Hello,
I just purchased an AMD framework 13 and while I wait (im)patiently for it to arrive, I was wondering what Linux distros people here are using.
I've only ever use Ubuntu on desktop, but I think I'm ready to move away from it now, which I guess leaves fedora and mint as officially supported distros.
What have you tried? What are your experiences?
Mint if you are coming from Windows.
Pop!_OS if you are coming from Mac.
Pop!_OS on a Thinkpad has been my daily driver for five years now. Not a single problem, ever. Rock solid.
Have you tried pop on the framework? Have you had any compatibility issues?
Currently running Pop on my Framework with the Cosmic DE. Pop was rock solid before. Alpha software brings in bugs of course, but it is still surprisingly stable.
Just checked out cosmic. It looks fantastic! What kinds of bugs have you experienced?
A couple of weird things with displays every now and then, and I haven't taken the steps to get the fingerprint scanner to work. I also can't use the Proton VPN app, I have to install each VPN manually.
I do not have a Framework but it is my understanding that they are designed for maximum flexibility and compatibility. I doubt that you will have any issues.
Frankly, anything with KDE Plasma (like Fedora), is a pretty solid choice too for people coming from Windows.
Mint is my goto for newer Linux users, and users that want something that #justworks.
I use Mint on all my personal laptops with the default Cinnamon desktop environment and it's always incredibly stable.
Mint just announced a few weeks ago that they are partnering officially with the Framework team to make sure compatibility is top notch, so the already good compatibility will become even better over the coming months and years.
The only real downside with Mint, and specifically Cinnamon, is that it looks a little dated. You can get it looking pretty modern and clean, but it doesn't look nearly as modern and sleek as KDE Plasma or Cosmic. It doesn't look bad though, and honestly, when I need to just get work done, I don't need it looking ultra sexy-sleek.
Is Mint using Wayland? If not, how well does it work with touchpad gestures? I'm asking because at least on Fedora, when I try it on X11, it does not have the same level of advanced touchpad gestures as on Wayland.
They have an experimental Wayland session, but it is still in early beta and not ready for regular use.
I don't use any special touchpad gestures on my laptops, so unfortunately I don't know that one.
Ive been using Gnome with Fedora ever since I switched to Linux. So far it has been smooth sailing. I would say the choice of distro doesn't matter that much, both Mint and Fedora are very easy to use. Just pick one with the Desktop Environment you like the most. If you are not sure, test them on a Virtual Machine.
Oh yeah, I always forget about that website. It's quite good for testing out a lot of distros fast, but you need an account to have internet, you can't use keyboard shorcuts (idk if there is a way to make them work) and they are a bit slow. It's still worth a shot, though!
I started on 24.04, but I updated to 24.10 to get Plasma 6. I quite like snaps (enough so that I publish the snaps of several tools)
