Nobara 39 Released - Customized Version Of Fedora Catering To Gamers/Enthusiasts

[phoronix]

Phoronix: Nobara Linux 39 Released - Customized Version Of Fedora Catering To Gamers/Enthusiasts

Nobara 39 was released today as this modified Fedora Linux downstream that focuses on adding user-friendly fixes and various gamer/enthusiast type desktop optimizations...

https://www.phoronix.com/news/Nobara-39-Released

[Mitch]

Wow, great article. Also worth reading the Nobara site. He explained the reasons he decided to swap to KDE default.

I'd love to try the changes he did to get Minecraft working in native Wayland. I don't yet have my nobara machine on me.

[Mario Junior]

Gnome BTFO!

Nobara Official has now be rebased on KDE instead of GNOME for several reasons:
———–
(1) VRR (Variable Refresh Rate/Freesync) functionality. Gnome currently still requires patched-in VRR functionality. The pending MR has been waiting 3 years, and even doing so still breaks the system tray.

See:

https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/mutter/-/merge_requests/1154

https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gnome-shell/-/issues/6955

(2) DRM Leasing functionality. This is a requirement for VR (Virtual Reality) in wayland. This is another pain point that has had constant back and forth on the gnome side, but is implemented already in KDE.

See:

https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/mutter/-/merge_requests/3205

https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/mutter/-/issues/1743

(3) Fractional scaling functionality. This is what allows the desktop to be rescaled in fractions rather than whole percentages. This is still marked as experimental in GNOME even though it was merged in 2019, 5 years ago, while being implemented already in KDE.

(4) Drag and drop from Archive manager functionality. As stupid as this is, GNOME file-roller STILL cannot drag+drop files into nautilus folders, while KDE’s Ark can. Again, another bug opened 5 years ago.

See:

https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/file-roller/-/issues/4

(5) Better integration with Steam. By default the Steam Deck uses KDE as the desktop mode. This inherently means it receives updates from Valve in terms of desktop related fixes, and they are actively working with KDE developers to bring updates to KDE (https://www.reddit.com/r/kde/comment...valve_and_kde/)

The absolute state!

[Justin]

To save everyone a few clicks, the reasons for switching over to KDE below (copied directly from nobara changelog)

Nobara Official has now be rebased on KDE instead of GNOME for several reasons:
———–
(1) VRR (Variable Refresh Rate/Freesync) functionality. Gnome currently still requires patched-in VRR functionality. The pending MR has been waiting 3 years, and even doing so still breaks the system tray.

See:

https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/mutter/-/merge_requests/1154

https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gnome-shell/-/issues/6955

(2) DRM Leasing functionality. This is a requirement for VR (Virtual Reality) in wayland. This is another pain point that has had constant back and forth on the gnome side, but is implemented already in KDE.

See:

https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/mutter/-/merge_requests/3205

https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/mutter/-/issues/1743

(3) Fractional scaling functionality. This is what allows the desktop to be rescaled in fractions rather than whole percentages. This is still marked as experimental in GNOME even though it was merged in 2019, 5 years ago, while being implemented already in KDE.

(4) Drag and drop from Archive manager functionality. As stupid as this is, GNOME file-roller STILL cannot drag+drop files into nautilus folders, while KDE’s Ark can. Again, another bug opened 5 years ago.

See:

https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/file-roller/-/issues/4

(5) Better integration with Steam. By default the Steam Deck uses KDE as the desktop mode. This inherently means it receives updates from Valve in terms of desktop related fixes, and they are actively working with KDE developers to bring updates to KDE (https://www.reddit.com/r/kde/comment...valve_and_kde/)

[pWe00Iri3e7Z9lHOX2Qx]

Cool. I played with Nobara once but briefly. I'm going to slap N39 on one of my home theater PCs tomorrow and replace the recently installed Universal Blue + Nvidia Kinoite build on it.

[SquidHM3]

Wow, great article. Also worth reading the Nobara site. He explained the reasons he decided to swap to KDE default.

I'd love to try the changes he did to get Minecraft working in native Wayland. I don't yet have my nobara machine on me.

Ok - I'm intrigued - I don't see where he gives the rationale of switching from Gnome to KDE. What are you referring to?

EDIT: Thanks for the links gents. I didn't see them at first. Much obliged! I might try it on my experimental linux laptop, but not my main laptop. It runs Mint with no real issues at all.

[pWe00Iri3e7Z9lHOX2Qx]

Ok - I'm intrigued - I don't see where he gives the rationale of switching from Gnome to KDE. What are you referring to?

It's in the link.

And the better fractional scaling experience one is a big reason that the Fedora Asahi Remix chose KDE as their "flagship" experience. Kind of funny seeing so many Fedora related announcements lately where GNOME is the also-ran.

Nobara Official has now be rebased on KDE instead of GNOME for several reasons:
———–
(1) VRR (Variable Refresh Rate/Freesync) functionality. Gnome currently still requires patched-in VRR functionality. The pending MR has been waiting 3 years, and even doing so still breaks the system tray.

See:

https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/mutter/-/merge_requests/1154

https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gnome-shell/-/issues/6955

(2) DRM Leasing functionality. This is a requirement for VR (Virtual Reality) in wayland. This is another pain point that has had constant back and forth on the gnome side, but is implemented already in KDE.

See:

https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/mutter/-/merge_requests/3205

https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/mutter/-/issues/1743

(3) Fractional scaling functionality. This is what allows the desktop to be rescaled in fractions rather than whole percentages. This is still marked as experimental in GNOME even though it was merged in 2019, 5 years ago, while being implemented already in KDE.

(4) Drag and drop from Archive manager functionality. As stupid as this is, GNOME file-roller STILL cannot drag+drop files into nautilus folders, while KDE’s Ark can. Again, another bug opened 5 years ago.

See:

https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/file-roller/-/issues/4

(5) Better integration with Steam. By default the Steam Deck uses KDE as the desktop mode. This inherently means it receives updates from Valve in terms of desktop related fixes, and they are actively working with KDE developers to bring updates to KDE (https://www.reddit.com/r/kde/comment...valve_and_kde/)

[Jaxad0127]

Ok - I'm intrigued - I don't see where he gives the rationale of switching from Gnome to KDE. What are you referring to?

The link at the bottom of the article is to the changelog, which has the list.

[ms178]

The last time I tried Nobara, it was only a tad faster than Fedora and Fedora was by far the worst performing distro on my system in CPU limited games. CachyOS is much better for gamers or performance oriented desktop users.

[scirocco]

The last time I tried Nobara, it was only a tad faster than Fedora and Fedora was by far the worst performing distro on my system in CPU limited games. CachyOS is much better for gamers or performance oriented desktop users.

Yeah CachyOS is still the king for gaming, however Fedora has got alot better gaming wise lately, above alot of other distros, and it used to be dead last for performance.