fedora device firmware system update

5 reasons why Fedora is an awesome Linux distribution

This article lists five reasons why Fedora is an awesome Linux distribution and will get updated as I work. Writing a blog post about a topic is easy but usually doesn’t reflect the long-time performance of Linux. I use Fedora on a handful of workstations plus an ASUS Zephyrus G15 laptop and my Gnome settings and tweaks are included throughout this post.

Online Linux support forums are filled with help requests the community tries to fix. I can’t help noticing that I hardly have any issues with Linux and credit Fedora, plus Dell’s Linux-friendly hardware. My screen doesn’t tare, my hardware performs as expected and everything just runs day after day, with no issues. They say that Gnome 43 will be better but to me, Gnome is already perfect.

Two workstations have NVIDIA graphics cards and run graphics-heavy tasks such as Blender 3D flawlessly on Wayland. I haven’t used X11 all year and see no need to revert to it anytime soon.

With that out of the way, my goal is to document all of the great features Fedora offers. l write this as I work in order to provide a genuine review of actual real-time usage. For now, I start with my favorite Fedora features that I can’t live without.

1 Fedora device and firmware updates

Work is challenging. A website update, customer issues and long email chains to assist and remedy the problem plus the never ending refactoring of my software programs. There is little time to pay attention to security and luckily, I don’t have to. Linux users do take security seriously and if my operating system meets me half way, then I say that’s a feature worth praising.
This is why I rate Fedora’s automatic BIOS and firmware updates as my number one feature.

fedora device firmware system update
Fedora automatically keeps all of our systems up to date

2 Robust implementation of the Gnome desktop

The Gnome desktop has lovers and haters. I am part of the first group. For some reason, Gnome does everything I need and then some. Let me give you an example.

I don’t want any of the workstations here to access the internet unless I update the system. The only connection I need is local network access. Gnome makes this super easy. To use a specific workstation on the local network, I just open Settings > Network and click the cog wheel which is located to the right of the wired on/off switch.

linux no internet local network only
Use this connection only for resources on its network

This will open a new window from where I select the IPv4 (IPv6 is disabled) tab. The last option at the bottom of that window reads: Use this connection only for resources on its network.
Checking the check-mark will take a workstation off-line while still being accessible on the local network.

IMPORTANT! To activate the setting, the wired network must be switched off/on. This is done in the previous Settings > Network window (the one with the cog wheel).

3 Gnome makes setting up a local network super simple

If you are an older Linux user, then you remember the good old days of configuring Samba and mounting network shares. All of this is no longer necessary. To be honest, I haven’t used Samba in years. Instead, I just get a workstations IP address and then use SSH to connect to it.

Here is how I access another local workstation’s home directory. Gnome Files > Other Locations provides an input field to enter a server address which connects me to anything and anywhere I have credentials for.

If you have never tried this then open the Gnome file browser, select Other Locations and in the Connect to Server, enter the following string: ssh://username@192.168.x.xxx (replace the x’s with your actual IP) and press Connect.

Enter your user name (user name from the workstation you want to connect to) and password and the file browser will show the home directory of what ever workstation you have just connected to.
Web designers and programmers can use the same method to connect to remote servers on the internet. When I update content on a website, I usually log in right from within Gnome Files and open a Terminal remotely or even VS Codium to make any edits needed. Saving the file will update the remote content and show the new changes.
XFCE’s Thunar can do this as well.

4 Easy hosting of Virtual Machines

gnome qemu virtual machine
Gnome Virtual Machine Manager

Fedora and Gnome make hosting virtual machines easy. There are countless reasons why one would want to use virtual machines. Gnome comes with Boxes but I use QEMU KVM Virt Manager instead because it gives me more options to fine-tune a guest OS.

The image to the left (or above if you read this on a smartphone) shows two additional operating systems I have access to besides Fedora Workstation 36.
The first one is OSLServer which stands for openSUSE Linux Server and the second one is openSUSE Tumbleweed.

If you use virtual machines then you already know the advantages of have access to secondary operating systems and if you don’t, then you should read up on the advantages such setups offer.

IMPORTANT! Don’t go overboard and install tons of virtual machines just because you can. Keep in mind that, for security reasons, every virtual machine install must also be updated on an ongoing basis. My recommendation is to use a virtual server for hosting local copies of websites and maybe one spare distribution to play and experiment with. Your needs may differ.

Why I run openSUSE virtual machines

The Linux kernel is just about to advance to version six and with every new kernel version, we get new features. OpenSUSE, installed as a VM guest, automatically adjusts to the 3440x1440p ultrawide 21:9 resolution. As I said at the beginning, I have no issues with Linux because I test and keep only what works. I have little time for endless configurations and forum arguments that are mostly a waste of time.

Fedora makes setting up a virtual environment as easy as issuing this command in the terminal:

sudo dnf install @virtualization

PLEASE do not copy/paste the above command and instead, read the Fedora documentation page so you know what you are getting into. I only provided the command to demonstrate my point of Fedora being an awesome, top-notch Linux distribution.

5 Fedora comes with well-written documentation

Perhaps, the fact that Fedora comes with well-written documentation, is why Fedora 36 this is my daily driver. If Linux has a weak point then it is documentation but things have improved tremendously since the early days where there was little to none.

fedora documentation website
Fedora has a dedicated, well-written documentation website

If you work in 3D animation, 3D Printing, web design or programming then Linux has a lot to offer. There is much more to Linux than I can possibly say here. If your hardware is Linux compatible then the user experience is unmatched. I can’t remember the last time I had down-time because of some issue. All machines perform 100% all the time.

My Zephyrus G15 laptop (2021 model) runs Fedora exceptionally well. Recently, I tried to install openSUSE Tumbleweed but quickly realized Fedora is my number one for a reason.

I think that over the next days and weeks, additional Fedora features will get added to this post. So what about YOU? Do you use fedora and if yes, does it perform amazingly well? Please leave a comment and let us know. OK, back to work. The Fedorum YouTube channel videos need some attention and I can’t wait for the channel to go live next month. Thank you for your time.

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