A while ago, I would have considered Ubuntu to be the best-suited OS for people of all types; Developers, System Administrators, and everyday users. It had a plethora of software available to it, and Ubuntu seemed to work with almost every new machine. The desktop was stable and rarely broke on you.
This seems to not be the case anymore. Looking at the latest releases of Ubuntu, the bugs are so much and so often that I have colleagues ending up looking for alternatives.
One of those alternatives is Fedora. Fedora in my humble opinion, has flourished greatly. The releases keep coming every 6 months, and we are now at version 43.
Let’s go over some points I would consider bringing Fedora in the lead.
1. Closer to upstream #
As Fedora releases every 6 months, newer packages are finding their way into the OS much faster than Ubuntu. With their LTS releases, Ubuntu gets a new “stable” version every 2 years. That approach is fine in itself, but it contributes to stale packages and out-of-date software, often blocking people from doing their work.
2. Snap vs Flatpak #
Snap vs Flatpak is a debate that never ends. Although both approaches have their issues, I’ve found working with Flatpak to be a much more enjoyable experience than working with snaps. Everywhere I have a desktop, even one that doesn’t run on Fedora I use Flatpak for every communication or entertainment app. Don’t let me start on the loopback devices snap create in your OS.
3. Software Availability #
It used to be the case that every big and small developer and company would have a deb package ready for you to install. These days, almost everywhere you look, there is an RPM available for you to use. This is a tale tale sign people are adopting the Red Hat ecosystem.
4. Stability #
Somehow, even as Fedora releases every 6 months a new release it seems to be a great deal more stable than Ubuntu. Maybe it’s related to the upstream patches coming in faster. I’ve found Fedora desktop to be way more stable.
5. DNF vs APT #
Now, this may be a controversial statement, but I have found DNF to be way more stable and performant than apt. I’ve never experienced issues with it, and I like the workflow with DNF more than APT.
I think maybe my experience with DNF might be way better because I rarely need a package that doesn’t exist in the remote repos. A caveat to this is RPM Fusion, second to the AUR RPM Fusion has a plethora of packages. It’s very rare that I need to look into copr a PPA alternative for Fedora.
Using Ubuntu, I always seem to end up in some PPA repo where I need to download packages to do my job. It works, but it can cause upgrade breakages.
6. Distro Upgrades #
There is no dispute on this one; the previous point hinted to this, but DNF and Fedora in general is way better at handling upgrades. I cannot tell you, dear reader, how many times I’ve struggled with upgrading Ubuntu as some package broke in APT and now I have to run:
sudo apt install --fix-brokenOr something broke the downloads of the packages, and now you need to clean APT to retry the update. It seems to me Ubuntu is very prone to upgrade and update failures, making me and my colleagues very hesitant to upgrade.
In stark contrast, Fedora has managed to be the best experience I’ve ever had with an OS update. I usually do them via the Terminal. Is so simple:
# NORMAL UPDATE OF THE SYSTEM
sudo dnf upgrade --refresh
# OS UPGRADE
sudo dnf system-upgrade download --releasever=43
sudo dnf5 offline rebootIt just works. Your Fedora reboots, you see a beautiful upgrade screen, and you get to log in directly to the new version of your OS.
7. Reliability #
I’ve been using Fedora since version 28, and I can tell you I haven’t had an issue that was a deal breaker for me. I cannot state the same for Ubuntu!
8. Newer Kernel #
Well, this is a big one. With new kernels, you get better/newer drivers, performance optimizations, and better support for your newer hardware. You can mess with your kernel with some tools in Ubuntu and force it to use a newer version, but it would cause you to have more problems than you solve. The point of the blog post is: We want a stable OS baked and delivered as is.
9. Server #
Want to run a clean, minimal server that will upgrade when the next version comes. Choose Fedora, yes, the upgrade cycle will be more often, but if you are looking for the stability of a LTS, you can always just run Red Hat. The clean upgrades from version to version are a great strength for a server if you are running a lot of VMs Fedora is a great choice. With CoreOS for container workloads, IOT for minimal deployments on edge devices, and Server for VMs. Fedora has you covered. Once the time comes to upgrade, it will work. Not so much in Ubuntu land. I’ve had servers fail to upgrade on me making me troubleshoot for hours. Most of the times I just spin up a new VM with the latest LTS Ubuntu and just migrate the workload.
Automate everything with Ansible, and your regular updates become just a dashboard you need to check. Hey, maybe use cockpit in comes built-in with Fedora Server.
10. Flavours #
Maybe you are a user of Kubuntu or any of the other derivatives of Ubuntu. Well, I am here to tell you that Fedora has lots of official derivatives. You have an official KDE version of Fedora. There is also a cloud optimized Fedora, an IOT and Server versions.
Conclusion #
In conclusion, I would say give Fedora a go as your workstation OS. I can bet you you will have a much better experience than Ubuntu.