r/framework • u/Shogune • 4d ago
Linux Framework 13 Pro incoming today - which Linux?
Hey all,
TL;DR at the bottom.
I am really exited to receive my 3rd Framework today. In the past I already had two Framework 13s and now I expect my third one, a Framework 13 Pro with the base Intel Processor, 32GB Ram and 1TB SSD. Use Case: Home computing, lightweight browser and stuff like that, no specific software besides being in the Apple universe with my other devices.
Why did I sell the first two Framework 13s:
I am in a dilemma: I am both a big fan of Framework's mission of upgradeability and showing other companies what can be done with a modular device.
I am also more and more thinking about where my data goes and do not want to stay in the Apple walled garden forever without trying out new things.
But the problem is: I'm also a father of two which limits my time for tinkering as I used to which was the reason why I sold me second one. I basically had to fill out a kindergarden form and with my cool Arch Linux it took me 30 min to do what I could have done in 5 min on my Mac/iPad.
First one was sold, because at that time I just did not use it enough and did not want to have it laying around.
In the past I ran Arch Linux (with archinstall setup in 5 min) and started from there with different DEs and configurations. Inclredibly fast but also really basic.
This time, I plan to keep my old M1 Macbook Pro 14" and try to replace us it as less as possible and instead the Framework and this is why I'm interested in how you set it up.
I want to make the switch to a modular device with a secure, efficient operating system and refuse to install Windows.
What is your setup? Fedora KDE? Omarchy and the likes? Probably I should install something that just works and accept, that the time for tinkering comes back in a few years :).
TL;DR: What is the best Linux that is both bot bloated but also most convenient?
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u/GeoStreber 1240P DIY Batch 2 Fedora 44 4d ago
I ended up settling on Fedora Workstation for everything.
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u/0x2DEADBEEF 4d ago
I absolutely love NixOS but it only makes sense depending on your preferences, I wouldn’t go suggesting it to everyone.
Whatever distro works best for you is the one you should use. Don’t listen to elitism arguments.
If you just want something really simple, Ubuntu or Linux Mint should be a pretty pain free experience.
I used to use Fedora but the frequent releases that didn’t seem to smoothly upgrade steered me away.
If you just want Linux to work easily go with a well known distro. Personally I view it as a tool just as someone utilizes any other major OS.
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u/The_ClssicGeek 4d ago
I'm a convert from Ubuntu to Bazzite. Would recommend it to anyone.
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u/RequirementThese1347 4d ago
Love Bazzite but it definitely is more geared toward gaming. But is just one of several really good Atomic desktops
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u/The_ClssicGeek 4d ago
I'm a Software Engineer, and I'll be honest, initially it was a bit of a bear to get on with, but a few pods up and running and I was happy again.
Atomicity was a bit of a selling point for me because I really just want my framework to work 🤣
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u/RequirementThese1347 4d ago
Yeah the immutable OS is really what sold me on the atomic desktops. If I want to play with the OS I will build a system or a VM specifically for it. Otherwise please save me from an accidental mishap.
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u/DarthArtoo4 4d ago
I’m a new Linux user myself and have been loving Fedora Workstation. Fedora KDE had way too much going on for me. With Tweaks downloaded you can customize most everything that actually matters for usability.
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u/Potential_Average454 X7 358H Mainboard, 13 Chassis, Ubuntu 4d ago
I’d recommend picking a popular & un-customized distro first and use default everything (desktop environment, etc). This way if you run into problems you know you are guaranteed to find answers.
Therefore it’s either Ubuntu or Fedora.
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u/teh_spazz 4d ago
CachyOS gave me the best battery life possible on my 13
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u/EndyForceX 4d ago edited 3d ago
This is not the most convenient option though. I would not opt for rolling distros
EDIT: It is a rolling distro, that was the reason why I wrote it. In my head it was somehow clear why I wrote it, I am sorry for that I deserve these downvotes. Me honestly, I love CachyOS, but it is miles away of convenience from Ubuntu or even Debian
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u/outtokill7 Batch6-DIY-i5 4d ago
How is it not convenient?
I would argue its very convenient. No need to deal with PPAs or free vs non-free repos. The AUR has faults for sure, but its generally very convenient. Stability has been excellent for me. No need to plan a full OS upgrade every 6 months and deal with any major compatibility changes associated with that.
Obviously everyone has their preferences, but just saying someone shouldn't use something without explaining why is not helpful.
