this post was submitted on 13 Jan 2026
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I currently use Linux Mint with Cinnamon which is fine. Ive been using it since early December. I had (and still have) some small issues, most of which Ive fixed.

I recently got a new GPU (a 9070 XT) and Im running a similarly cutting-edge CPU. In general, my whole desktop is made up of fairly new hardware.

So my question is: is there anything that speaks against switching to Fedora with KDE? That distro seems like it would make better use of modern hardware and be more “cutting-edge.” As I said, Mint is fine, but it seems rather slow when it comes to adopting modern technologies by comparison at least from a novices perspective.

As a disclaimer one of my best friends recommended I try it out (He has been using Fedora for years ) he also works in IT so should something go wrong I have someone a phone call away that could help me.

Main purpose of this machine is gaming

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[–] PorkrollPosadist@hexbear.net 15 points 13 hours ago

As a disclaimer one of my best friends recommended I try it out (He has been using Fedora for years ) he also works in IT so should something go wrong I have someone a phone call away that could help me.

The availability of this personal support is a better reason to try it than any of the mundane technical differences. That said, Fedora is my go-to choice for any machine which isn't a server and doesn't justify substantial effort in customization and maintenance. It has been my laptop OS for 10 years now.

[–] someone@hexbear.net 2 points 9 hours ago

I use Fedora's KDE release on my relatively-recent thinkpad. It's been very reliable and resource-efficient for me. Assuming the hardware autodetection for your machine is as good as it was on my laptop I think you'll have a good time. I'm just using the onboard Intel GPU though, I can't speak to how it'll handle your GPU.

[–] FloridaBoi@hexbear.net 9 points 13 hours ago (1 children)

Got that 9070 just before prices spiked huh

[–] 9to5@hexbear.net 8 points 13 hours ago

Oh yeah I have been eyeing a new gpu since october and nothing was pointing towards the prices going lower anytime soon. So I snagged the card with my christmas bonus.

[–] Inui@hexbear.net 6 points 13 hours ago* (last edited 12 hours ago) (1 children)

Just going to echo others in favor of installing Bazzite. At the very least, there's no downside to getting off Mint. Everyone has their own distro opinions, but stuff like Mint and Debian are objectively worse if you have updated hardware because of what you stated. I don't get why everyone recommends them when KDE is just as close to the Windows workflow as the Cinnamon desktop environment. You can even use Cinnamon on Fedora. Or the Cosmic desktop used in PopOS. There's a spin for just about anything.

They get things like kernel and mesa updates, which often have performance benefits, slightly to a lot slower. The 'stability' they provide can be given by atomic systems without relying on crusty packages and missing features.

I use Debian on my server (though an atomic server OS is just as good here), so I'm not a hater, but they just don't make any sense on a gaming machine unless your parts are old enough to be unsupported by more up-to-date distros.

[–] beanlover@hexbear.net 4 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

What's the deal with Bazzite? Not trying to start a flame war but I'm always skeptical of an OS that is "for gamers" - I want an OS that is built for getting my work done and browsing the web safely & securely, not a gaming console.

I think the Fedora Atomic Desktops are a wiser choice personally (which Bazzite is based on)

[–] Inui@hexbear.net 3 points 8 hours ago* (last edited 8 hours ago) (1 children)

Bazzite is one of a few projects from an umbrella group called "Universal Blue". They're separate but affiliated projects that use Fedora Atomic images as a base to create more tailored images. Developers from those groups have contributed a lot to helping app developers create functional Flatpaks, created a Flatpak-only store (Bazaar) that isn't slow as heck like Discover, and attend a lot of conferences and give talks about "cloud-native development", OCI containers, the atomic philosophy, contribute to upstream, etc.

The base Fedora images still lack of things that either should be preinstalled, like NVIDIA drivers, or that are helpful for the specific purpose of that image, like having Steam on the image, since Flatpak Steam basically doesn't work for VR and has other issues. Bluefin comes with stuff like Docker and Devcontainers already set up, for example, which is a pain in the ass to do on regular Fedora Atomic where you have to layer packages, which slows down updates and brings you further away from the base image.

Bluefin is primarily meant for developers, Aurora for general desktop use, and Bazzite for general use and gaming. They're essentially Fedora Atomic+. And Bazzite isn't a 'gamer' project in the same way as something like Omarchy. For one, many of the developers are trans and don't include fash software if they can help it. They recently just banned a problematic developer that was stifling development.

