Need advice about which tool to choose?Ask the StackShare community!

Fedora

608
497
+ 1
88
Ubuntu

77.6K
56.5K
+ 1
468
Add tool

Fedora vs Ubuntu: What are the differences?

Write Introduction here

1. **Package Management:** One key difference between Fedora and Ubuntu is their package management systems. Fedora uses the dnf package manager, while Ubuntu uses the apt package manager. These package managers have different commands and tools for installing, updating, and managing software packages.

2. **Release Cycle:** Another crucial difference is their release cycle. Fedora follows a more rapid release cycle with new versions coming out approximately every 6 months, while Ubuntu has a regular release cycle every 6 months with Long Term Support (LTS) versions released every 2 years. This impacts the stability and frequency of updates for each distribution.

3. **Target Audience:** Fedora is more geared towards developers and enthusiasts who prefer bleeding-edge software and technologies. In contrast, Ubuntu is known for its user-friendly interface and better support for beginners and mainstream users. The target audience influences the default software applications, configurations, and updates provided by each distribution.

4. **Desktop Environments:** Fedora primarily uses the GNOME desktop environment as its default, while Ubuntu offers different flavors such as Ubuntu Mate, Kubuntu, Xubuntu, and Lubuntu with different desktop environments like GNOME, KDE Plasma, Xfce, and LXQt. Users can choose the flavor that aligns with their preferences and system resources.

5. **Corporate Backing:** Fedora is developed by the community and sponsored by Red Hat, a prominent enterprise Linux provider. On the other hand, Ubuntu is created and supported by Canonical, a company founded by Mark Shuttleworth. The corporate backing affects the development focus, support options, and long-term stability of the distributions.

6. **Software Repositories:** Fedora focuses on providing free and open-source software in its repositories, with limited proprietary software available. In contrast, Ubuntu includes both open-source and proprietary software in its default repositories, giving users more flexibility in choosing software for their systems.

In Summary, the key differences between Fedora and Ubuntu lie in their package management, release cycles, target audience, desktop environments, corporate backing, and software repositories.
Decisions about Fedora and Ubuntu
Michaël SCHERER
Fullstack Dev at Synovo Group · | 10 upvotes · 40.4K views
Chose
UbuntuUbuntu
over
WindowsWindows

Ubuntu always let people do what they want to do, it pushes its users to know what they are doing, what they want and helps them learn what they ignore.

Ubuntu is simple, works out-of-the-box after installation and has a incredibly huge community behind.

Ubuntu is lightweight and open, in the way, that the user has access to free AND efficient applications (most of the time, without ads) and, even if learning its folder structure is challenging, once done, you are really able to call yourself "someone who knows what is in your computer".

Windows, in comparison, is heavy, tends to make decision for you and always enable tracking application by default. grr

It has a simple user interface, of course, but on the stability point of view, it is hard to compete with something simpler (even with less features).

Personal preference : I prefer something simple that works 99% of the time, than a full-featured auto-magical system that works 50% of the time (and ask if the good version of the driver is really installed...)

See more
Dimelo Waterson

Coming from a Debian-based Linux background, using the Ubuntu base image for my Docker containers was a natural choice. However, the overhead, even on the impressively-slimmed Hub images, was hard to justify. Seeking to create images that were "just right" in size, without unused packages or dependencies, I made the switch to Alpine.

Alpine's modified BusyBox has a surprising amount of functionality, and the package repository contains plenty of muslc-safe versions of commonly-used packages. It's been a valuable exercise in doing more with less, and, as Alpine is keen to point out, an image with fewer packages makes for a more sustainable environment with a smaller attack surface.

My only regret is that Alpine's documentation leaves a lot to be desired.

See more

Ubuntu is much more faster over Windows and helps to get software and other utilities easier and within a short span of time compared to Windows.

Ubuntu helps to get robustness and resiliency over Windows. Ubuntu runs faster than Windows on every computer that I have ever tested. LibreOffice (Ubuntu's default office suite) runs much faster than Microsoft Office on every computer that I have ever tested.

See more
Jerome/Zen Quah
Chose
UbuntuUbuntu
over
CentOSCentOS

Global familiarity, free, widely used, and as a debian distro feels more comfortable when rapidly switching between local macOS and remote command lines.

