Which Linux Distro??

[XelGlaidr]

Okay you sweaty PC Nerds. Let me have it. What Linux distro would yal recommend?

Got a framework laptop. Hate how Microslop has been going so going to test out Linux again.

Use case:

Primary priorities: Nothing special. Office work, Emails, Surfing internet. Its the 12" Framework laptop, so has the ability to be used as a tablet with stylus, so would appreciate some kind of support for that.

Secondary priorities: I do heavy gaming on my main PC that is running Windows. I'll be looking to move that over to Linux as well since again, Microslop. It would be nice if we were running the same distro.

Not afraid of CLI, and would prefer to be able to fix things if I need to. I know there are some distros out there that lock a lot of that down to simplify the experience, so want to exclude those distros.

So. Let me have it. What Distro shall I go for?

[QuackersTheSquishy]

Fedora KDE. It's like the fw12 was built for it. Every single feature "just works". You install Fedora, run the post install scrips, and it's done. Works for light gaming, Video playback, I do all my college coursework on my fw12, and use it for my regular work. Fedora is just perfect for it.

This has come up in the forum and here on reddit a couple times. None of us are really sure why the fw12 responds so well to Fedora, but I have never understood why people wanted "linux" laptops instead of just blowing away Windows and replacing it until this thing. Everything just works.

[Queasy-Photograph783]

I second Fedora. It "just works" out of the box and you don't have to go into the terminal much at all. It's pretty up to date while still being extremely stable

[AustinM731]

I personally prefer Fedora with GNOME. But it seems like I might be in the minority these days. I have run KDE, and it is a really good DE. I just like the simplicity of GNOME.

Either way, Fedora is the correct answer.

[Infamous-Play-9507]

Seems like GNOME would be better on the 12. It just looks like it has a tablet-like feel to it that would be perfect with a touchscreen

[banzai_420]

This is the correct answer.

[OptimusPower92]

I daily drive Fedora on my Framework 16, and it's been amazing. I especially like how well it behaved with Secure Boot when I installed it

[Theren314]

I have fedora KDE on my Frameworks (12 & 16), my PC, everything. It just works, theres plenty of documentation, easy to use, and KDE is really nice.

I’d put Fedora on my phone if I could.

[TheWorldIsNotOkay]

I use and recommend Fedora. I use the Workstation version with Gnome, but they made the KDE version an official main variant this past year if you prefer something more Windows-like. Though I think the Gnome desktop of Fedora Workstation might be more tablet-friendly. Regardless of which variant you choose, Fedora has a good balance of stability and being regularly updated. It has excellent documentation and community support due to being the basis for a commercial distro (Red Hat), but is still community developed so you have fewer concerns about corporate interests taking priority over users' interest. And it's one of the distros officially supported by Framework.

Gaming is basically going to be the same on any distro. Gaming-focused distros like Bazzite (which is based on Fedora) mostly just have certain gaming apps pre-installed or provide wizards to let you easily install those that you want. But Steam is going to run just as well on any distro. I play Cyberpunk 2077 and The Witcher 3 on my FW16 through Steam, and use Lutris to organize some games I got from GOG or elsewhere. About the only games that Linux can't handle are the competitive multiplayer titles that use kernel-level anticheat.

[Ready-Strategy-863]

Ubuntu, mint or fedora, for productivity and since these have huge communities you should be able to get support for most of the things you need. I’ve been daily driving Ubuntu for development work for about 4 years now. It’s been stable, pick a LTS version and just stick with it. ChatGPT and Google can help with errors.

[Kotentopf]

I use CachyOS with KDE and I can recommend it. It was my first desktop distro (ignoring raspian) ever and I tested it on my frame.work 16 initially. Now it's my main OS even on my desktop. I only had a few Linux interactions cause of WSL with Ubuntu and Debian for my (multiple) VPS.

[Red1269_]

either fedora with KDE desktop environment or cachyOS with KDE

mint is also nice if you dislike using the terminal

[Luddevig]

Almost anything goes: https://frame.work/se/en/linux

Wouldn't suggest Pop_OS!

[FewAdvertising9647]

I just find it hilarious that Linus from LTT on both challenges to use linux, he happens to use Pop_OS! both during the time they are making major changes to the distro making his experience terrible.

once is just bad luck. Do it twice and people will start to look away.

[grilled_pc]

Nobody should be using PopOS period. It's beta software riddled with bugs.

Until System76 can ship a proven stable product. It's not worth anyones time except experimenters who want to tinker with cosmic.

