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How well does Fedora handle proprietary software nowadays? For example the Nvidia driver, Steam, Rider or video codecs. I negatively remember their patent paran

How well does Fedora handle proprietary software nowadays? For example the Nvidia driver, Steam, Rider or video codecs. I negatively remember their patent paranoia regarding elliptic curve cryptography. My favourite feature of Manjaro (and presumably Arch) is how easily I can install almost any software from a single package manager (which supports the official repos, flatpak and AUR). While on Mint I had to mess with custom package sources, or install individual vendor provided packages which lacked auto-update.

mono442 5mo ago
there's a third party repo called rpmfusion for that
d3Xt3r 5mo ago
There's still a bit of manual work involved to install the codecs (and proprietary drivers if you need em), which is why I would never recommend vanilla Fedora to a newbie - but Fedora derivatives exist to address that issue. Ultramarine[1] is one such easy-to-use derivative, and for gamers there's Nobara[2] and Bazzite[3] (an immutable distro). [1] https://ultramarine-linux.org/ https://ultramarine-linux.org/ [2] https://nobaraproject.org/ https://nobaraproject.org/ [3] https://bazzite.gg/ https://bazzite.gg/
- red-iron-pine 5mo ago
  i've never really understood what bazzite offers that stock fedora does not. like steam works out of the box just fine on plain ole fedora 41, and my AMD card is supported without issue. runs CP2077 flawlessly. literally, steam out of the box is just adding rpmfusion repos, which you're probably gonna do anyway if you want stuff like vlc or other tools
  - d3Xt3r 5mo ago
    It's a lot more than just Steam, it's a custom kernel, custom CPU scheduler, additional drivers for game controllers, drivers for handheld devices and a bunch of other tweaks and tools (Bazaar, Lutris, MangoHUD, ujust scripts etc). But more than all that, the biggest draw for Bazzite is that it's an immutable distro with atomic updates, so updates "just work" and it's very very hard to break the system. And in the rare event you get a bad update, you can just boot to the previous two images right from the boot menu, no need for any commands or restores - just boot the image and keep using it without any worries. You can pin known good images too, so you know for sure you always have a working image you can boot into. And you have access to the previous 90 days of images (via Github), so you can switch to any old image (or the latest beta) for bug/regression testing, without needing to do lengthy backups and restores. All this makes it ideal for someone who just wants their system to work without worrying about updates and stuff, getting you a console-like experience on PC.
ChocolateGod 5mo ago
Just use Flathub on Fedora for anything proprietary including codecs. Leave dnf/rpm for system software / updates. Nvidia is pretty simple, you can either enable the driver via the UI or just follow the rpmfusion guide.

mono442 5mo ago

there's a third party repo called rpmfusion for that

d3Xt3r 5mo ago

There's still a bit of manual work involved to install the codecs (and proprietary drivers if you need em), which is why I would never recommend vanilla Fedora to a newbie - but Fedora derivatives exist to address that issue. Ultramarine[1] is one such easy-to-use derivative, and for gamers there's Nobara[2] and Bazzite[3] (an immutable distro). [1] https://ultramarine-linux.org/ https://ultramarine-linux.org/ [2] https://nobaraproject.org/ https://nobaraproject.org/ [3] https://bazzite.gg/ https://bazzite.gg/

red-iron-pine 5mo ago
i've never really understood what bazzite offers that stock fedora does not. like steam works out of the box just fine on plain ole fedora 41, and my AMD card is supported without issue. runs CP2077 flawlessly. literally, steam out of the box is just adding rpmfusion repos, which you're probably gonna do anyway if you want stuff like vlc or other tools
- d3Xt3r 5mo ago
  It's a lot more than just Steam, it's a custom kernel, custom CPU scheduler, additional drivers for game controllers, drivers for handheld devices and a bunch of other tweaks and tools (Bazaar, Lutris, MangoHUD, ujust scripts etc). But more than all that, the biggest draw for Bazzite is that it's an immutable distro with atomic updates, so updates "just work" and it's very very hard to break the system. And in the rare event you get a bad update, you can just boot to the previous two images right from the boot menu, no need for any commands or restores - just boot the image and keep using it without any worries. You can pin known good images too, so you know for sure you always have a working image you can boot into. And you have access to the previous 90 days of images (via Github), so you can switch to any old image (or the latest beta) for bug/regression testing, without needing to do lengthy backups and restores. All this makes it ideal for someone who just wants their system to work without worrying about updates and stuff, getting you a console-like experience on PC.

ChocolateGod 5mo ago

Just use Flathub on Fedora for anything proprietary including codecs. Leave dnf/rpm for system software / updates. Nvidia is pretty simple, you can either enable the driver via the UI or just follow the rpmfusion guide.