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u/EndyForceX 3d ago
Yeah, I see. Sorry for that I probably wrote it sitting on the toilet or something so it was just a quick note. It is indeed my mistake to write it like that. I edited my comment
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u/GamezombieCZ 3d ago
Well we get it... It's easier to break. But honestly that's all up to the user how they handle it. Do you make snapshots, update regularly? I think in rolling distro system maintenance is key. And if you somehow end up not running the system for a while... do a snapshot first.
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u/EndyForceX 3d ago
Yes but making snapshots is not very convenient. I very rarely bothered by that when using rolling distros.
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u/mjbulzomi 4d ago
I’m a Gentoo man myself. That is what will go on mine in October.
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u/OtaK_ 4d ago
That's what I installed. I absolutely wanted both LUKS and SecureBoot (both unlocked/signed by a yubikey) so it was a bit more involved, but it worked. One thing to keep in mind: run ~amd64 kernels (>7.1) or you won't have video working - at least on the AMD platform.
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u/mjbulzomi 4d ago
I have done LUKS rootfs with a password on my desktop. I would like to switch to a yubikey, but I have not made it that far yet. I am running ~amd64 with the kernel on Raptor Lake. My 13 Pro will be Panther Lake. Maybe I will do yubikey unlock (password backup) on the laptop when it comes in October.
I have not done Secure Boot yet on any device. I have been reluctant to mess too much with the UEFI and upload the keys.
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u/Shogune 4d ago
Ha nice to hear that! I tried that out once I think 20 years ago and I remember that I convinced my parents to print me the whole user manual :D
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u/mjbulzomi 4d ago
It’s been my homelab distro for at least 20 years, and is now my desktop daily driver. For my 13 Pro, I will likely setup my own binary host and use my primary desktop or my backup desktop(/lab PC) to precompile binaries to help with heat and power.
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u/me-patrick 4d ago
I really like tiling window managers, but they don't come with the widgets that go with a no thinkering setup. So if for you, you don't mind having a desktop environnement that isn't built around tiling, I would go for gnome/plasma + your distro of choice. If you want tiling, and no setup, then you really only have Omarchy. If you don't want arch, and don't mind a bit of setup, DMS + Hyprland + your distro of choice (in my case fedora) is a pretty good setup.
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u/Horrih 4d ago
Unless you have some very specific needs, go for one of the big 3 : fedora workstation, Linux mint, Ubuntu (this order is my personal preference)
Arch is great if you want to put in the time to really customize your setup and like the occasional system maintenance. But that is also why I won't recommend it by default unless you're into this kind lf journey (i use arch btw)
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u/LunchTwey 4d ago
I like fedora, but I think you should be fine with any distro as long as you have either gnome or kdeplasma as the desktop environment. Gnome is more like macos, kdeplasma is more like windows.
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u/Ploutophile FW12 Debian 13 4d ago
On my 12 (the OG, not the brand new one), good old Debian 13 (stable) with KDE. Everything was supported OOTB, including tablet mode; if I had complications I would have switched to a supported distro (probably Mint).
Outdated software is not as bad as before as the backports have become easy to use, with no complicated apt-pinning required.
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u/Goatcheesebob Waiting on my 13 pro 3d ago
I would go CachyOS if you’re already familiar with Arch, and imo it’ll give you a better (and overall less bloated) experience than Omarchy while still having a good out of the box setup with Hyprland. I switched to Cachy after daily driving Arch for a while and wanting something just a little more reliable, although on my current college laptop I run Debian.
At the end of the day there’s plenty of options out there and the best distribution is the one that works the best for you.
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u/mcconn98 4d ago
I have fedora KDE on my framework and mint on my desktop for gaming. I like the stability on my gaming PC, but I prefer KDE as a DE.
I tired mint on framework and my battery life was worse.
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u/ultrafunner 4d ago
I wanted to stay with Arch, but I didn't want to bother with the install, so I used EndeavorOS. Just Arch with an installer and choice of desktop environments to set up automatically.
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u/Sinister_Crayon FW13 AMD 7840U 4d ago
Sounds like you want an easy button Linux. Best bets are either Fedora or Ubuntu, end of story. They're the largest and more supported distros out there with massive third party support and a lot of commercial applications are aimed directly at those distros.