I recommend it because it 'just works' a lot more than the Fedora base images do because of all of the stuff that they include. There's a separate image for a 'console' experience that boots directly into Steam Game Mode and makes it functions like a Steambox/Steam Deck, and a desktop image that doesn't do that.

It should be noted that someone can rebase from regular Fedora images to any of the Ublue ones and back also. Though there's issues going from KDE to GNOME and back. But someone could try Fedora Atomic KDE/Kinoite, rebase to Bazzite, and decide to go back. Same with Silverblue and Bluefin or Bazzzite GNOME. So there's not really a downside and that feature is sort of why I love atomics.

[–] 9to5@hexbear.net 2 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

What would I gain from taking Bazzite over Fedora with KDE ? One thing im a lil bit worried about is longterm support. A "gaming" distro sounds like a good idea on paper for a dirty gamer like me.

[–] Inui@hexbear.net 2 points 6 hours ago* (last edited 6 hours ago) (1 children)

This is a pretty comprehensive list on their Github. Some notable things include multimedia codecs needed for some file formats to function out of box, xone driver pre-installed for controller support, Waydroid pre-installed for Android emulation if you like gacha games or anything, Steam ready to log in and go.

Are you familiar with Atomic desktops already? It's worthy of a whole other thread/debate, but you can get all of this yourself with Fedora KDE. However, the standard Fedora KDE is the 'old' way of doing things where you install packages from the Fedora repositories. These packages can sometimes conflict with each other if they're trying to install similar components, different versions, automatic updates, etc. Atomic distros primarily rely on Flatpaks, which are a universal packaging format that works for any distro instead of being specific to one like RPM is to Fedora, Deb to Debian, etc. But otherwise that's how people have used Linux for the past decades.

Atomic distros are relatively newer, though not actually that new or untested or anything, and function more like you might think of a phone. That is, the 'image' you install is a stock OS like Fedora with things bolted on. Every time you update your computer, the image is replaced entirely with the new one, but your saved settings, programs, personal files and all that are preserved. This is why I mentioned stability in my post, because either these updates are either successful or they aren't. There's no halfway or package conflicts that will break your computer. Flatpaks are sandboxed like Android apps to where they should theoretically only have permissions for what they need to access. I say theoretically because it isn't as robust as Android yet and is still being worked on, but the idea is that if something doesn't need your microphone, it can't use it without your explicit permission. If something isn't available in Flatpak, there are other methods to install them though. Otherwise, it's as easy as opening the app store and hitting Install.

A big advantage of them is something I mentioned in my last post where you can do something called "rebasing" where you're replacing your image with a different one entirely. So any programs you didn't install yourself and that were baked in get replaced. So you can go from Fedora KDE Atomic to Aurora to Bazzite to Zirconium to Origami Linux and back again with no to minimal issues without ever needing to reinstall your OS, move your files, re-get your software, etc. This is the beauty of the newer bootc technology. On a traditional non-atomic variant, you need to re-install the OS and mess with custom /home partitions.

I've been running Bazzite for about 2 years now, first with an NVIDIA card, and have minimal issues in that timeframe. Whatever issues I did have, I rebooted my computer and they were fixed in an update by the developers. Because it's downstream, they take whatever Fedora does and add onto it, so you're never behind on anything from the base OS. And as far as longevity, the developers are serious people with long-term goals who are well known in the Linux space, unlike the chuds who run projects like Omarchy and Hyprland. Even if the project were to die, you can just rebase back to Fedora KDE Atomic and everything is fine.

EDIT: I strongly dislike Discord, but the Bazzite Discord has all the developers in it and they and the community are constantly answering questions. You can also join their dev channels and see what they're cooking up under the hood.

[–] 9to5@hexbear.net 2 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

Damn you for making me indecisive :^)

[–] Inui@hexbear.net 2 points 6 hours ago (2 children)

I personally think atomic desktops are the way of the future and am 100% sold and on board with what these folks are doing because I think they simplify the experience to such a great degree that is sorely needed to better integrate new users. Others will tell you they hate flatpaks, atomic desktops don't let you tinker (they do, and also 'tinkering' often meaning fixing stuff that shouldn't need to be fixed manually in the first place), etc. Before Bazzite, I used Fedora, OpenSUSE, PopOS, and Arch the longest out of those. I learned a lot doing so, but the learning was unnecessary because it was like how to fix a GRUB boot issue with NVIDIA drivers that nobody should be having to begin with. So it ultimately didn't matter and kept me from actually using my computer. That's why I press them so hard. nerd

[–] 9to5@hexbear.net 2 points 4 hours ago* (last edited 4 hours ago)

OK. I guess 9to5 is switching to Bazzite this weekend.

