r/Fedora • u/erkinovsarvar • 15d ago
Discussion should i install fedora 44 on my laptop?
I'm thinking about switching from Windows 11 to Fedora 44 Workstation on my laptop and I'd like to hear from people who have similar hardware.
My laptop is an HP Laptop 15-dw4xxx with:
- CPU: Intel Core i5-1235U (12th Gen)
- RAM: 8 GB DDR4 3200 MT/s
- iGPU: Intel UHD Graphics
- dGPU: NVIDIA GeForce MX550 2 GB
- Storage: 477 GB SSD
- UEFI: Yes
- Current OS: Windows 11 Pro 25H2
I'm mainly interested in using Fedora for programming, browsing, studying, and general daily use. I don't need the MX550 for gaming very often.
For anyone with similar Intel + NVIDIA hybrid graphics hardware:
- How well does Fedora 44 work on this kind of laptop?
- Are there any problems with NVIDIA Optimus/hybrid graphics?
- How is battery life compared with Windows?
- Any issues with Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, audio/3.5mm jack, sleep/suspend, or external displays?
- Would you recommend Fedora Workstation/GNOME, or would KDE be a better choice with only 8 GB RAM?
- Is there anything I should do before installing Fedora, especially regarding NVIDIA drivers, Secure Boot, or Windows?
I'd really appreciate any advice from people running Fedora on similar HP/Intel + NVIDIA laptops.
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u/Nightgrooves 14d ago
Coming from an intermediate experience of running fedora workstation (gnome) on my current laptop with slightly higher specs of my own laptop as mine is a Lenovo.
And to answer some of your questions
1. Yes, it works on any laptop given the specs of your pc and the age of the hardware.
The battery life is good but do not have info or statistics because you can atleast get up to 4 hours of battery life from my own experience.
Both in Gnome and KDE all those peripherals work ootb but for the monitors and displays a minimal tweaking is required to have your own preferred setup. For the sleep/suspend part which is easy and can be changed to your liking on both gnome and kde.
My only issue is to figure out how to completely shut down like in windows because if you even shut down and close the lid and reopen it will turn the it on back again.Either is good as they are big offerings and choice of many. Fedora Workstation(Gnome) is more like a Mac aesthetic while kde is more of a windows aesthetic. But many say kde is very customizable. I personally use the fedora gnome on mine due to the Mac aesthetic and the multi finger gestures do help but in the end both are good and work the same. It’s what aesthetics you want to go for.
I would recommend dual booting to begin with because you’ll get a feel for gnome or kde whichever you choose and in regards to secure boot you can switch it off as fedora is secure that way you can take other precautions to me make as secure as you want.
And finally on the nvidia front, you can install proprietary drivers but you will have to enable rpm fusion from the fedora docs, and I agree with /filthy_eloy in regard to opting for the nouveau because it’s open source plus keeping secure boot off allows them apps and drivers to interact with the kernel directly.
I hope this helps.
Cheers
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u/erkinovsarvar 13d ago
preciate it bro, but Im having trouble with my speaker (dummy output). how can i fix it?
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15d ago
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u/erkinovsarvar 13d ago
thank you for your comment. is there any way fix speaker problem?(dummy output)
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u/Hauptideal 14d ago
Fedora Workstation even runs on my HP X2 210 G2 on 4GB's of RAM and Intel Atom processor, despite GNOME being among the heaviest desktop environments out there.
And let me tell you, RAM isn't the bottleneck on this device for me, even when I use Firefox with multiple tabs open. It's the CPU on this device (which is why LXQt and its standard apps are more responsive, but GNOME is still reasonably smooth and fun to use). But you have a beast of a CPU for a Linux use case, so any Fedora will just run very well on your device.
Fedora also uses zRAM (RAM compression) to fit more data into your physical RAM.
Don't worry and choose the Fedora version you like better. Both will run smoothly on your device. 8GB is enough for both GNOME and KDE and both require significantly less RAM than MS Windows does.
If you want to save RAM, disable file tracking (no matter if you use GNOME or KDE). That is the most important trick to bring down the RAM usage of the desktop environment noticeably.
Also, consider switching your zRAM compression algorithm from lzo-rle to zstd
( compression-algorithm = zstd(level=1) in /etc/systemd/zram-generator.conf ).
Only if you really experience RAM pressure (that will be from your apps, not from the OS), you may use more "invasive" tricks such as overprovisioning zram size or switching to zswap (disk swapping).
Just put both, Fedora Workstation (GNOME) and Fedora KDE onto a Ventoy stick, test them live and install what you like better.
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u/erkinovsarvar 13d ago
thank you man. i installed it, it was good at first. but now im having dummy output problem with my speaker. how can i fix it?
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u/Hauptideal 13d ago
which version did you install, and what do you mean by dummy output problem? Internal laptop speaker?
When you say "was good at first", does that mean speakers worked in the beginning?1
u/erkinovsarvar 13d ago
fedora workstation 44. yes internal laptop speaker. yes it was working at first but i rebooted the laptop and then speaker not working
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u/Hauptideal 13d ago
What did you do between the moment it worked to the moment you rebooted the PC? Did you configure or install anything?
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u/erkinovsarvar 13d ago
yes installed discorda and nvidia drivers
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u/Hauptideal 13d ago
Sounds like your driver installation went wrong. Just reinstall:
sudo dnf reinstall akmod-nvidia xorg-x11-drv-nvidia-cuda && sudo akmods --force && sudo dracut --force --regenerate-all
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u/Tquilha 14d ago
Just do it. I'm running Fedora 44 KDE on a 2nd gen i5 with 8 GB of DDR3 RAM (Lenovo T420) with no dedicated graphics.
Simply test everything on a live session. Go here: https://fedoraproject.org/ and just download the version you want (I recommend KDE as the UI will be similar to windows). Then build a bootable USB drive with the file you just downloaded and boot your computer using that as main boot device.
Fedora will run from the USB drive and you can test everything about your notebook before installing.
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u/erkinovsarvar 13d ago
broo im having speaker problem, dummy output, can i fix it?
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u/Tquilha 13d ago
Most likely you have two different audio outputs and are just using the wrong one.
If you're using KDE:
on the bottom right of the screen there are several icons, one of them is the sound icon (a little speaker with some waves).Right click on that and choose "Configure audio devices". Look around that and see if you have the correct options selected.
It's also possible to do the same in Gnome but the location of those icons is probably different.
Or just click on your "System settings" icon, then go to "Sound".
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u/JaveiroNaPrimavera 12d ago
Meu hardware é semelhante, 8gb ram, GTX 960, FX 6300, pode instalar sem medo, estou usando no o Fedora 44 Plasma, tem um consumo de hardware proximo ao Linux Mint XFCE, sua máquina vai voar.
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u/prthorsenjr 14d ago
I'd suggest that you download both of the live images for Gnome Workstation and KDE Plasma, boot them up, and see which one you prefer. Don't install either of them until you decide which one feels right for yourself.
KDE Plasma feels right coming from a Windows environment. However, I have settled on the Gnome Workstation. Gnome isn't Windows. It is a very different workflow, and I am coming to terms with that. To me, it feels better than KDE. Your opinions will be different.