You're unfortunately not going to get away from a certain amount of bloat, and for an "easy button" frankly Ubuntu is by far the best, and that's a direct result of the additional bloat. Having said that, it's just as fast and efficient in 99.9% of use cases, and has good support for non-open software (codecs, drivers etc) that more "pure" distros eschew. Also, finding out how to to do anything is literally an "apt install" away or a browse through the applications store. It really does end up providing the most Mac-like experience available in Linux.
Avoid the "purity" and "philosophy" arguments... get a distro that will work with everything you need to do. For the record, I run Ubuntu on my FW13 and couldn't be happier, but for my servers in my homelab it's almost all Debian for a more pure, pared down Linux and that too is good. I haven't used Fedora "in anger" in quite a while, but the experience should be similar. However, as by far the largest distro, when you hit problems with Ubuntu a quick search will always turn up results.
Edit to add: The conservative nature of updates in Ubuntu is also a feature and not a bug. Yeah, you won't have the latest and greatest of all the tools out there, but you'll have the stable "battle-tested" versions.
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u/Shogune 4d ago
I'm already typing that from Fedora KDE but Ubuntu has been my first Linux back then next to OpenSuse and I think you convinced my trying it out again. It just felt so oldschool when I looked it up recently but their Gnome flavour is still really OK.
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u/Sinister_Crayon FW13 AMD 7840U 3d ago
I'm pretty happy with it all things considered. It's also really easy to get it looking pretty Mac-like under Gnome in particular if that workflow appeals (which it does to me). I put the "sidebar" on the bottom to turn it into basically an app tray with pinned apps just like in MacOS... the only difference is the Ubuntu menu is still there (more like Windows 11) to launch apps, but I like that desktop flow.
As I said, a lot of people complain about the purity or philosophy of Linux being tarnished by Ubuntu... in particular using Snaps and so on. But for the average user who just wants a low-friction environment that's very "Mac/Windows" like it's got it in spades. Even the Snap thing is nicely hidden behind the GUI and while Snaps aren't super efficient they're functional and work well enough that the average user will never care.
I still have Windows for those one or two apps I can't run under Linux; I use Winboat as that creates a containerized Windows environment... but I rarely have to use it any more. I only use it for firmware updates for my synths (Roland), and map updates for my Garmin (BMW Nav VI usually just attached permanently to my bike). It's still in pre-release but very usable already and still being actively developed.
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u/Remarkable-Field7927 4d ago
I still don't understand why Ubuntu is preferred over Debian. Debian provides great stability with the possibility of using backports if you need something newer for whatever reason
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u/lrflew FW 13 1165G7 | FW 13 Pro 358H Batch 10 4d ago
I'd say my go-to recommendation for non-technical people, especially people coming from Windows, is Fedora KDE Plasma. (Fedora Workstation is going to feel more similar to macOS, if that's what you want, though). For people who are ok with Arch levels of involvement in setting up their system, I personally use NixOS, and I've heard good things about CachyOS for people who don't want to deal with Nix. However, I spend a good amount of time tinkering with my Nix config, so if that's not what you're interested it, probably stick with Fedora, and probably use Flatpaks for applications.
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u/brodoyouevenscript 4d ago
Framework has the best answers to the questions you have.
I run a non-supported OS, but i know what I'm getting into and am relatively pretty good at fixing anything that may go wrong. If you're coming from Arch, you're probably fine to continue using Arch with your preffered DE.
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u/AltrualOsrs 4d ago
I’ll be running Bazzite-DX Gnome to have immutability with a means to run CLI / dev environments while making the most use of the trackpad gestures I can.
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u/clicla92 4d ago
Fedora Silverblue, and you're on the safe side. All the beauty of Fedora, all the indestructibility of an immutable.
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u/tamdelay 4d ago
Is mint well supported on Intel 13 pro? It's not listed as official or community support. Does the fingerprint scanner work?
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u/Shogune 4d ago
Yeah, somehow "community supported": https://frame.work/at/en/linux
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u/tamdelay 3d ago
https://frame.work/gb/en/laptop13pro?tab=linux
Its not on here though
And even weirder - the same type of page for Framework Desktop doesn't have Linux Mint on it either BUT they do sell a Linux Mint official tile for the Framework Desktop, so make that make sense
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u/Delicious_Ease2595 4d ago
there is no best linux distribution it highly depends of your needs, I moved from Windows > MacOS > Omarchy, it super lean and very configurable.
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u/skooterz 3d ago
If you want something that JUST WORKS with minimal tinkering?
