Switcher 2026: Fedora Workstation ⭐️

I’ve used so many different Linux distributions this year that I’ve lost count, but Fedora Workstation 43 really stands out as a happy surprise. This is a stable, modern, and refined take on the Linux desktop, and for me, a welcome respite after a few less than successful adventures with other distributions.

There are different ways to measure the relative success of any Linux distribution, including hardware compatibility, software and services compatibility, familiarity in interfaces and interactions, subjective look and feel preferences, and a lot more. And to me, Fedora scores highly across the board.

So let’s jump in.

✅ Hardware compatibility

I installed Fedora on a 14-inch Intel Core Ultra (“Meteor Lake”) laptop with Nvidia RTX A500 graphics, 32 GB of RAM, and 512 GB of SSD storage. Fedora recognizes all that. The keyboard (including backlighting, using Print Screen as a screenshot shortcut, and so on) and trackpad (two-finger right-click, scrolling, etc.) seem to work normally.

Wi-Fi and Bluetooth work fine. The display’s native resolution (2560 x 1600) and high refresh rate (120 Hz) are correct. Power management is working fine, from what I can tell, as is sound. All the ports work normally, and Fedora recognizes the Thunderbolt 4 USB-C ports for what they are. I connected an external display and it works wonderfully.

Even more impressively, I can use the fingerprint reader to sign into the system. This isn’t unique to Fedora, but it’s still somewhat rare with Linux (and something I need to start tracking, come to think of it). That’s a big deal: Signing in with a password is nonsense. (Facial recognition is not available though the PC supports that in Windows; I don’t believe I’ve ever seen a Linux distribution that can support that.)

✅ Software compatibility

Fedora doesn’t do anything special for Windows switchers out of the box, but the bundled Software app is serviceable, and I believe that this distribution natively supports the RPM, DNF, and Flatpak app package formats. (The apt command line utility is there, too, and you can use the fingerprint sensor to authenticate with sudo, which is nice.)

Anyway, Fedora of course comes with all the basics, so it has a serviceable media player, text editor, and so on. It also ships with Firefox, which I’ve been using lately because of all the movement there. But the Software app has Chrome, Chromium, Brave, Microsoft Edge, and other browsers, and you can, of course, download the browser you prefer from the web easily enough.

I rely on Typora for writing, and instaling this app is always an adventure in Linux. But it’s right there in the Software app store and it installed and runs normally. Configuring Typora is likewise an adventure in Linux, in part because I have to install a custom font for the theme (iA Typora) that I prefer. But here, too, Fedora made things relatively easy: I just unzipped the theme download, selected all four fonts, right-clicked, and chose “Open with Fonts,” and they were installed. Nice.

Notion is not in Software, but it’s a web app, so I can run that in a Firefox (or other browser) tab or just install it as a web app using Brave (or whatever browser supports that), which I did. (That said, I can’t pin that to the dock for some reason, it shows up as Brave. Fortunately, I can find it with system searh.)

Slack is in Software, but Microsoft Teams, which has a web interface, is not. Clipchamp is a web app, so that’s good, and though I probably won’t need OBS Studio in Linux, that’s in Software too.

The photo/imaging editing thing is a problem, not unique to Fedora: I use Affinity and Microsoft Paint and neither is available for Linux. There’s The GIMP, of course, which I loathe but may need to figure out. But I’m looking at something called Krita that might be interesting; it’s in Software and there are versions for Windows and Mac too.

This isn’t a gaming laptop, but as I was writing this up I became curious (again) about playing games in Linux, so I just installed Steam from Software. And I had a curious experience. First, I was warned that the “steam devices udev rules” service wasn’t installed.

And then, when I signed in, I could see that this app is probably just the Windows version of Steam, given its Windows-like window controls. Steam lets you filter your library view by games that work with Linux, but that didn’t cull the list much or at all, and I assume that’s because you can use Valve’s Proton emulator to run many Windows games. That’s fine, but I was curious about Linux native games, if any.

In the end, I simply tested installing and running Alan Wake, as it’s a reasonably small download and it runs successfully on Windows 11 on Arm, so I figured it might be a good experience in Linux too. (Don’t try to follow the logic there.) And sure enough, it works well, with solid performance and (perceived) frame rates. I haven’t yet connected a game controller, but I will figure out that service error next as I assume that’s related. And install a few more games.

✅ Services compatibility

Like other Linux distributions, there’s an online services interface in Settings that lets you connect to Microsoft 365 (consumer and/or business) and Google accounts for email, calendar, contacts, and files, and then to things like IMAP/SMTP, WebDAV, and whatever else.

I used this feature to connect to my Microsoft account-based OneDrive storage through the Files app and it works fine. This isn’t full sync with Files on Demand, but rather a live view that requires you to be online, and it works fine for working with files and the like. I guess it’s a bit like accessing a network share. I pinned a few OneDrive-based locations (like my To-do folder) to the Files nav bar so I can get to them quickly, as I do in Windows and the Mac.

Speaking of which, I also connected to my NAS through the Files app via SAMBA (SMB). That connects immediately and works great, and I could likewise access my Synology-based folder locations this way, which I feel works better than the native Linux client, which is kind of a non-starter because it doesn’t have selective sync.

? User interface

Fedora uses the GNOME desktop, and I really like it, but there are some curious differences between its stock UI and that of Windows or macOS that might be confusing to some. (I know GNOME 50 just shipped, but Fedora hasn’t yet adopted this and is on version 49.)

As with many Linux distributions, you’re presented with a Workspaces (virtual desktop) view when you first sign in. This is a bit odd, to me, but it works a lot like Start in Windows: There’s a visible dock at the bottom of the screen with pinned app shortcut icons, but I don’t see any way to otherwise configure it for size or whatever. And you can just type to search for an app that way if you want; search also supports settings and files.

If you close that view (or launch an app), the desktop is about as sparse as can be. Fedora uses a system-wide menu bar at the top, with a Workspaces pill on the left, a date/time display in the middle, and Quick setting icons on the right. But the dock disappears, giving more on-screen real estate to whatever apps you run. I don’t see a way to leave it on-screen all the time, but I’ve gotten used to this minimalist interface, and tapping Start brings it up immediately anyway.

Fedora app windows don’t have Minimize or Restore/Maximize buttons by default, all you get is Close. You can double-click the title bar area to Restore/Maximize windows, of course, and less obviously you can right-click that same title bar area to access a “Hide” option that’s the equivalent of Minimize. Here, too, I don’t see an obvious way to change any of that, though it must be possible. This, too, I can probably get used to, honestly, though I do find myself still looking for the missing buttons more than I’d like. Not a big deal.

Conclusions

I probably shouldn’t have led with Fedora as my first Linux distribution write-up as the experience isn’t always this trouble-free. But I guess that explains it, too: I’m thrilled with this distribution for the most part, with the caveat that my hardware compatibility notes are specific to just one PC, and I need to test this more broadly. But this was surprisingly solid across the board. I can’t recall what I was expecting, but this is clearly a great choice.

Pros

✔️ Nice “it just works experience” with solid compatibility throughout

✔️ Attractive, minimalist desktop experience

✔️ Excellent day-to-day performance

Cons

❌ Installs Steam but not the underlying service needed for a controller

❌ A few GNOME-related UI oddities