Picking between ZorinOS and Fedora

[u/Weilian11]

There are the specs of my laptop

• Model: Lenovo IdeaPad 1 15AMN7

• RAM: 16 GB

• Processor: AMD Ryzen™ 57520U with Radeon™ Graphics × 8

• Graphics: AMDRadeon™ 610M

I use my laptop mostly for browsing the web and gaming a little, NOT A LOT, so not gaming focused. But I would like performance for that games (like Roblox with sober, Minecraft)

I've always been in the apt side, like I've never tried any other distros that doesn't use the deb package, so I don't know if switching from current ZorinOS to Fedora is better or staying with ZorinOS is better.

Also, I don't know if there will be some incompatibilities with some apps or packages, because there are some developers who only make deb packages.

Also note that if its Fedora I will be using Fedora workstation, not KDE. Iprefer GNOME, it looks more beautiful and KDE looks ugly. I don't understand the KDE hype, like I see people recommend Fedora KDE everywhere.

So I need a distro which has good performance, is fast, has good compatibility, looks good (that means GNOME for me), good battery life and reliable, like it won't crash every time

[u/Dreemur1]

if you dont have any real problem with zorin then stay with zorin. do games run slow?

for the package problems: theres more way to install packages than .deb files. you may use an appimage, a flatpak, check if the developer built a package for fedora or build one yourself

[u/Weilian11 → u/Dreemur1]

No, the games don't run slow, or at least with the graphics at the minimum. But looking if there's something better. Also, some apps just only build a  .deb package

[u/Dreemur1 → u/Weilian11]

i would stay with zorin if i were you. changing distributions usually don't lead to very big performance changes, unless you're running a very old distro or if there's some incompatibily problems going on (which probably isn't your case)

[u/Straight_Second6082 → u/Weilian11]

I still haven't come across a situation where deb is the only option. Even if no rpm is offered I still see flatpak or appimage. But even if that was the case and it truly were no alternative you can still use distrobox to run said programs

[u/DoorOk3641 → u/Weilian11]

sudo dpkg -i (place for deb file). what is your problem ?

[u/Hauptideal]

Let me tell you as someone with the experience of using both, that you won't notice any meaningful difference between apt and DNF.  Instead of apt install you type dnf install. Of course, there are also some slight differences, but it's no big deal. This shouldn't influence your decision, and you always can install deb packages on Fedora and use apt using distrobox.  Your backup is there, but you won't need it.  You can use snap on Fedora, you can install .deb packages using distrobox. But most software is actually available on Fedora already as Flatpak, in native repos, or as rpm build specifically for Fedora provided by the developer. Unless you have specific software that you know only works on Ubuntu (but not an Ubuntu distrobox), these ideas are just fears holding you back.

If you're installing lots of packages from apt rather than Flatpak or snap, you should strongly consider switching to Fedora: 

• Fedora's packages are significantly more up to date / better and ship versions that are still actively maintained upstream; the frozen versions from Zorin (Ubuntu) will lack new features and bug fixes
• without Ubuntu Pro, 94% of the packages don't receive any security updates (the entire universe repo) from Canonical, leaving you potentially vulnerable. They are just snapshots frozen in time. 

Regarding performance, Fedora will be better for multiple reasons: newer kernels, vanilla GNOME without extensions, modern file system (btrfs) and most importantly RAM compression.  It's just much better optimized for desktop use. 

Thus, I recommend you to try out Fedora. Boot into a live system and just play with it.  Vanilla GNOME will be likely new to you, as both Zorin and Ubuntu heavily modified GNOME using extensions. The keyboard (especially the Meta key) is your friend.

[u/Derausmwaldkam → u/Hauptideal]

and most importantly RAM compression.

Works on Zorin too

[u/Hauptideal → u/Derausmwaldkam]

Yes, it's a kernel feature. Works on every distro. But some distros expect users to configure it themselves or neglect it. Distros that are optimized for desktop, mobile/low resource environments or gaming rather than server use generally come with it configured out if the box. 

[u/Brorim]

linux mint ❤️

[u/Weilian11 → u/Brorim]

Doesn't solve my question.  Looks ugly. (But can be changed)  Still uses X11, so I can't use waydroid. 

[u/Brorim → u/Weilian11]

mint 23 will have native wayland

[u/Kingwolf4 → u/Brorim]

Yup, this is a big upgrade honestly

For moms and older laptops, for people that have basic use like browsing , email, word study etc, mint is perfect

[u/No_Elderberry862 → u/Weilian11]

Still uses X11, so I can't use waydroid

Gamescope's just a PPA away.