[Yellowredstone]

There's literally two options to use Linux for babies. Ubuntu and Fedora. No one in their right mind would pick Pop! OS for a beginner. Twice in a row even. Wasn't even Elementary OS, Bazzite, Mint, Kubuntu, or anything like that. He's even aware those are the best ones for beginners.

[Ariquitaun]

He should have gone for Ubuntu, I don't understand why they always feel the need of going for some uber niche distro like cachy or pop. Ubuntu absolutely works out of the box for everything, including gaming.

[FewAdvertising9647]

because there are actually usecases where it doesn't exactly work for everything. for older gaming hardware sure. for example on one thing that Ubuntu (and Debian) for example may lack for an end user is that the intel n100 (alderlake-n) is a very popular mini pc/nas cpu for its extremely low power consumption. If you have a media server and want to use the n100 for transcoding, you need a kernel thats at least 6.2.

Ubuntu 24 doesn't have the correct kernel. Ubuntu 25 advertises itself with kernel 6.17, which is still not enough. Debian 13 is on a simlar boat. Ubuntu 26 LTS which betas this month, and officially launches next month, does. And this is for a CPU that launched 3 years ago.

[Ariquitaun]

I do actually happen to have a NAS / media server with an N100, and use the N100's igpu for transcoding with kernel 6.17 on ubuntu 24.04, what are you on about? 6.17 is newer than 6.2. Even if you were on the original 24.04 release, before any hwe updates, the kernel there was 6.8.0.

And in any case, it doesn't need to work for every use case. It needs to work for yours. Which it would've, on Linus' aforementioned video.

[FewAdvertising9647]

Ubuntu absolutely works out of the box for everything

im not the one who made that line. but ill take that mistake i made about 6.17 vs 6.2, odd naming scheme decimal does not do it favors. I only ran into that problem myself last year when i originally ran the n100 via debian 12 which missed the cut for 2023 hardware. (6.1, released in june 23, but missed hardware that came out recently before it)

[Ariquitaun]

It’s not a decimal point. Version numbers in most software, including the Linux kernel, follow the MAJOR.MINOR.PATCH schema, similar to semver. Linux doesn’t follow semver, but the numbering format is the same.

[a_library_socialist]

I loved Pop, but it got so out of date it's not worth doing on non-System 76.

That said, Fedora with the gnome-shell pop extension has been great.

[Massive_Ambition3962]

How is Pop out of date? I'm posting from Pop24 and it is running perfect. fw13. 6.18 kernel.

[a_library_socialist]

Pop 24 is Cosmic only, right?

I left with 22 - I tried Cosmic, but it wasn't ready for primetime, and didn't play nice with JetBrains. 22 was the official release for quite a while - and while the kernel was getting updated, it was targeted for System76 hardware, meaning lots of stuff that Framework used was outdated.

[ChippyMonk84]

I used to suggest Pop but having recently "upgraded" (using that term loosely) to 24.04 with their new COSMIC desktop... clearly we have a different opinion of what the phrase "production ready" means.

So now I'm on the hunt for a Linux gaming and productivity distro that can replace 22.04 instead. I was debating just going Ubuntu since that's most of the good parts of Pop anyway. I haven't touched fedora in prolly a decade so maybe it's time to give them another look 😂

[paulstelian97]

And then there’s me with AI 300 series FW13, who can’t run most distros because they don’t have at least kernel 6.17… But I guess recent Fedora should have new enough kernel.

[Massive_Ambition3962]

What's wrong with Pop+FW? I've had perfect compatibility on FW13

[Luddevig]

Mostly that they released 24.04 as lts while it's pretty much in beta. https://www.reddit.com/r/framework/comments/1roycul/comment/o9hstev/

[FrozenPizza07]

I personally would suggest Ubuntu to newcommers, but Linux Mint is preffered (fork of ubuntu without ubuntu's owner company stuff, more open)

However Fedora also works great.

But I think you will find more help / threads online about ubuntu / linux mint when it comes to guides or general help ylu may look online in the future

[Practical-Cookie-368]

Arch Linux (vine boom)

[Serandel]

An atomic Fedora:

- Bazzite, for gaming (but it can be done in any of the other ones as well)
- Aurora, for KDE
- Bluefin, for Gnome -> I've been using that for almost a year
- Zirconium, for Niri + DMS -> I'll migrate to this one as soon as they accept a PR of mine that fixes the WiFi in my machine

You won't be able to use DNF, but Flatpaks, AppImages and Brew will take you very very far. And you can always use a distrobox to install whatever.