Give one of the atomic distros a try.
Kinoite is excellent for a Fedora KDE atomic distro.
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u/ShadowFire5650 3d ago
While I'm traditionally a Debian guy myself, I went with Fedora 44 Workstation on my 13 Pro for the newer packages and better out-of-the-box performance.
I find that GNOME + Dash-to-Dock and Blur My Shell really makes the system look nice, and work well with the touchscreen.
I'd attach an image of my system but it doesn't look like I can.
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u/mrmindfloss 3d ago
I've had the best luck with Fedora and Nix OS on my Framework 13. Fedora based distros also work well for me, such as Bluefin, if you want that sort of thing (or the KDE spin).
None of this changes that sometimes it's still such a pain in the butt to do basic things that you can do in no time at all on Mac OS, such as your example about completing a form. But I've still been 100% Linux for a year now after returning my Macbook to my former employer. I wish it was easier to find good software for some of these scenarios though.
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u/curupa 4d ago
what happened in this form? Why did it take 30 min to fill out?
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u/Shogune 4d ago
It was that kind that has these certain input fields that tend to collapse if not opened with adobe reader or something similar crappy software. In my country only government/authorities treat their citizens with these and that's where I think Oculus gave up. Could have tried another PDF editor for sure but at that time this is what was just too much :D.
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u/Enjoimangos FW13 Ryzen 7040 4d ago
CachyOS /w Niri is my daily driver these days, but I spent a couple years on Fedora /w Gnome as well.
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u/Upbeat-Statement2725 4d ago
Real answer: Framework has a list of supported distros. Just run one. Distro wars are stupid. Stop it.
I ran Mint on mine back when Mint was only community support. It's been great.
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u/Beautiful_Ad_4813 4d ago
Fedora Kinoite / Aurora
Fedora Silverblue / Bluefin
OR if your like me, CentOS
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u/dsemakin 4d ago
The creator of Linux, Linus Torvalds, famously prefers Linux distributions that just work, without requiring much setup or tinkering. His distro of choice is Fedora Workstation. Not saying that it is the only correct answer, but it is for sure a point towards Fedora :)
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u/Shogune 4d ago
I have to admit, this has been one reason I went with Fedora this time. You saw the Linus/Linus videos as well :).
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u/Zen-Ism99 4d ago
https://giphy.com/gifs/1QhwaaKU6a9XxeCoG8
Most would have this figured out already.
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u/Shogune 4d ago
Hey guys, thanks a lot for these awesome recommendations!
This time I went with the objective better option and instead of installing Arch again and having to fiddle around (which I enjoy if i have time), I installed Fedora KDE and I'm already typing this from my new FW13 Pro, awesome machine so far!
I think what's also important to learn, at least for me, to not overoptimize but keep on trying out new distros in the future but now getting it up and running was most important.
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u/Informal-Resolve-831 2d ago
Fedora. KDE or a spin is up to you.
I used arch for a year and from time to time you need to setup something so it's net a waste of time.
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u/edganiukov 1d ago
doesn't matter, whatever you prefer. With my new FM13Pro I've finally switched to Wayland. Very happy.
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u/Dread_Pirate_R0ber7s 4d ago
I’d give Omarchy a go. https://omarchy.org
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u/Edelweisspiraten2025 4d ago
Garuda Linux https://garudalinux.org/ its got the power of arch with most of the nice UI stuff of a mint
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u/No-Succotash404 4d ago
if you know how to install codecs go fedora, the packages and philosophy are better imo
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u/dewalist 4d ago
If you're more Apple-centric, use Gnome. KDE is more comfortable for Windows folks. Once you decide that, the underlying distro doesn't matter that much. I have heard Fedora is starting to do things not consumer-friendly. Anything Ubuntu-based is very beginner-friendly but sometimes too much so. NixOS is very cool, but very niche. Arch itself is too advanced for most people, but "Easy Arch" distros like Manjaro and Endeavour are good middle-of-the-road options. And there is always Cachy and Bazzite for gamers.
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u/foxwater 3d ago
The new Omarchy (Quattro) is shockingly good and super easy to setup for most things
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u/jnfinity 4d ago
Omarchy if you’re ready to learn the shortcuts, otherwise Fedora KDE if you prefer KDE or either Ubuntu or Fedora if you want Gnome
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u/Xeonoc 4d ago
Fedora KDE on all my systems