So I’m going to be getting the FW 13 (Ryzen™ AI 5 340) for my fiance, who has only ever used windows before. We thought that framework would provide a good introduction to linux, and if there are any issues I can help fix them. I myself have only ever used Ubuntu in the past, but I see that’s not an officially supported distro so I was considering Fedora instead (the main difference i know of is dnf vs apt). Are the problems with Ubuntu really that bad that I shouldnt go with it? Or are they “fixed” now? How easy is transitioning from windows → fedora or ubuntu → fedora?
This is intended to be my partner’s main work laptop, so it needs to be compatible with RStudio, VS Code, MATLAB, VNC viewers for general python programming and machine learning applications.
The other question I had was with the power supply. Is the FW13 only compatible with the 60W charger? Or would the 180W charger be better for it? I dont want to get a third party charger because I’m scared to get the wrong/cheap one and fry the electronics.
I’m using Fedora on mine, so I can’t comment on if Ubuntu is working well or not. What I will say is that I was a long-time Ubuntu user and switched to Fedora because it was a supported operating system. Both using Gnome (if you go with the base version), so day-to-day use is identical. Like you said, the biggest difference is using dnf vs apt. I’m running Silverblue, the atomic desktop version, so that is a bit more difference, but if you go with Fedora Workstation the learning curve vs using Ubuntu is pretty minimal.
For the power supply, the 60W is sufficient. The 180W won’t be any better. I actually bought an Anker 140W charger ( Anker Laptop Charger | 140W, 4 Ports, USB-C Cable - Anker Canada ) so that I could have laptop plugged in, plus a cell phone, plus charge my watch, etc. When I travel I only have to bring the one charger, and it works really well. Most of the time, though, I have the laptop plugged into a CalDigit TS3 Plus on my desk.
Edit just to add that I’m also using an AI 300 FW13
I would definitely go Fedora instead of Ubuntu. Ubuntu put a lot of those apps inside snaps, which causes them to crash and have weird bugs and then you have to go searching for which permissions are wrong and such (I ran Ubuntu as my work OS for a couple years). Oh, and Ubuntu has replaced a lot of their core Unix tools with new rust versions for seemingly no reason. They are showing to have many security issues and missing features.
I recommend Fedora KDE Plasma edition as it looks similar to Windows and is more configurable. Plus I just don’t like how ugly gnome is these days. So really, it’s personal preference.
I have a framework 13 intel 125H running Ubuntu 24.04 lts (kde plasma with X11) - it’s stable and I’m happy with my choice.
That said, based on your opening post (i.e. it’s not your device, the owner is new to linux, and the device is for work but you are providing support) , I’d be cautious about choosing framework.
The issues you read about in the forum’s are real and you are likely going to run into some of them. In particular, some users experience random freezes (amd or intel based devices running either fedora or ubuntu - more below) and must reboot, the battery needs special care (I use a DIY systemd unit to adjust my battery charge level - it’s set to 60% charge in bios as it is plugged in for extended periods), the battery drains quickly during sleep when the laptop is not plugged in, the framework 13 can run hot especially for intensive numerical computation (R, rstudio, python all work fine for me) and the fan can be noisy.
Most of the above issues are not show stoppers (I expect the random freezing issues will get fixed as they likely are not specific to framework); however, I’ve used linux since the mid 90’s and I bought a framework not expected it to be as polished the as more main stream laptop brands.
As long as the device owner can tolerate some issues while learning to use linux, they should be fine. If they need rock steady stability for work, then this experience could go very wrong.
Regarding fedora vs ubuntu, fedora 43 just came out and only supports wayland (as opposed to X11). I have had no issues with (display) freezes whatsoever running ubuntu with X11. My sense is that the freezing issues may be related to wayland and seem to me to affect amd more than intel. I mention this as I’d very much like to switch to fedora/wayland but I don’t want to have to deal with difficult to diagnose issues such as this. I expect it will get fixed and (only) then I will make the switch. I remove snap from ubuntu and have no issue; however, it annoys me that I have to take this step.
