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Both Fedora and Ubuntu are popular Linux Distros. And interestingly, they look almost similar to an extent so choosing one over another may tempt you to find out the differences between them. That’s what this blog post is all about.
About Fedora
Fedora is a community-driven, freely available operating system that is developed and maintained by the Fedora Project, which is sponsored by Red Hat. It was first released in 2003 as a result of a merger between Red Hat Linux and Fedora Linux.
About Ubuntu
Ubuntu is a widely used, open-source operating system based on the Debian GNU/Linux distribution. It is developed and maintained by Canonical. It was first released in 2004
Fedora vs ubuntu- Comparison
Sure, here is a comparison table between Ubuntu and Fedora:
| Feature | Ubuntu | Fedora |
|---|---|---|
| Release cycle | 6 months | 6 months |
| Speed | Average | Fast |
| Installation process | Easy | Moderate |
| Default Desktop Environment | Unity (Ubuntu 17.10 and earlier), GNOME (Ubuntu 18.04 and later) | GNOME |
| Package manager | APT | DNF (formerly YUM) |
| Stability | Stable | Stable |
| User base | Large | Moderate |
| Customization | Low | High |
| Compatibility with proprietary software | High | Low |
Fedora vs Ubuntu- Make your choice
Looking at their native interfaces, Fedora comes with Gnome DE whereas Ubuntu comes with their modified DE called Desktop unity. both are different. For this reason, some people say Ubuntu is simpler than Fedora and some believe otherwise. But the matter of fact is that the interface of Linux distros is switchable so there is not something to say about if one is better than the other in terms of easiness.
Fedora is a cutting-edge distro which makes it a better choice for developers and for people who prefer getting regular updates, thanks to its relatively short release cycles. Whereas, Ubuntu is more focused on providing a simple Linux distro thanks to its long-term support and stable release cycles it currently ranks number 1 Linux distro.
Fedora vs Ubuntu- Performance
The speed of any Linux distro is determined by factors beyond the distro’s performance itself. This includes the type of hardware you run it on, the amount of memory and hard disk space, also the number of programs running at a time.
Nonetheless, if we compare their performance based on their system requirements then, Fedora is less resource hungry than Ubuntu.
This also suggest that, for very low-end machines, Fedora might be perform faster in general.
Here is a table comparing the system requirements for Ubuntu and Fedora:
| Operating System | Processor | System Memory | Hard Drive Space |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ubuntu | 2 GHz dual-core processor or better | 4 GB | 25 GB |
| Fedora | 2 GHz dual-core processor or faster | 2 GB | 15 GB |
Fedora vs Ubuntu- Stablity
Release cycle is what you consider the stability factor, then here’s what you need to know.
Both Fedora and Ubuntu have a release cycle of 6 months, meaning that they both release a new version every 6 months. Adding a twist here, Ubuntu has more than one distro, if we consider the Ubuntu LTS.
LTS versions are released every 2 years and are supported for 5 years, while regular versions are only supported for 9 months. Meaning that, Ubuntu LTS is more stable in terms of release cycles.
- Fedora: New version every 6 months
- Ubuntu: New version every 6 months, with LTS versions released every 2 years
