2nd Distro : Fedora

After some experience with Ubuntu 11.04 and Unity, I was disappointed. The Unity interface did not feel very useful or friendly. So, the first I did was install Gnome 3 to try it out. I don't remember how I did it exactly, but if I'm not wrong, it was available in Ubuntu's repository.

I have a confession to make; I actually like Gnome 3. During this time, there is no Gnome-specific flavor of Ubuntu. I knew that I could install Gnome 3 on my laptop myself, but was quite unhappy with this. I was also worried that Gnome 3 in Ubuntu might not get any attention at all in the future.

So, I did the next best thing. I switched to Fedora 15. Fedora is okay, but takes a little more effort to get used to. To get and actually useful installation, I needed to do a quick web search for "things to do after installing fedora", which returned numerous results including step-by-step guides. Most of them will recommend disabling SElinux, which involves editing a config file (not NOOB-friendly, but not too difficult), and adding RPMFusion repository. The guides also explain how to enable some codecs to get media functionality. It is not as easy as a simple search for ubuntu-restricted-extras in Ubuntu.

During this time, Bumblebee project was still relatively new, and it was not so easy to set up as right now. Now, if you head over to https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Bumblebee, you are pretty much set. That time, I had to build bumblebee from source, configure acpi-call using dkms manually, and also set bumblebee to start at boot using systemd. The instructions on the project's git page was quite detailed, but was difficult for a NOOB like me to follow. So, how did I manage all that? one word : Desperation. Before installing Bumblebee, my laptop was burning through its battery like a champ. I was desperate for some longer battery life. (As I recall, it was already packaged and quick to install on Ubuntu, but I don't quite remember)

While starting a new install with Fedora 15 is not exactly easy and noob-friendly, it has its rewards. For one, Gnome 3.0 certainly looked better than Unity (well.. to me at least). Fedora also seemed to boot faster and run much more snappy too!!! Also, one more thing that used to work in Ubuntu, and still works in Fedora, is Hibernate. Yes, during the time of me testing fedora 15, both Suspend and Hibernate worked, but only Suspend worked on Ubuntu. Why? I don't know, I'm a NOOB. If you know the answer, comment below. Hibernate is quite important to me, because I like to be able to just close my laptop lid, shove it into the backpack, and just forget about it. And, the advantage of hibernate is that it does not drain your laptop battery.

Another thing I like about Fedora, is that they always offer the latest Gnome Shell DE, and relatively new Libreoffice packages; two of the most important things for me. Even today, I still like Fedora, and it is definitely one of my favourite distros. To me, it is a very solid distro. Lots of new packages that just work (most of the time), and very fast and snappy.