after using Ubuntu for 20 years (Kubuntu for 15 years), I am now migrating to Fedora. First machine, my laptop is now under Fedora 42. Others should follow in 2025-2026.
In fact, I have used Fedora for many years in virtual machines. I am especially developing and maintaining a library named gtk-fortran. I have VM with Fedora Rawhide for testing in advance new GTK libraries, compilers, etc. And a current Fedora for making releases.
So I have slowly learned to appreciate Fedora and GNOME. And finally decided to migrate after some testing on an old PC.
I am here to get help, to help others and share knowledge. Let’s go!
Welcome!! Why Gnome after using KDE Plasma so long? Fedora recently promoted KDE Plasma to a full edition from a community flavor. It now gets as much attention from Fedora developers as the Gnome edition. I’ve been using Fedora Plasma foer about 5 years now and LOVE it. Almost as cutting edge as Arch, but without the headaches. Most reliable distro I’ve ever run.
Yes, I am aware of that Fedora flavor. I switched from GNOME to KDE around 2010, probably when GNOME 3 arrived… I like KDE and have nothing against it, but now I have learned to appreciate the nowadays GNOME: I like its nice graphical design and its ergonomic (it is clear that great efforts are made on those aspects). There is a kind of simplicity in GNOME applications, with most needed options but not too much. A kind of purity…
Purity, for my purity I look to Sway WM. So mimimal, I’m nearly always the boss of my failures
My kids got on KDE the other day while I was troubleshooting and said ‘dad can we have Sway back?’
Except a short period of GNOME during the “KDE Alpha=Release” fiasco (along with Linus who was in the same situation afair ^^), I remain loyal to my KDE. It’s not perfect, but the best compromise for me. The great thing is the many possibilities we have, a flavor for everyone
I recognize that we have an increased stream of people from *Ubuntu to us
One of my reason to switch is that Fedora packages are more bleeding edge. It is a good choice for developers who need to stay up-to-date with latest libraries. And I want to have quickly the latest GTK libraries for my gtk-fortran project.
Another reason is that one of my main language is (Modern!) Fortran. In Fedora repositories you have three Fortran compilers available: GFortran (GCC), the new Flang, LFortran (still in alpha phase). And with Conda, it is very easy to install the latest Intel ifx compiler. So, four Fortran compilers are easily installable.
And of course, there are some annoying tricks in Ubuntu, for example Snap to install Firefox and Thunderbird. Another example: this year I tried to reinstall my Kubuntu system with a fully encrypted disk but never succeeded (bugs in the installer of several versions). It worked without problem with Fedora (well, I will have to understand btrfs and subvolumes).
