Fedora Kinoite app support and stability (vs Kubuntu)

Find Me a Distro
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I’m not sure this is the best place to post this, but I’m not really that of an advanced user, which is also the reason I thought about an immutable distro.

To clarify, I’ve used Ubuntu for around 2 yr, but I didn’t really get involved into it or used the terminal more than strictly necessary. So, I wanna avoid the terminal as much.

In a couple of days or less, a Thinkpad P16s Gen 2 that I ordered should arrive, and I had to decide what distro to install on it. Since I like KDE Plasma, I thought about Kubuntu, because it’s stable enough, but still not as “dated” as LTS versions. But today I found an article on XDA praising Fedora Kinoite for its ability to roll back versions if something goes wrong, but after some research, it looks like you can only install Flatpak apps and, from what AI said, it’s also less user-friendly (why?).

So, how can Kinoite compare to Kubuntu, and what would you recommend to me? If I can’t figure out, I’ll just install Kubuntu and that’s it, 'cause I don’t wanna have to install another distro again (having other stuff to do). But I don’t wanna miss the better option, if Kinoite or another Plasma-based immutable distro is so.

TY for reading this wall of text! :slightly_smiling_face:

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I don’t have any hands-on experience with either distro.

That version of Fedora sounds interesting. It’s like the Silverblue version but with KDE apparently. The theory is good. If the only option is to use Flatpaks, maybe that’s not the best. But Flatpaks are becoming more and more popular. You probably wouldn’t have too many apps you couldn’t install that way.

I use Ubuntu, but with Gnome. Kubuntu would have an abundance of apps available and lots of support online if you had any issues. They would both do a good job for you I would think.

The safer choice would probably be Kubuntu. It’s older and established. Fedora Kinoite is much newer. I would worry about reliability, quirks, and support. But it sounds very intriguing.

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I would stay with Kubuntu.
Fedora is a rather specialised distro… it is not a good choice for beginners.
You would find yourself doing more command line work in Fedora.

Kubuntu is fine. Other good choices for beginners are Mint and MX

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Yes, true. For example, the Flatpak version of Floorp sometimes has bugs that the deb version doesn’t.

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If I think more, there’s a balance with each distro. Like, Kubuntu is not immutable/atomic, but it only updates every 9 months, so you don’t have many upgrades to worry about.

On the other side, Kinoite updates very often, so I think this is their way to help you repair the breakages made by the upgrades.

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Why? Because there are more apps that I have to install from the CLI?

Or is it less stable?

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Yeah, but it looks quite dated to me.

KDE Plasma is my favourite. Unlike GNOME, there are more things you can do from the GUI by default, whereas on Ubuntu, you have to install something to do that (extension or via the terminal).

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I think there is more CLI configuring needed. … I am not sure, I do not use Fedora myself. … I am following what one of our most experienced members @daniel.m.tripp says about Fedora.

You can generally install apps with a gui package install app like Synergy, but the moment you get into trouble, you need to use the CLI to sort it out.

If stability is important to you, stay with a Debian-based distro,

Your decision is not irreversible. You can always try one distro, and then scrap,it and install another.

Have you given thought to how you will do backups? Dont neglect backups, especially for personal data.

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Just compile LinuxFromScratch, and it will run for year’s!! All you have to update then is maybe Firefox or just run Waterfox, and skip all the Firefox baggage!!

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Well, that doesn’t sound very user-friendly, is it?

:slight_smile:

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You mean backup of my files, not the system, right?

For this, KDE Plasma has a built-in backup tool in the settings, and I’ll use it with a removable USB drive.

As @abhishek said in one article: “This is KDE, always caring for its kusers!”

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I frequently use Plasma, no matter which distro I’m using at the moment (MODICIA, right now). The Plasma desktop, with few changes, always works in an understandable way. By the way, I never use Arch. But then, my grandkids think I look quite dated as well.

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You want to use Linux, then build your own!!! Not really that much to it!!!

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That is a slight understatement. … maybe 6 months of CLI work … @NotANerd would not be shy about using CLI after that.

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Makes for a better Linux user!!!

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More educated at least, but maybe if everyone were so trained they might disagree a lot. That is what happens in research institutions… the more scientists the longer the arguments.
.

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Don’t KDE have their own distro? i.e. I’m sure there’s a distro just for KDE…

KDE Neon? I think it’s based on Ubuntu 24.04…

I kinda prefer LTS - just seems more stable… I was using Pop!_OS 22.04 for nearly 3 years…

I don’t think you miss much if you go for an LTS…

But yeah - there’s also Kubuntu…

I support RPM distros (servers) for my job - but I much prefer DEB / APT to rpm / yum / dnf…

And I’d agree - you’d probably need the terminal on a Fedora based distro… Me? I use the terminal all the time - it’s my main reason for running Linux in the first place… But in my experience - Fedora felt a bit “wonky” compared to Ubuntu or Pop!_OS… e.g. their default repos are missing some stuff that Debian would normally make available from their default repos (stuff you get in EPEL and RPM-Fusion - these have to be manually added - I don’t know how easy that is - is it 100% done in a terminal? Last time I added EPEL and RPM-Fusion - I did it in the terminal - I think using DNF commands).

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