[Article Proposal] Migrating to Fedora Linux

Hey all,

Going through some of the recent developments in the media, you can see that people are getting a little more acquainted with Linux in general. which coincides with that time of the Windows release cycle, where people are looking around for alternatives. Most will not migrate to something else, but a small group might find their way to Fedora.

This is both great and shameful, because although there are famous YouTubers like Linus Tech Tips giving extra attention to Linux in general, we don’t really have a ready-to-digest answer to people who consider using Fedora Linux. Most people start with a question on Reddit like: How do I move to Fedora Linux and what will that mean for program X.

Article layout


  • Desktop Linux
  • MoSCoW of applications
  • MoSCoW of compromises
  • Trying the waters
    • Virtual machine
    • Live boot
    • dual boot
  • summary

The idea would be to explain that, in case you want to move to Fedora Linux, you should be sure what you’re trying to do. If you must use Adobe or Autodesk software for a living, then for the love of Christ don’t move to Fedora Linux. On the other hand, if you only ever use Google Chrome, then you might be able to migrate to Fedora Linux with ease.

Last month, I wrote an article about Gaming on Fedora Linux and it was fairly honest, although it didn’t actually talk about all the other things that you might want to do with a computer. As such, I want to take a step back, focussing on the people who are not running Fedora Linux, and discussing application compatibility in a more general way.

The article will also be a bit harder then some people in casual conversations sometimes talk about Linux’ support. Telling people that Fedora Linux is not for them is also part of the deal in properly informing potential users. I won’t shit on Fedora Linux of cause, but I do think that we should give people the proper tools to evaluate if Fedora Linux is good for them.

So let me know if there is interest in such an article. I’m not sure how many non-Fedora people will end up reading it, but it’s certainly something that can be linked to for future reference.

2 Likes

Sounds good to me. But what is “MoSCoW”?

must have, should have, could have and will not have – the o’s were added to make the acronym more pronounceable.

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1 Like

@Mattdm I want to use a MoSCoW to help people understand that in some cases, you shouldn’t switch to Linux. By asking users to see if they have any ‘must have’ applications, before migrating to Fedora Linux, they might better understand their use-case.

Plenty of people ask about Photoshop for example, and the answer is… mixed. Some versions of Photoshop can be run on Linux, with mixed results, but if Photoshop is a must-have application, then you should really stick to Mac OS or Windows.

On the other hand, with Applications who are merely a should-have or could-have, you can look into alternatives or Wine. Back to the Photoshop analogy; a Should-have could still be workable if you’re ok with an older version in Wine, and if it’s a could-have, then you might be equally well served by GIMP. The rationale being that if you only occasionally need to photoshop an image, then any photo manipulation program will do.

Explaining this to you, I think it would be really good to add some examples to help people along.

@rlengland I checked it while working on my draft and apparently the W stands for ‘Won’t Have’, although my SCRUM Master also gave it a more positive spin by calling it ‘Would have’.

I have no objection to the concept — we just better explain the acronym in the article. :slight_smile: