I somewhat recently posted about ‘A Hobbit’s journey in Linux, So far…‘ in where I listed a few of the Linux journeys I’ve been on with using Linux as a daily driver.
At the time of that post, I had made a move to Fedora from a recent attempt at the use of Debian. I loaded up the Fedora 41 KDE spin and was literally enthralled by the operating system, Fedora brought to the table.
It was fast, it was shiny, it had new Linux Kernels, new software packages, you know, “The World is your oyster!” kind of mantra.
Over the last few months, I worked my way through the Fedora 41 KDE spin, and upgraded to Fedora 42 KDE Plasma Desktop. It would seem the KDE spin became so popular that it was decided it would get promoted to more than just a spin! I was thrilled at the news.
Fedora quickly became my favorite Linux distro to date, despite quite a bit of hate it gets from the Linux community at large. It made use of Wayland, from all I could gather it seemed to perform better. Save for the update process, mind you. It requires about as much rebooting as Windows in that aspect. At least in my personal opinion.
Alas though over time and use of Fedora 42, I came to the realization that the once perfect Linux distribution for me was a bit of a facade. I came into Fedora 41 fairly late into its life cycle. Everything I was making use of at the time was stable and working.
What I found in Fedora 42, was the aggressiveness at which they update seems to put some of the devs of software I use a bit behind the curve. I had my remote desktop software break on me twice, the printer software I use break on me with no visible resolution in sight for some time. That printer software being a Fedora package even from the HPLIP software branch.
What I slowly started to realize was for all the bells and whistles, and everything I loved about the Fedora distribution, it likely wouldn’t really be able to stay my daily driver indefinitely. Initially, I was in a bit of denial. I knew I had upgraded to Fedora 42 KDE Plasma Desktop from Fedora 41 KDE. I thought perhaps a bit of the instability I was met with might be due to that. I performed a fresh install and some of the issues I was encountering went away. For some time at least.
Now, I don’t blame Fedora’s team for the issues per se. I realize there is a lot of factors that go into the new release, and I’m sure I wasn’t the only person to encounter some issues with the latest version. I didn’t find a solution for the HPLIP software as the site for the software didn’t work for me, and the only available install of the application was a Fedora system package which was broken on two different devices.
I’ll be the first to admit there are certainly some things I will miss about Fedora. The bells and whistles it brought to the table were certainly nice, the performance was outstanding, the fact that I could use the KDE desktop environment was also a huge plus for me.
I figured it was only a matter of time before I found that catastrophic update on Fedora and I’d either spend a day trying to resolve it or be forced to head back to Linux Mint after a few failed attempts in any case.
All that being said, ultimately, I just came to the conclusion that it was not meant to be for ‘me’. I need a more stable life cycle in the Linux distribution I choose. Prior to trying Fedora, I told myself, if I couldn’t find a Linux distribution I liked that fit my needs for both work and play, then I would gladly head back to Linux Mint.
Last week on Friday, I decided the time had come to fulfill my promise of just that. I logged into my work VM on my laptop (which I had already moved back to Linux Mint), backed up my data on my desktop, and got to work moving back to Linux Mint.
To be fair, I did have my desktop back up and running enough to game on Friday evening before it was our usual time. However, I got side tracked with an issue installing Lutris, and I’m kind of stubborn. Instead I spent the majority of Friday evening working on that while chatting with Kilen in Discord. Kilen was occupying his time playing Sons of the Forest in any case, so I figured I might as well find a way to get the Lutris situation resolved. Hopefully, before Saturday so I’d be ready to game once the remainder of the gang made their way to their desks for a session of whatever game we decided to play for the day.
I would like to clarify, that it was never that I didn’t love Linux Mint as well. It’s one of my favorite Linux distributions. Obviously at this point, it is back at the top, but even prior it was still very close to my first choice and/or second while I was spending my days in Fedora.
There were certainly things I missed about Linux Mint while using Fedora as well mind you. It performs great, just about everything you try to do runs out of the box, finding software & the installation of said software tends to come easier on a Debian based OS for example. The community for Linux Mint is incredible, and it literally makes things so easy in most cases.
At the time, I thought I wanted to use ‘newer’ (not completely bleeding edge) Linux Kernel and software packages, and I had a spell where KDE become one of my favorite desktop environments. What I learned is what I want and what I need are not always the same thing. Linux Mint met all of the needs I have for both work and gaming, and it is in fact a fantastic Linux distribution.
If all I did on my desktop was game, I could likely make Fedora work and just get by waiting for the fixes for applications I use to resolve via bug fixes, etc… However, as I stated before, I did miss things about Linux Mint as well, and ultimately what I found in my journey was there is no ‘perfect’ Linux distribution out of the box. There are compromises, sacrifices, and benefits to them all. You have to weigh all the choices out there and pick the one that best fits your needs, or… learn to build a Linux distro on your own.
I don’t have the desire to dive down that rabbit hole in the slightest. I enjoy tinkering after all, but I enjoy tinkering when I want to do so, and not out of necessity.
Linux isn’t the operating system for everyone. But it’s definitely an operating system I’ve come to love, Linux Mint just makes that transition all the more easier for me to adjust, and I’m happy to be home again.
Game long my friends, game hard! 🙂
