I have tried Linux as a DD on and off for years but about a year ago I decided to commit to it no matter the cost. First with Mint, then Ubuntu and a few others sprinkled in briefly. Both are "mainstream" "beginner friendly" distros, right? I don't want anything too advanced, right?
Well, ubuntu recently updated and it broke my second monitor (Ubuntu detected it but the monitor had "no signal"). After trying to fix it for a week, I decided to wipe it and reinstall. No luck. I tried a few other distros that had the same issue and I started to wonder if it was a hardware issue but I tried a Windows PC and the monitor worked no problem.
Finally, just to see what would happen I tried a distro very very different than what I'm used to: Fedora (Kinoite). And not only did everything "just work" flawlessly, but it's so much faster and more polished than I ever knew Linux to be!
Credit where it's due, a lot of the polish is due to KDE plasma. I'd never strayed from Gnome because I'm not an expert and people recommend GNOME to Linux newbies because it's "simple" and "customizable" but WOW is KDE SO MUCH SIMPLER AND STILL CUSTOMIZEABLE. Gnome is only "simple" in that it doesn't allow you to do much via the GUI. With Fedora Kinode I think I needed to use the terminal maybe once during setup? With other distros I was constantly needed to use the terminal (yes its helped me learn Linux but that curve is STEEP).
The atomic updates are fantastic too. I have not crashed once in the two weeks of setup whereas before I would have a crash maybe 1-2 times per week.
I am FULLY prepared for the responses demanding to know what I did to make it crash and telling me how I was using it wrong blah blah blah but let me tell you, if you are experienced with Windows but want to learn Linux and getting frustrated by all the "beginner" distros that get recommended, do yourself a favor and try Fedora Kinoite!
edit: i am DYING at the number of "you're using it wrong" comments here. never change people.
Because it can't hibernate? (But then, not sure which distros can.)
I run Bazzite, which is Fedora Atomic, that hibernates just fine. In fact, so far it's the only one that does. Arch and Mint both would never come back from sleep.
Been running bazzite for about a month and.ooving it but, for me, it does not wake from sleep ever. Easily the most frustrating thing about switching to Linux so far
Huh. Might be hardware and I got lucky. I do agree that hibernate on Linux is mostly terrible, though I have had plenty of issues with it in Windows too. I think hibernate mostly just sucks
That has not been the case anymore for months. We have 3 different Fedora Workstation 40 computers/laptops and 1 Nobara laptop, and they all sleep and hibernate just fine, and wake up just as well.
Ok.
It's not an option out if the box for me on Fedora 40 but maybe it's because I started on 39 and upgraded later.
On my Fedora KDE install on 40, hibernate is now an available power option. The install has been in upgrade cycles since 35 at this point. I would imagine that barring different DEs showing different power options being a possibility, it is more on detecting hardware compatibility for functional hibernation.
Since Fedora 37 I had issues waking up from sleep and hibernation only on my laptop with an NVIDIA card, never on my 2 Ryzen PCs.
Since Fedora 40 it works everywhere now. I've always been on Gnome, so that could be a factor as well.