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?
Slightly off topic, but whatever distro you choose you probably want to use the kernel parameter
amdgpu.abmlevel=0because without it the display gets super washed out and low contrast when the laptop is in power saving mode which drove me insane until I figured out that parameter.Thank you, that’s good to know
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.
What type of touchpad gestures are we talking about? I’ve got a new FW13 in the mail, and I’m looking for a new distro. I was gonna go Mint or bazzite but now I’m not so sure
I can’t say whether this is a configuration issue or just how x11 is setup, but I was unable to get any gestures working for swapping desktops and showing all open apps. the only gestures working out of the box were scrolling, but it was not a smooth scrolling it was a “mousehweel simulation” scroll, with large jumps. Of course the jump size can be configured but that’s just a mititgation for an otherwise different gesture control. Using Wayland for me, on fedora (x11 was also on fedora) solved all the gestures issues, out of the box.
Thanks for this! I did ask in an old thread over on the framework community, but haven’t heard back. From what I read though, x11 definitely has gesture problems. Most people over there are running Mint or Fedora, with the Fedora Wayland people loving their gestures.
Supposedly Mint has announced they are dedicated to framework compatibility. But until they move to Wayland it’s hard to see how.
Thanks!
Edit: I’m lost apparently. I have another thread where I’m asking Linux distro questions. I thought this was that, sorry.
Thanks for the information, I’ll have to do some testing and see what I come up with.
Personally, fedora with Wayland is a great combo. I love Plasma and Wayland has not caused any issue on my side, despite rocking an nvidia GPU on my laptop (dell xps 15 from 2020). I spent multiple weeks playing Valheim on my laptop and it ran very well on Wayland, no issue. And that was early 2023.
I personally recommend it.
I would recommend you Aurora or Bluefin. They’re both the same, but one is KDE, and the other is Gnome.
They are pretty much indestructible, ultra-low maintenence (staged automatic updates, etc.), different branches, great quality of life tweaks and more included.
It’s a bit similar to how Android works, but powered by a common PC.
With the great touchpad both KDE and Gnome would shine due to their smooth gestures they offer.
What type of touchpad gestures are we talking about? I’ve got a new FW13 in the mail, and I’m looking for a new distro. I was gonna go Mint or bazzite but now I’m not so sure
