Software information says you're already using Fedora ? Do you mean you want to switch distros ? If so, it'll be useful to say what you're looking for and why Fedora didn't fulfill those needs so we can recommend alternatives.
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I have distro-hopped before so i don't mind switching
I need a distro which is package-agnostic since i use a lot of old ooen source academic software and they alternate between being only supported on RHEL or Ubuntu
Fedora 39 is great except when i need to build the above mentioned software from source and i spend 2 hrs failing to match the dependencies from Ubuntu
Also want to improvey laptop's battery life, but i think i can't get it much better than in Fedora
Thank you for responding!
I need a distro which is package-agnostic since i use a lot of old ooen source academic software and they alternate between being only supported on RHEL or Ubuntu
Perhaps you should look into container solutions like e.g. Distrobox. You can basically install/run any package; just ensure usage of the correct container environment.
Fedora 39 is great except when i need to build the above mentioned software from source and i spend 2 hrs failing to match the dependencies from Ubuntu
If you're otherwise content with Fedora, then perhaps consider installing the aforementioned Distrobox; which happens to be found within Fedora's repos and thus one sudo dnf install distrobox away from being installed on your machine.
Also want to improvey laptop’s battery life, but i think i can’t get it much better than in Fedora
I'd argue that Fedora is not best for battery life, though. Minimalist distros tend to be a lot better at this. Installing auto-cpufreq in Fedora Silverblue on my AMD-powered laptop did come with significant improvements, so perhaps you could prolong your battery life by utilizing it or similar programs; think of TLP, thermald etc to name a few.
Thank you for the fast reply
I looked into distrobox and checks all the boxes but there is the issue of my lack of storage space(currently only 130 GB left out of 240)
Also thank you for the suggestions regarding battery life, will look into those.
I looked into distrobox and checks all the boxes but there is the issue of my lack of storage space(currently only 130 GB left out of 240)
It can definitely fill up space if you're not careful. Just ensure that only the minimal amount of containers and their respective images are on the system.
I would assume one container each for Ubuntu and Arch should suffice for most people. Sure; this will likely take up to 10 GB of extra storage in total (eventually), but foregoing this solution means that you'd likely have to settle for Arch (because of the AUR) or something like Gentoo (because no other distro does compiling and building from source like Gentoo does).
If you feel particularly adventurous, you could also consider Nix and/or NixOS; though you'd have to ensure that said packages are available as a nixpkg. Nix can also be installed on Fedora; consider Determinate Systems' installer for that*.
You should be fine on basically anything. I have a similar-spec machine running Arch with KDE and it's rock solid.
Dell laptops are usually pretty good in Linux support afaik so go with whatever you like.
I would say debian but as others said, are you on hopping distros? Do you have any problem with fedora 39?
I have almost nothing to complain about Fedora, but more so about the dependancy hell i face while trying to build any of the software i require. I want something like NixOS but without the learning curve of learning config file syntax.
Fedora which you're already using. Install distrobox
Mint if you are a newbie.
ZorinOS if you have no idea what you are doing.
Gentoo if you hate yourself.
Debian for that false sense of security (Its motto is "outdated packages = more security").
Debian actually does security updates on those old packages.
Debian is more a "stable and boring" kind of thing :-)
Sorry, I had forgotten to mention in my post, i am looking for a distro for max performance.
If what you really seek is the max performance, then the answer is easy: Gentoo.
Arch or Gentoo, depending on if you have the time to compile everything.
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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).
Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.
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