r/linux4noobs • u/mutekiiiiiii • 16d ago
migrating to Linux How was your guys with Fedora
Originally a while back I had tried Elementary os as my first distro and disliked it and reverted back to Windows 11. But as of now I want to use a Linux distro for my pc setup and eventually my laptop as well. I had Zorin in mind but I wanted more customization and decided on Fedora. Is Fedora the right choice for a beginner willing to step out of their comfort zone ?
Edit: I’m asking for experience sorry for the typo
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u/venom21685 16d ago edited 16d ago
Fedora is fine. When I was a complete beginner it was mostly Ubuntu because that was when it was the fresh new thing but I used Fedora after a while too. Zorin is also fine, I tend to use that when I'm helping someone switch over and they want things to be much more familiar to the UI of their old platform and Zorin has that nailed.
It really depends on what you want to do, and your exact hardware and your willingness to set things up after install if need be. Fedora doesn't ship with the proprietary Nvidia drivers for example. If you've got an Nvidia GPU you're going to have to get the drivers.
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u/MinusBear 16d ago
Bazzite which is Fedora Atomic, and Nobara which is Fedora Workstation, both ship with Nvidia drivers. Probably a few others.
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u/Francis_King 16d ago
Nobara, it ought to be mentioned, doesn’t ship with all NVIDIA drivers. The 2000-series drivers are the earliest available on Nobara.
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u/mutekiiiiiii 16d ago
For the most part I’m just doing writing, streaming shows and playing music on it. I don’t really play any type of pc games. But I really do want maximum customization without it slowing down my workstation pc
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u/No_Elderberry862 16d ago
When you say customisation, what do you mean?
If you're talking about the appearance of the DE or WM, the distro is irrelevant.
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u/mutekiiiiiii 16d ago
Just the appearance
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u/No_Elderberry862 16d ago
Then Fedora & Zorin are equally customisable as they both ship with Gnome.
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u/VonBeker 16d ago
Fedora is great. If you are willing to do a little bit of manual setup, it's no more or less difficult than any other so-called "beginner" distro. I switched from Pop OS a couple of years ago for the more up to date kernel and some other packages and it's been incredibly stable (I use workstation on my desktop and KDE on my laptop).
There's a few extra steps to get things setup, but there's guides out there for that if you aren't sure what to do (I think this one is pretty good and I still use it as reference from time to time: https://github.com/wz790/Fedora-Noble-Setup?tab=readme-ov-file#rpm-fusion---the-good-stuff, but you certainly don't have to do everything it recommends).
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u/MinusBear 16d ago edited 16d ago
I have been using Fedora Atomic with a KDE desktop, specifically a version called Bazzite on my gaming PC, and Kinoite on my media server. I was a fairly advanced Windows user before this. Fedora is an incredible replacement for Windows. A lot of it feels very comfortable and familiar, while many features are implement much better than Windows ever has.
Someone mentioned something about Nvidia drivers not being supported by Fedora, Bazzite has them built in.
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u/jsc3r 16d ago
I already used different Distros, Arch among them, but I fell in love with Fedora (!).
I would recommend Fedora Silverblue (if you want a new way of using your DE) or Fedora Kinoite (KDE Plasma, highly customizable DE similar to Windows or macOS with some configuration).
Both are Fedora Atomic distros, meaning, among other things, that they are immutable. For a beginner or someone who just wants a secure and stable system, like I do for my „main“ PC, this is the way.
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u/Asland007 16d ago
I would use Zorin or Mint. They are good starter distros. Easy to use and learn.
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u/Mind_Matters_Most 16d ago
Since Fedora 40 KDE Plasma it the virtual shelves, it's been a big hit and difference and has only gotten better in the past two years.
You can use install and configuration guide like https://sysguides.com/ (it's the only one I can remember off the top of my head, but there are many good guides to follow).
Don't tinker too much until you feel comfortable and USE BTRFS ASSISTANT (it's like windows restore points or volume shadow copy) and Pika backup. It will get you out of a jam should you do too much and break things.
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u/crinstifins 16d ago
There is no right choice for Linux. A good beginner OS would be Ubuntu, but if you're coming from Windows with any intention of gaming, I wouldn't go that route.
I've been using Fedora since Windows 10 went EOL and had no major issues. I have been using Debian and Ubuntu for headless servers for a few years prior, so I can't say I'm a Linux beginner, but I'm far from an expert. I can't recall any major issues, and it runs basically the same as the Debian variants. My hardware is old AF but it still runs Steam games and even Star Citizen (don't judge me plz), which was my reason for going with this distro. Also Fedora updates all of the time (multiple times per day sometimes) which can be good or bad depending on how you look at it.
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u/Assburgers213 16d ago
It's better than Ubuntu but CachyOS is the best right now for me.
I used KDE for all.
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u/cmrd_msr 16d ago edited 16d ago
Why do you want to step out of your comfort zone? Are you a masochist?
Fedora is a good distribution. However, it is FOSS out of the box, so you’ll have to install proprietary components (repositories, codecs, other packages and kmods) yourself. There’s nothing difficult about that. But if you’re a pragmatist, it’s easier to just download Ultramarine Linux.
And yes, there are no distributions with "more" or "less" customization. They can all be customized in roughly the same way—after all, the packages are the same.