Fedora 30/Ubuntu 19.04

Mayank Sharma wonders just what separates the two leading Gnome-based distros – besides their packaging formats…

- Mayank Sharma

Pitting Fedora against Ubuntu isn’t a straightforward task. You can’t compare them in terms of the included components since the list is almost identical. For instance, they both use kernels from the 5.0 release branch, and draw their desktops with Gnome 3.32; most of the highlights of both of these distros originate from these.

Kernel numbers don’t really have any importance anymore, and the 5.x series included in both doesn’t bring any headline improvements. However, it does boast support for Intel Cannonlake graphics and AMD’s Radeon RX Vega M graphics processor. Another highlight is the reduced impact of the performance hit that came with the Spectre and Meltdown bug mitigations.

While both distros have polished internals, Fedora 30 has been more vocal about its own and how that translates to improved user experience and performance. Staring with Fedora 30, all repository data will be compressed using the new and efficient Zchunk format. This translates to faster installs and updates, since DNF only downloads the differences between the metadata. One work-in-process improvement is the fluid, flicker-free boot process from boot to the login manager. It currently works flawlessly only on machines with Intel graphics, and builds on the hidden GRUB menu feature in the previous Fedora release with a new Plymouth theme.

Same, but different

Usability is one of the main keywords that separates the good distros from the rest. Fedora and Ubuntu have taken slightly different approaches for their default desktops, despite using the same graphical stack. The Ubuntu devs spend time and effort customising Gnome to maintain several aspects of Ubuntu’s discontinued Unity desktop. The most prominent is the always-visible Dock on the desktop, which on stock Gnome appears inside the Activities Overview.