edit: I’m using Fedora Workstation 42!

I really like the ability to just search “sleep”, “shutdown”, “restart”, etc. Switching between windows and opening search using either the super key or a three finger swipe up is super handy, on Windows the button opens the start menu (where the search is horrible) and a three finger swipe up can open app switcher, where you have to hold your three fingers to go to another app.

Using GNOME extensions to see power usage, CPU usage, memory usage, etc. is very useful. Weird that the “extension list” addon isn’t a thing that’s on by default. Feel like being able to see all your extensions is a really important part of having extensions. Being able to see the clock at the top took a bit getting used to but makes so much more sense than having it tucked in a corner. I also like the integrated calendar, much better than Window’s version where you are unable to see any of your events, not even as a dot!

Using dnf and flatpak to install programs is very smooth and I like being able to update all my programs at once with just “sudo dnf update && flatpak update”! Being able to see the dependencies and progress bars and download speeds is really helpful too. I don’t need to search for programs anymore because of a thing called “fuzzy search”. It’s like magic!

GNOME’s UI looks much cleaner than Windows, everything is actually cohesive. It’s not a mix of flat and glass and clear and ancient. It’s all adwaita. (that’s what you call it, right?)

Something weird was not having the minimise and maximise buttons. I had to enable those myself, which is a bit odd. Now that it is enabled it works fine.

I also really like being able to easily customise themes (everforest) and icons (Papirus!). And if GNOME is considered “not very customisable” in the linux world, KDE, Cinnamon, etc. must be even more customisable! I’m happy with GNOME though, so I probably won’t switch DE anytime soon. Maybe when I get a new computer I could try out KDE.

App compatibility was no problem. All the apps I used before (thunderbird, obsidian, joplin, vscodium, godot, etc.) all have linux versions, and the ones that don’t (like SumatraPDF and AIMP) have linux alternatives. Okular and Gapless has been working great!

There were very few issues, but there were some nonetheless. OBS Studio footage was very choppy as hardware decoding wasn’t working, and I had to dig deep into forums to install drivers for my intel igpu. Now it works fine, so that’s good! I also had an issue with a VPN app, but they support an app called “Clash Verge”. They only note the Windows and Mac versions on their site, but clash verge has a linux app too, and it works quite well!

I don’t play many games, mostly Minecraft and some retro titles. mGBA works fine on linux, and Minecraft java edition supports linux. I’ve also tried a bunch of linux games like SuperTuxKart and Xonotic and, considering they were made around a decade ago or so (I think) they were really fun! My other games ran fine with Steam installed, Proton and Wine makes them run fine!

I’ll be sticking with the penguin as it’s fun, playful, and is much cuter than both the window and the apple. :D