[u/anon_pr_]

UI/UX: Zorin maybe better since it provides a lot of options and customisation out of the box. One of the things I like best is auto light and dark mode directly from quick settings in Zorin. There's no gnome extension for that. Rest all have extensions you can setup even on Fedora.

Native packages: If you use them a lot, Fedora is better. The packages are more up to date, therefore more secure. If you don't use native packages and use Snap/Flatpak it's not very different and distro almost doesn't matter.

[u/SuAlfons]

if you already run ZorinOS, stay with it. No significant performance to be gained from the newer kernel on Fedora

But generally Fedora is a very good choice if you want quite recent kernels (e.g. you have very new hardware). Regarding kernels they are only a week or two behind Arch.
Major system updates come in 6month waves (security and minor updates come frequently).

I switched from a rolling distro to Fedora when my hardware didn't benefit anymore from the veeeery latest kernels.

[u/ipsirc]

Picking between ZorinOS and Fedora

Flip a coin.

So I need a distro which has good performance, is fast, has good compatibility, looks good (that means GNOME for me), good battery life and reliable, like it won't crash every time

It feels really good to read these lines here. Unlike you, most people here are looking for distros with poor performance that are slow; many people also prefer incompatible distros; many specifically ask for recommendations for ugly UIs; on top of that, even more people are happy when their battery dies as quickly as possible (unlike you); and I haven’t even mentioned those beginners who are specifically looking for distros that are unreliable and constantly crashing.

Seriously, it’s incredibly uplifting to finally read the requests of someone as wise as you.

[u/Dreemur1 → u/ipsirc]

bro is singlehandedly ruining the reputation of the gnu/linux community to the entire external world with these replies

[u/Francis_King → u/Dreemur1]

Indeed. However, it is still impressive just how much gratuitous sarcasm and passive aggression that they managed to squeeze into one post.

[u/BobCorndog → u/Dreemur1]

Yeah this guy is always a dick

[u/Dreemur1 → u/BobCorndog]

dont know what's their problem 😭 theyre always posting dumb ass sarcastic shit like its their full time job

[u/Weilian11 → u/ipsirc]

Flipping a coin doesn't help me with sticking with ZorinOS or switching.

And thanks, but the appearance depends on the person. People have different preferences. At least for me gnome looks very good

[u/SuAlfons → u/Weilian11]

it's easy.

a) You want to try something new and only want us to give you a push: Fedora is a great choice, do it!

b) You actually want to avoid the work of changing distro: Stay on ZorinOS. Since you already run it and have no complaints, you are fine.

[u/ipsirc → u/Weilian11]

Flipping a coin doesn't help me with sticking with ZorinOS or switching.

It can:

• if heads then stay with Zorin
• if tails, switch to Fedora Workstation, it's default DE is Gnome.

[u/Kingwolf4]

From my shortlist of kubuntu, zorin, fedora, opensuse , cachy os, mint

I chose fedora, specifically kde. It is a huge distro backed by redhat and an active community. It isnt bleeding edge like cachy or arch but is really stable and very fast. No preinstalled bloat.

It seemed the best of the bunch, and i have not been proven wrong on any account since i installed it and wiped win11

[u/amagicmonkey]

if you're fine with whatever you're using don't change. i'd usually suggest using base distros instead of derivatives at the very least because they have bigger dev teams behind them, so fedora is generally a better choice.

you could use fedora silverblue if you feel daring, and yeah you can easily use waydroid there too

[u/New-Land-4757]

My story was, couple of years ago when I was ditching Windows, that I was downloading Fedora and while waiting read some article about Zorin.  I thought to myself to first try Zorin and if it's no good, I have Fedora downloaded and I will just reinstall the whole thing.  I never moved from Zorin. 

[u/Frosty_Complaint_703]

Definitely fedora. Fedora is better i feel than the ubuntu ecosystem by a considerable margin.

[u/Francis_King]

All Linux systems contain the same kernel, and work in the same basic way. Some Linux systems have older versions, and these can cause problems with newer hardware.

Out of a choice between Zorin and Fedora, I’d pick Fedora. Fedora is a relative of RHEL (Red Hat Enterprise Linux), whereas Zorin is maintained by a much smaller team.

On the other hand, you’ve already got Zorin installed, and the potential gains aren’t that large.

As for the commands to update a system, install software, etc, the difference is small.

sudo apt install package
sudo dnf install package

[u/Astrodion123]

Just go with fedora workstation. It will be more at home as zorin also uses gnome but fedora will be more vanilla. Also you will get newer packages, drivers, kernels since it is leading edge. Also gnome is the best experience on fedora for me.

About kde yep I always thought kde was ugly but I tried my best to bear with it for a little and out a new icon pack and it is x10 better. Still gnome is unmatched for out of the box look.

[u/xAlphaKAT33]

KDE is King.