CentOS does boast quite a few security/stability improvements, however as a RHEL-based distro, differs quite significantly in the command line and suffers from slightly less frequent package updates. (Could be a good or bad thing depending on your use-case and if it is public facing)

See more
Simon Aronsson
Developer Advocate at k6 / Load Impact · | 7 upvotes · 265.2K views

At the moment of the decision, my desktop was the primary place I did work. Due to this, I can't have it blow up on me while I work. While Arch is interesting and powerful, Ubuntu offers (at least for me) a lot more stability and lets me focus on other things than maintaining my own OS installation.

See more
Get Advice from developers at your company using StackShare Enterprise. Sign up for StackShare Enterprise.
Learn More
Pros of Fedora
Pros of Ubuntu
  • 21
    Great for developers
  • 10
    Great integration with system tools
  • 10
    Represents the future of rhel/centos
  • 9
    Good release schedule
  • 7
    Reliable
  • 6
    Fast
  • 5
    Docker integration
  • 4
    Has SeLinux
  • 3
    Latest packages
  • 3
    Updated with Bleeding-edge software
  • 3
    Great for ops teams
  • 3
    Awesome community
  • 2
    Python distribution
  • 2
    Complies with International Standard
  • 230
    Free to use
  • 96
    Easy setup for testing discord bot
  • 57
    Gateway Linux Distro
  • 54
    Simple interface
  • 9
    Don't need driver installation in most cases
  • 6
    Open Source
  • 6
    Many active communities
  • 3
    Software Availability
  • 3
    Easy to custom
  • 2
    Many flavors/distros based on ubuntu
  • 1
    Lightweight container base OS
  • 1
    Great OotB Linux Shell Experience

Sign up to add or upvote prosMake informed product decisions

Cons of Fedora
Cons of Ubuntu
  • 3
    Bugs get fixed slowly from kernel side
  • 2
    Much less support from Wiki
  • 2
    Systemd
  • 2
    Boring
  • 1
    Less packages in official repository
  • 1
    A bit complicated
  • 1
    Learning curve for new users
  • 0
    Slightly difficult to install for beginners
  • 5
    Demanding system requirements
  • 4
    Adds overhead and unnecessary complexity over Debian
  • 2
    Snapd installed by default
  • 1
    Systemd

Sign up to add or upvote consMake informed product decisions

What is Fedora?

Fedora is a Linux-based operating system that provides users with access to the latest free and open source software, in a stable, secure and easy to manage form. Fedora is the largest of many free software creations of the Fedora Project. Because of its predominance, the word "Fedora" is often used interchangeably to mean both the Fedora Project and the Fedora operating system.

What is Ubuntu?

Ubuntu is an ancient African word meaning ‘humanity to others’. It also means ‘I am what I am because of who we all are’. The Ubuntu operating system brings the spirit of Ubuntu to the world of computers.

Need advice about which tool to choose?Ask the StackShare community!

What companies use Fedora?
What companies use Ubuntu?
See which teams inside your own company are using Fedora or Ubuntu.
Sign up for StackShare EnterpriseLearn More

Sign up to get full access to all the companiesMake informed product decisions

What tools integrate with Fedora?
What tools integrate with Ubuntu?

Sign up to get full access to all the tool integrationsMake informed product decisions

Blog Posts

JavaScriptGitHubGit+33
20
2080
What are some alternatives to Fedora and Ubuntu?
CentOS
The CentOS Project is a community-driven free software effort focused on delivering a robust open source ecosystem. For users, we offer a consistent manageable platform that suits a wide variety of deployments. For open source communities, we offer a solid, predictable base to build upon, along with extensive resources to build, test, release, and maintain their code.
Debian
Debian systems currently use the Linux kernel or the FreeBSD kernel. Linux is a piece of software started by Linus Torvalds and supported by thousands of programmers worldwide. FreeBSD is an operating system including a kernel and other software.
openSUSE
The openSUSE project is a worldwide effort that promotes the use of Linux everywhere. openSUSE creates one of the world's best Linux distributions, working together in an open, transparent and friendly manner as part of the worldwide Free and Open Source Software community.
Linux Mint
The purpose of Linux Mint is to produce a modern, elegant and comfortable operating system which is both powerful and easy to use.
Manjaro
It is an accessible, friendly, open-source Linux distribution and community. Based on Arch Linux, it provides all the benefits of cutting-edge software combined with a focus on getting started quickly, automated tools to require less manual intervention, and help readily available when needed.
See all alternatives