The Switch I Kept Delaying
For a long time I had this plan: one day I would properly move to Linux. Not just install it, try it for a few days, and quietly go back to Windows. Actually use it as my main system.
That finally happened. I set up Fedora 44 Workstation as my primary OS on my ASUS VivoBook. Windows 11 is still there on a 100GB partition. I kept it as a backup, but I have barely touched it. Fedora is where I work now.
This was not some big dramatic thing against Windows. Windows worked well for me through college, competitions, internships, GSoC, and plenty of late nights. But at some point I started spending too much time managing the system instead of actually working on it.
I wanted something that would just let me do my work.
Why I Chose Fedora
I did not want a distro that felt too raw or needed a lot of manual setup before it was usable. I wanted something modern, stable, and sensible out of the box.
Fedora turned out to be exactly that.
What made it work for me:
- GNOME on Wayland is clean and gets out of the way.
- Fedora Workstation does not come loaded with unnecessary apps.
- Reasonable defaults so I do not have to configure everything from scratch.
- Good developer tooling: the tools I use are easy to set up.
- btrfs feels like a solid choice for a modern system.
Fedora has opinions, but they mostly make sense.
First Week on Fedora: Calm and Focused
The first thing I noticed was how quiet the system felt.
No pop-ups on startup. No prompts pushing software at me. GNOME opened and everything just stayed calm. No sense that five things were running in the background trying to get my attention.
I know that sounds like a small thing, but it made a real difference to how it felt to use the machine day to day.
The system I am running right now looks like this:
And honestly, the setup is simple without feeling incomplete.
Another thing I noticed quickly was thermals. On Windows, this same machine used to heat up a lot during long sessions. On Fedora, it still gets warm under load, but it does not heat up as aggressively in my normal day-to-day workflow.
What I Actually Needed From My OS
This was not about becoming more “technical” by switching to Linux.
It was about reducing unnecessary friction in my daily work.
Most of my day involves:
- research and development work
- open-source contributions
- writing
- reading papers and blog posts
- juggling browser tabs, terminals, editors, and notes
For this kind of workflow, what I care about most is:
- things working predictably
- a good terminal experience
- straightforward package management
- fewer distractions
- a desktop that does not demand attention
- reliable development tools, especially for AI-assisted coding
Fedora has been solid on all of these so far.
My daily use load is not light either. I often have more than 30 Chrome tabs open in groups, large workspaces in VS Code, and 2 to 3 separate VS Code windows active at the same time.
I usually avoid Electron apps, but I still keep Slack and Discord open in the background on Fedora to test how the system behaves. Even with that, everything remains smooth and stable.
GNOME and Wayland Are Better Than I Expected
I thought GNOME might feel too stripped down for me.
It did not. It just feels focused.
For those unfamiliar: GNOME is a desktop environment. Think of it as the visual layer that sits on top of Linux. It handles your windows, buttons, menus, and how everything looks and behaves. It emphasizes simplicity and accessibility over customization.
Wayland is the underlying protocol that GNOME uses to communicate with your graphics card and input devices. It’s the successor to X11 (the older protocol), and it’s designed to be simpler, more secure, and more efficient for modern hardware. Running on Wayland means everything is smoother and more responsive, with less overhead and more direct GPU handling.
GNOME and Wayland together made my laptop feel lighter in daily use. Fewer visual distractions and smoother rendering make long work sessions much easier.
What that means in practice: The workflow takes some getting used to, but once you stop fighting it and work with how it is designed, it clicks. The workspace system, the search bar, and the general lack of visual clutter all work well for longer work sessions.
I am genuinely happy with it.
The Best Part: It Just Feels Reliable
This is probably what I appreciate most.
On Fedora, I feel more in control of what is happening on my machine.
The terminal is a natural part of the workflow, not something I open only when something breaks. Installing packages is straightforward. Configuring things makes sense. When something goes wrong, I can actually debug it instead of staring at a vague error message.
It changes how it feels to use a computer day to day.
