I just tried fractional scaling on Linux Mint Cinnamon and it worked fine. I haven’t tried hooking up this laptop to an external monitor yet, but it should be possible. Linux kernel was upgraded to the latest 6.8 version available via Update Manager. Not sure if this is relevant, but this is on Linux Mint 21.3, and this Framework 16 laptop has a dedicated GPU. The default version 5 kernel for Linux Mint 21.3 had problems with the Framework 16. I haven’t tried Wayland yet, and probably won’t until my distro forces it as the default or some other issue crops up.
For systems that otherwise do not have a system backups by default, I recommend configuring (and/or installing) software for automatic system snapshots in case of breakage. Linux Mint Cinnamon introduces Timeshift at its welcome screen. Timeshift can use up lots of space, but it’s worth the peace of mind. It’s also possible to create/modify some special snapshots which do not auto-delete. My Intel+Nvidia laptop would occasionally have issues after graphics-related updates. My worst breakage so far was the upgrade from Mint 21 to Mint 22 on said Nvidia laptop. Fortunately, that major version upgrade was not something a computer user could install from the Update Manager.
I am going to simply state my personal experience for this one. In 2014 I moved my then 66 year old mother onto Ubuntu…and the next 2 years were filled with bad updates, and one terrible nightmarish upgrade. Yeah never doing that again. Over the years since then I have continually had similar issues with pretty much every Debian based distro. Not low maintenance at all. I had to travel 8 hours on short notice to fix things at least 2 or 3 times.
Moved over to Fedora in 2016. Over a dozen flawless upgrades later, and zero issues requiring unplanned travel, and very few requiring a phone call to resolve over that time, I replaced the device and simply moved her over to Fedora Silverblue. I would still stick with Fedora Workstation for now, but Silverblue has been rock solid and nearly impossible to actually break, so I am giving it a whirl. Also even with Wayland in Experimental mode with two external monitors, and many, many hours logged I have had zero problems.
Bit of background: I’ve been using or administrating Linux systems for close to 20 years, mostly Debian and proprietary RMP-based systems. My laptop used to run on Debian, but I switched to Fedora a few years ago.
When I got my FW16, I gave my old laptop to my father to replace his very old, very slow, very not-updateable-anymore, malware-infested MacBook Air. I installed uBlue’s Bluefin variant, rebased to stable and kept everything else stock. My only instructions for him were “you just need to reboot at least once a week to keep it up to date, and if you want to install something, it’s like on your phone, there’s an app store, you can’t just install random shit from the internet anymore”. OK, I lied for the last part, but it’s for his own good.
You have to understand that my boomer father is the worst kind of technophile. He loves shiny tech toys, but hates having to understand them and puts absolutely zero effort in learning how to properly use them.
After a few months alternating from his nearly-dead MacBook Air and my former laptop, he proudly announced yesterday that he was finally ready to main the Linux one \o/
I still had to do some basic problem solving and alternative finding the first few times I went there, but now he’s mostly autonomous.
So, for Linux noobs, don’t discard atomic distros, they’re awesome!
I really appreciate your explanations here. I’m commenting to thank you and as a sort of bookmark for myself for your comment. Seems I can “like” it but can’t bookmark the specific comment