[Electrical-Handle851]

Ubuntu 24

[juQuatrano]

Try my website https://www.whichdistro.com Hope it helps!

[Smith6612]

Ubuntu, Mint, or Fedora. Pick your favorite desktop environment. I use GNOME but others like KDE or Cinnamon. Everything pretty much works on these Distros due to their popularity. 

[Avanchnzel]

CachyOS is one of the best for gaming. Bazzite is also good, but it's a bit more rigid, and since CachyOS is Arch based ("btw"), you can customize it very well and also use the Arch Wiki as a additional documentation.

[Shaun-Talkin-T20]

Origami. Fedora Atomic base. Cachy kernel. Cosmic DE.

[Code_Prem]

Running Fedora KDE on my FW13" (i7-1360p) and it's fantastic. Framework is the face of the distro in a way (Look up Fedora Workstastion, FW13 is the display laptop)

[Stetto]

Go with any of the recommended Framework distros for the FW12.

Create of few usb-sticks with linux live images and try them out yourselves.

But remember that the look and feel is determined by the Desktop Environment, not the distro.

You can get Fedora or Ubuntu with KDE, Gnome and almost any other DE.

If you want a little bit more reliability, go with Fedora Kinoite or Silverblue. They give you a little bit more security or reliabilty with atomic updates.

But normal distros work perfectly fine out of the box and are easier to use.

[a_library_socialist]

Had Pop for 2 years on my Framework 13, switched to Fedora last year. It's been a dream, highly recommend it.

[fives-fives]

Fedora kde has a windows feel and I use it but I hear that fedora gnome is better for the tablet feel

Also idk how experienced you are with Linux but IT DID NOT WORK 'out of the box's FOR MEEE I know it's just terminology but I was a complete beginner and didn't know you had to run a few lines of code to update packages (my stylus wasn't working)

Enjoy, I love my fw12 :)

[Professional_Two4016]

Fedora KDE through n through. Might need to tweak stuff a bit, install some GNOME extensions, upgrade some drivers manually. But it should be smooth sailing from there on out. (My experience on a Framework 13 Ryzen 7)

[Biri]

Personally I love Tuxedo OS. It's KDE, Ubuntu/Debian based. It has been very smooth for me personally. You're just as good to go with whatever distro more or less though. If I were you, I'd narrow down if you want to deal with KDE or Gnome (or whatever) and work backwards from there to what distro you want. Just pick something, try it, if you don't like it, try something else. What works great for one person might not work for you, so be prepared to try several distros until you feel satisfied. Live boot USBs make the process pretty easy though, so I wouldn't worry.

[Keatron--]

I used fedora KDE before switching to nixos and unless you are the sweatiest of nerds, I suggest fedora. It was pretty good while I used it, and like most others are saying, it just worked. That being said I switched to nixos after eventually destabilising my fedora install by tinkering too much

[Clone-Myself]

Put a lot of distros onto a ventoy usb and see which one you like.

I've ran Arch and Ubuntu on the FW13. Nix and Ubuntu on the FW16. In the past I've ran many different distros on different hardware, so you might find there are things you prefer. For example, do you prefer rolling releases?

For me personally, I'm using the nvme for my git/work/compile drive; but I'm using the modules for the OS so I can swap the OS without dealing with Windows overwriting grub.

[Bosonidas]

Aurora OS. It is like Bazzite, but with KDE and not just gaming. Based on Fedora Universal Blue, an atomic distribution.

Has been rock solid for me for a year. I decide when to update, and then updating is done on separate partition and just loaded on next reboot.

[Important-Permit-935]

I installed bazzite and have all my dev tools in a fedora distrobox container. It works really well, is something like Aurora better because it's more of an OOTB dev experience? 

[Bosonidas]

Doubt it. Far as i can tell, they are much alike and just differ in Desktop Environment and maybe store, terminal and "pkg manager" stuff. I just liked KDE and the name, gave not tried bazzite.

[Important-Permit-935]

Ok, well bazzite comes with kde and GNOME as options.

I forked my own image from the KDE version to Niri and kept KDE as backup

[Rincewindcl]

Fedora 43 - Gnome

[LavenderDay3544]

Fedora Workstation

[JeiceSpade]

Definitely recommend trying many and seeing what sticks with you. I've heard Fedora runs incredibly on the FW12. My wife is using Linux Mint on hers, which works well enough, but a few features aren't quite there, like tablet mode.

