What makes them great, again?

Here at Linux Format Towers we’re always recommending both Ubuntu and Fedora, but sometimes we forget why…

There’s a school of thought that states Linux is also all about choice. Then again, there’s also the website http://islinuxaboutchoice. com which says different (and in very large blue letters, too). Hearsay and single-page websites notwithstanding, users certainly do have a choice about which Linux distribution to use. And sometimes that choice is difficult.

Ubuntu is often classed (along with its derivatives Mint, Pop!_OS, elementary OS and Zorin OS) as a beginner-friendly distro. Fedora, by comparison, is seen as a testbed for new (and especially Gnome-related) technologies that’s more suited to intermediate users. But this definition isn’t entirely fair. A beginner (with just a little bit of luck and no Nvidia hardware) would probably get on just fine with Fedora. And if they don’t then it’s unlikely they’d fare much better with Ubuntu, where the only obvious user-facing difference – an Ubuntu-themed dock on the left-hand side – is unlikely to provide any kind of moral support.

Stepping up a gear

Advanced users revel in both operating systems, too. The security-conscious among them approve that AppArmor (Ubuntu) and SELinux (Fedora) offer incredible granularity for locking down applications. They like the harmony that goes with having the same software stack on desktops and servers. Ubuntu gives users with exabyte storage requirements (or just people who like advanced filesystems) an experimental option to install on ZFS. Fedora now uses Btrfs (the Btree filesystem, annoyingly referred to as ‘butterfs’ by fans of dairy products) by default, which can likewise cope with data spread (butter?–Ed) across multiple huge drives.

Thanks to Snaps even users of the Ubuntu LTS can get hold of bleeding-edge software in a single click. Those seeking newer kernels and low-level system tools (only available as traditional RPM and DEB packages) will find them in Fedora and the interim Ubuntu releases, which is what we’re going to focus on in this sequel. Snaps are perhaps a little more versatile than Flatpaks, because they can package command line utilities as well as graphical applications, but both offer potentially increased security through sandboxing and isolation features. And both are much more convenient than fiddling around with third-party repositories.

Fedora introduces you to the new lateral workspace arrangement by logging you straight into the Activities view.

The Impish Indri is already one of our favourite Ubuntu animals. It’s a little taxing not being able to switch audio devices from the controls.