Hardware Support: No Manual Driver Hell
This is my first laptop. When I first got it, I was cautious about installing anything on it. The warranty was still active, and I did not want to mess things up or experiment too much.
A few years have passed since then. The warranty expired, I have become more confident with technical work, and I finally felt ready to try something more serious. My first dual-boot setup was nerve-wracking. I worried that my keyboard or touchpad might not work. I prepared myself for driver installation hell.
Turns out, my touchpad did not work on Windows. I had to manually install its drivers. After that, I decided to do a fresh 100GB Windows installation on the other partition. During the Windows setup, I got stuck on the WiFi connection step. I could not proceed without connecting to WiFi, but WiFi networks would not appear at all. No WiFi driver was installed, and my laptop did not have an ethernet port. I was stuck until I realized I could tether my mobile internet over USB.
Even after that, the touchpad gave me trouble again. I uninstalled and reinstalled the driver, tried restarting, even did a hard power off and on. Nothing worked. Then I plugged in an external mouse and unplugged it. My touchpad suddenly started working. I still do not know why that fixed it.
On Fedora, all my hardware worked out of the box. Keyboard, touchpad, everything just worked. The only thing that did not work was my fingerprint sensor. But I found a community-provided driver, a compatibility shim and patched proprietary driver for FocalTech FT9366 fingerprint sensors on modern Linux distributions. Few command to install it, and fingerprint authentication was working too. You can find it here if you need it.
That experience alone showed me the difference. On Windows, I spent an afternoon troubleshooting hardware basics. On Fedora, I spent five minutes finding and installing a community solution, and I was done.
AI Tools and Docker Work Better Here
One of the biggest surprises has been how much better AI tools work on Fedora.
On Windows, I was constantly running into escape character issues with tools like Claude Code, Codex, and Copilot when they tried to execute commands. The terminal escaping would break, commands would fail silently, and I’d lose time debugging whether the issue was with my code or with the tool.
WSL was better. Docker worked smoothly there in a way it didn’t on native Windows, but WSL still crashed periodically and felt like a layer of fragility between me and the actual work.
On Fedora, all of this just works. AI agents run commands without escaping issues. Docker is stable and performant. No crashes, no mysterious failures.
I also set up 16GB of swap space, which keeps everything running smoothly even when I have multiple heavy processes going. The whole system feels clean and responsive, even when I’m pushing it.
This has actually changed how I approach coding. I can rely on these tools more consistently, which makes development faster and less frustrating.
Claude Code, Codex, and Copilot often ran into command escaping issues.
Docker worked better in WSL than native Windows, but WSL still crashed sometimes.
I often had to debug the tooling layer before I could debug my actual code.
AI tools run shell commands more reliably without escape-related failures.
Docker feels stable and predictable in daily use.
With 16GB swap configured, the system stays smooth even under heavy workloads.
Was Everything Perfect?
No.
Any move to Linux comes with an adjustment period. Some things that worked on Windows need to be replaced. Some habits do not carry over. Some software choices need rethinking.
But nothing was bad enough to make me want to go back.
Why This Move Matters to Me
I think the timing was right.
In college I needed a system that just worked without me thinking too much about it. Now, after a few years of open-source work, research, and spending most of my time in terminals and editors, I care more about how the system actually behaves and less about how polished the surface looks.
Fedora fits that better than Windows did for me. It is modern, stable, and not trying to do too much at once.
Will I Stay on Fedora?
Switching from Windows 11 to Fedora 44 has been a good change. Not a perfect one, no OS is, but a genuinely better fit for how I work.
Right now, Fedora feels calm, fast, and clean. It does not get in the way.
That is about as much as I ask from an operating system.
If you have been thinking about making this switch for a while, just try it properly. Not for a weekend. Actually commit to it for a few weeks. It starts making sense once you stop comparing it to what you were used to.
I am working on a follow-up post with the exact Fedora setup I am using right now, including tools, terminal choices, shell setup, and quality-of-life tweaks.
For me, Fedora is what I will be on for a while.