[–] 9to5@hexbear.net 2 points 6 hours ago* (last edited 5 hours ago)

Oki. I will consider Bazzite or Fedora . I will switch from Mint probably this weekend. Might make an after action report 2 weeks later or soemthing (Thanks for your input)

[–] buckykat@hexbear.net 5 points 13 hours ago (1 children)

I recently switched from popOS to Fedora Workstation (GNOME) on a 9060XT/7600X system and have been very happy with it.

[–] 9to5@hexbear.net 2 points 13 hours ago (1 children)

Anything in particular you did dislike about PopOs or was their another reason for the switch ?

[–] buckykat@hexbear.net 3 points 13 hours ago (2 children)

PopOS is in the process of switching from a customized GNOME to their own in-house COSMIC DE, and their DE is not ready despite being a "1.0" release, being the default DE of their new major version, and being a year late.

[–] 9to5@hexbear.net 3 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

Oh I heard about the cosmic stuff. Shame its not ready for 1.0 yet it seems.

[–] buckykat@hexbear.net 2 points 12 hours ago

Specifically, it doesn't really have functional Chinese input yet, I had some game crashing that I haven't experienced in either the previous version of PopOS with the customized GNOME COSMIC or in Fedora GNOME, and I had some freezing when dragging Firefox tabs out to make them their own windows.

[–] chgxvjh@hexbear.net 2 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

I've tested KDE Plasma for 2 weeks until a few days ago and recently switched to COSMIC and imho it works better than Plasma. Not sure if I like it more than cinnamon though.

[–] buckykat@hexbear.net 6 points 12 hours ago (3 children)

My Personal Opinion (nobody is allowed to get mad at me about this) is that KDE is ugly

[–] beanlover@hexbear.net 2 points 8 hours ago

KDE has a severely inconsistent design language or something. Nothing is ever really sized the same across the board.

[–] 9to5@hexbear.net 4 points 12 hours ago (1 children)
[–] buckykat@hexbear.net 3 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

I specifically said nobody is allowed to get mad at me.

Were you on Windows before Mint?

[–] 9to5@hexbear.net 2 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

Yes I was on Windows 10 for quite a long time > then I tried Windows 11 then Mint and now Im gonna switch this weekend to Fedora.

[–] buckykat@hexbear.net 2 points 11 hours ago

There seems to be a prevailing belief that people switching from Windows to Linux should be guided toward DEs with a broadly Windows-like presentation, like Cinnamon and KDE.

I disagree and think a more drastic change could better promote learning, for the kind of person who voluntarily switches to a different OS in the first place.

What I'm saying is, maybe give Fedora Workstation a try when you switch to Fedora this weekend.

[–] chgxvjh@hexbear.net 3 points 12 hours ago* (last edited 12 hours ago) (1 children)

I would be ok with ugly but it also felt very slow. Even after disabling the animation delays that they decided to put everywhere for whatever reason.

I also had it crash like 4 times a day. There is something else wrong with my computer too but that's a lot more crashes than usual.

[–] buckykat@hexbear.net 4 points 12 hours ago

I found COSMIC to be unacceptably crashy, myself.

[–] CarbonConscious@hexbear.net 6 points 13 hours ago

Just stood up a Bazzite machine which is an atomic fedora distro, and I gotta say it's pretty sweet. Had some issues with permissions sandboxing for things like Syncthing, but that was due to some stupidity on my part, otherwise it's been really smooth and every single game I've tried to run so far has been flawless and runs great (aside from online multi stuff, ofc).

[–] decaptcha@hexbear.net 6 points 13 hours ago

I don't use Fedora but I run Bazzite on my gaming PC and it's based on Fedora. Have you checked it out? Easy to set up and purpose-built for gaming.

[–] S4ck@hexbear.net 4 points 12 hours ago

Just installed Fedora 43 KDE on my old surface book and its been great! Had to play around with the surface kernel but that was the hardest part.