Time To Go With A Non-Arch Distro For The ThinkPad, I Think

Lounge Linux lounge
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My main rig, a custom-built PC, is running EndeavourOS, which is my daily driver. My ThinkPad T14 Gen 1 is currently running CachyOS. While I really do like Cachy (probably my second favorite Arch-based distro), I think I want to move to a non-Arch distro for the laptop. Just for the different experience.

I didn’t want to go Debian or Debian-based, so after a bit of further distro investigation, I’m leaning towards GloriousEggroll’s Fedora-based Nobara. I think my weekend will include installing and setting up Nobara.

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Fedora is a solid system so Nobara I would think should be a good fit.

3

Did you consider Tumbleweed. It’s another rolling distro and is very reliable. I don’t like Fedora based because my worst Linux experience was with Fedora itself.

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That did cross my mind. If Nobara is not to my liking, Tumbleweed would be next.

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Lot of Deb distros are easy on the eyes but I am not a Deb person either.

Could try OpenSuse if you want a whole new learning curve.

Or simple Solus if you don’t want a new learning curve

I ran Fedora for three editions (37/38/39)…and while it is stable…it never dazzled me like eos..

I hate the idea of immutable but I never run from any trend. If I had a Lenovo laptop to repurpose I would entertain a non-Deb atomic immutable just to see what that linux life is like.

2 cents

6

Reading the title, I thought Debian but then I saw

I do multiboot some Arch systems plus Debian. I am liking Debian more and more.

Whenever I boot into Debian, it feels like I am on vacation. No more full-time job updating/maintaining may Arch systems.

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GhostBSD

8

I would veto Nobara from my experiences. Updates are very painful (and usually broken). I don’t mean daily updates but major release cycles.
I don’t know your pain threshold to really give you any recommendations :slight_smile:

9

Do you plan to actually game on the ThinkPad?

If not, there really is no reason to go with Nobara over Fedora KDE. Nobara might just come with codecs (not 100% sure), but honestly it’s such an easy “problem” to solve, it’s almost not worth mentioning. Nobara is essentially Fedora KDE with some gaming related pre-configuration and software.

In any case, Fedora is a very solid distribution, so I’m guessing you’ll have a nice time either way! :slight_smile: Just be prepared to not have to ever tinker with it (meaning that in the good sense) if you’re used to that with Arch based distros by now.

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Possibly. But there are other use-cases. It’s also useful for content creation, image/video editing and creation. Already set up with proper codecs, and such. Either way, I’m going to give it a shot. If I’m not happy with it, I might try vanilla Fedora KDE or Tumbleweed.

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Debian KDE is painfully stable and boring and my OS of choice for a “break glass in emergency” laptop device. It’s essentially the “I have a job and a mortgage” Linux, and I’m okay with that. My dream mobile device would be the Macbook M4 with Debian KDE..

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Sounds like a nice combo!

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Try them all, Fedora kde is great with no issues. OpenSuse Tumbleweed is good but mirrors are slow and OpenSuse Slowroll mirrors are so slow that Debian stable is likely 6 months a head in updates. :roll_eyes:

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I stick with Debian and Arch. I haven’t had a reason to go looking elsewhere since 2017.

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Maybe openSuse slowroll will catch your fancy.

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Please keep us in the loop on how it is working out! I did not try Fedora since it was called Fedora, I guess :laughing:
I am happy with EndeavourOS itself on my ThinkPad. Rock solid, with a few quirks I suspect no other distro would easily solve for me (sleep mode and external monitors). Debian is my go-to server distro, as I know a bit of what I am doing there :slight_smile:

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To meet both ends meet / A good compromise
Fedora 44 install moved from Python to C++.
DNF5 Package Manager is offering significantly faster metadata synchronization.

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Great read, been using Fedora for a few years to say the least. I’m not a Btrfs user, but I’m sure many folks are.

Likely going to save this for a rainy day and give it a spin in a VM.

:+1:

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Nobara is a gaming centered distro, why put that on your T14? I run EndeavourOS on my desktop as my main system and Fedora 44 KDE on my ThinkPad T14 Gen 6 AMD. Fedora is fantastic on ThinkPad’s and I can’t imagine a reason you’d want/need Nobara.

Good luck whichever way you decide to go.

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So I went with vanilla Fedora 44 KDE. Pleasantly surprised that the fingerprint sensor worked out of the box.

❯ sudo dnf upgrade                                                                                                                ─╯
Place your right index finger on the fingerprint reader
Updating and loading repositories:
Repositories loaded.
Nothing to do.
❯