As a daily Linux (Fedora Silverblue) user, Fedora really shines with its fresher software updates and closer-to-upstream packages versus Ubuntu (which I’m forced to use for work).
I’d really recommend trying something like Fedora Silverblue or Universal Blue (Fedora atomic but tweaked for user experience). If you really want a Windows-like experience, try the KDE-based ones though I must admit I’m partial to GNOME.
You can use whatever USB-PD charger you like. The laptop will negotiate the power it needs, there is no such thing as “frying” the laptop with a different USB charger. (Just use the Framework charger the FW13 comes with, it’s a good one.)
In my experience configuring four Framework 13 and one Framework 16 DIY models with Linux only, Linux works very well on Framework computers.
I would also recommend using a Linux distro that uses the KDE Plasma window manager as the user interface for a Windows user switching to Linux because the KDE Plasma window manager can be configured to be very similar in use to Windows which makes the transition very easy for someone who had been using Windows.
I’ve tried MX-Linux with KDE Plasma and LMDE 7 (Linux Mint Debian Edition) on the Framework 13 AMD models and they both work very well on Framework computers. LMDE 7 uses the Linux Mint Cinnamon interface which is also quite easy for a Windows user to get used to using. Both MX-Linux and LMDE 7 are based on Debian (as is Ubuntu).
Fedora with the KDE Plasma windows manager also works well on Framework computers.
I use openSUSE Slowroll with KDE Plasma on my Framework 13 and it works very well, too.
Almost all of the computer users I support use Linux and all of the Framework users are using Linux exclusively.
I used to use and recommend Thinkpad notebooks but since Framework notebooks and desktop PCs have become available, I recommend Framework notebooks instead. They are not the least expensive notebook computers you can buy but because you can easily upgrade and repair them, I think they are over their long service life cheaper per year than any other notebook computer you can buy. If you take advantage of the DIY models where you don’t have to pay for the cost of a Windows license and can buy less expensive RAM and M.2 NVMe SSDs from less expensive suppliers, you can reduce the cost even more. Crucial RAM and M.2 NVMe SSDs work well with Framework computers.
Take a look at the excellent Linux distribution reviews on distrowatch.com which has links to many of the most popular Linux distributions.
All the Linux distros above have “Live Linux” versions which you can boot from a USB flash drive or external USB drive so can run them in RAM before installing them on the Framework’s internal M.2 NVMe SSD to “try them out” before installing them on the internal drive. If you want to try a “Live Linux” version of openSUSE Slowroll, you will need to download the “Live Linux” version of openSUSE Tumbleweed because there isn’t currently a “Live Linux” version of openSUSE Slowroll.
All these distros have friendly and very active user forums online who are happy to help new Linux users get started using Linux and solving any problems you might run into.
When I made this post the only officially supported linux distros for the FW13 with the Ryzen AI 300 series were Fedora 42 and Bazzite. I see they’ve now updated it to Fedora 43, Ubuntu 25.10 and Bazzite!
One of the really good things about using Linux is that, if you are using a relatively new Linux kernel, most of the widely used Linux distros will usually work just fine whether they are “officially supported” or not. There are a number of Linux distros which are supported by the Framework community even though they are not “officially supported” by Framework itself. All of the Linux distros that I mentioned appear to run fine on the Framework 13 AMD notebooks. The only one I’ve used extensively is openSUSE Slowroll but the other ones boot up, set the screen resolution correctly and all the functions appear to work just fine. Since you can boot up with the “Live Linux” versions, you can test whatever Linux distros you’re considering before installing them on the internal M.2 NVMe SSD. Since the Framework 13 AMD models are so fast, you can even install any of the Linux distros on your internal M.2 NVMe SSD in 15 or 20 minutes so in a few hours you can try installing a number of different distros to see which one you want to try using first.
I used Ubuntu and Manjaro for years. But all the manual effort does not align with real live anymore. Now I use Debian in FW16 as a solid base and flatpak for current software.