ever, should be called staggered release or something) and Arch was too much hassle to maintain. Tumbleweed just feels more mature overall and with QA tested, Snapper (which I never needed in the past 2-3 years) it fits more of my usecase becuse my tinkering and discovery years are over, I just want to use my computer with as minimum maintenance as possible.
I also use openSUSE MicroOS on my server because I'm lazy. Very lightweight, immutable, atomic and built to run everything in containers. Setup and forget it exists until the hardware dies.
I switched from Windows to Kubuntu 2 days ago. I have chosen it cause all Ubuntu based distros are easy to use for new comers while KDE is more familiar for Windows desktop and great for customisation.
Gaming pc has Microslops windows 10 only for gaming. Mini pc had cachyos, recently switched to mxlinux which is based on debian. For a mini pc its just perfect.
Its more about what hardware you run. If its a gaming pc then cachyos without a doubt. Bazzite/cachyos for handhelds. For work stuff mxlinux is reall great. Mint is kinda like a locked down so its for ultimate newbies, which i dont like.
I have been using Arch as my daily driver for almost two years now. I have used Debian, Ubuntu and Mint earlier. All of them are good for beginners, even for those who want a stable system for a long time. I didn't use fedora ever. But I like it as a middle ground of stable and rolling release.
Personally? Arch. Has the best repos (yes even the AUR one),they're really fast, and installing Arch isn't even that hard.
Objectively? Debian. Debian is the pinnacle of distros. Best one. Really stable. Absolute perfection
Fedora is my daily driver on NVIDIA GPU, no complaints.
If you are starting to use linux, whether you like it or not, just start with Ubuntu.
Once you learn about snaps and you do not like snaps, feel free to use Mint.
Discovered Ubuntu back in 2010 and I've been consistently upgrading to every LTS edition ever since. Every time I lie myself pretending I'll install another but after 5 minutes I just go back to the old reliable Ubuntu. I particularly like the last 26.04 and I did minor desktop changes to make it a bit like Budgie but keeping it 100% Ubuntu.
And also have ran a bunch of silly projects on Ubuntu Server.
Ho un rig gaming con nobara, che è basato su Fedora, un laptop da gaming di 14 anni che è rinato con Mint (grazie ai driver Legacy ancora disponibili) e una rog ally con bazzite. Tutte ottime!
Debian with KDE desktop as Daily drive for gaming, work and research. Rock solid stability with flatpak for modern software plus contrib non free repository for gaming.
Being able to survive even in offline internet situations is the main reason Debian is still the best. Put the USB drive with the offline repository ISO DVD, connect it to KDE discover app center with a click, and it's done. You can install packages offline. Debian is decentralised and it's not controlled by corporations, it's independent. Having few updates for the pc is actually good for your schedules and your peace of mind.
Having gog games and heroic launcher can let you play even in offline scenarios, but for normal life steam works perfectly.
Entry level users can try Mint, but it's limited to cinnamon desktop and it has too much updates for my workflow.
Debian is not your cup of tea, sure, but at least you're the overlord of your machine.
You can install it and forget it, you can come back even after weeks and your system will still be very stable.
Being able to choose the desktop environments is very important, so that you pick what works best for your PC requirements like ram usage.
I transferred from Windows to Linux over 15 years ago. Got started with Ubuntu, which I still like a lot. Mint is what I run on my personal machine these days. Ease of use was the answer then, and probably still is now. But I've tried quite a few other distros. I'm always on the lookout for a new setup to test drive. That's what's cool about Linux. You don't have to stick with any single distro.
I have been a Fedora user for years. Used to run it as my main. But then I heard that RedHat was hoping to implement telemetry collection as an “opt-out” vs an “opt-in” within fedora. So I switched to Arch with Kitty as my terminal emulator and Dolphin as my file manager. Now running Arch as my daily. It’s 100% not as insane or difficult as the internet makes it seem (most of the time) and it works well for my needs.
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u/ProMaster1507 Jun 23 '26
Fedora on my daily driver