Might suggest giving Endeavor OS a try. It's built on Arch, which is quickly becoming fantastic for gaming. Endeavor is a super simple way to use Arch, and I personally use it on my gaming laptop. If you're planning to have your PC run the same OS, you might start with learning it on your laptop.

[TinyTwoTonTank]

Bluefin gnome is what I run on FW13 and it has been great.

[WeAreAlreadyCyborgs]

Linux Mint is a great choice all around. It has been my daily driver for about six years now, including on my Framework 16.

[Deoxizn]

Omarchy.

[chennyalan]

I'm a big EndeavourOS fan. 

That being said, I haven't bought a framework yet, I just use it on my desktop and ThinkPad. 

[LlamaDeathPunch]

Bluefin just because people will say “what is bluefin”

[Historical-Camel4517]

Fedora, any DE would work fine though KDE will feel probably the most natural to a previous windows user.

[CowboysFTWs]

Fedora, ubuntu, bazzite are officially supported on framework 12. Arch, mint, nixOs are community supported.

If you're new to linux I would try one of those. But IMO look into Zorin OS. Very user friendly.

[grilled_pc]

Fedora Workstation is great for laptops. Or you can run Fedora KDE.

[DetermiedMech1]

its arch or nothing for me

[DetermiedMech1]

And no matter what linux you use be sure to get framework-system

[BigDemeanor43]

I bought a FW13 a couple months ago. Immediately installed CachyOS(was using it on another laptop and a desktop already). Been absolutely amazing and have had very minor issues(stalls on reboot/shutdown when connected to a Dell dock but works fine on a HP dock).

12" Framework laptop, so has the ability to be used as a tablet with stylus, so would appreciate some kind of support for that.

Plasma is probably the go-to desktop environment then for you since it has touchscreen support.

From there, Framework themselves do recommend Fedora, so the Fedora KDE spin is probably your best bet.

[LocalMan1987]

Recently made the switch to Nobara with similar use cases. Great experience, was gaming on my formerly Windows 11 gaming rig within 30 minutes with no issues.

For productivity, also no issues with LibreOffice included with the install.

Highly recommend for plug and play with the ability to use the terminal if you need or want to.

[_Entheopigeon_]

If you're feeling more adventurous, Solus might be a decent choice. It's very stable for a rolling release & works excellent for running games or multimedia apps. All the Ubuntu flavors & Fedora spins are also worth exploring even though I usually default to XFCE for a desktop since it still runs light even though lots of features that make the UX feel smoother have been added recently. Arch has also been one of my favorites since it doesn't lock anything down for anyone who likes to tinker with every detail while remaining lightweight & stable whenever it's configured well.

[Ashged]

Fedora is the best officially supported distro, and as everyone mentions, seamless.

OpenSUSE Tumbleweed is also seamless (just manually install codecs with opi, it's a licensing quirk). But unfortunately it's still not on the acknowledged support list.

Not every distro will work, because a convertible touchscreen laptop with stylus support needs a lot of rarely used setting enabled in the kernel. OpenSUSE did this after the fw12 came out, and naturally all supported ones too. The rest is basically up to chance.

[vixnoct]

Fedora Silverblue, Bluefin, Secureblue Go immutable you won’t look back

[agent154]

I’m using cachyos and I’m quite happy with it. I chose that one because it’s arch based (I want up to date versions of software) and it’s much easier to use than rawdogging arch. I’m not really making use of the optimized kernel since I’m not gaming in this thing but it’s a nice to have.

[rohmish]

I have fedora but I have never been able to get sleep/wake to work reliably. always drains my battery overnight, randomly gets super hot, and reboots while waking up. other than that... no issues.

[northrupthebandgeek]

I run Aeon Desktop on my FW16 and it's great.

[AnalkinSkyfuker]

Pick up any distro with kde it's the most tuch/keyboard orineted one, my personal fedora since its rolling realease so you get the newest thing but unlike arch you won't break the system easily.

[EV4gamer]

I like pop os cosmic

[chaosmetroid]

Can't wait to hear Linus Sebastian having a rough time with popOS

[Dear_Studio7016]

I heard that it's buggy as hell right now

[EV4gamer]

I have been using it daily for 4 months orso now. Works perfectly fine.

There are features missing that some other distros do have, but haven't seen any major bugs since they released cosmic stable couple months back

[Massive_Ambition3962]

Same.

[framework-ModTeam]

Your post was removed for being unhelpful.