Fedora 39 Review + Fedora Slimbook: a match made in heaven!

This video isn't sponsored by Slimbook or Fedora.

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#Fedora #Linux #Laptop

00:00 Intro
00:34 Sponsor - Squarespace
01:32 Under the hood
03:21 GNOME 45 changes
05:31 App Changes
08:12 Fedora Slimbook
09:59 The Specs
14:56 Final Thoughts
15:51 Support the channel

The installer is still Anaconda, not the new one. You're getting the kernel 6.5. Fedora 39 also drops the modular repos. You're still not getting DNF 5, the new version of the package manager. Other changes include dropping the custom theming for Qt apps, changing the default color of the terminal, and there's a new spin of Fedora Silverblue, the immutable distro, but this time with Budgie as its desktop, it's called Fedora Onyx.

Of course, the biggest changes to your experience on Fedora will be with GNOME 45. So, the first change will be to Activities, with the new workspaces indicator, when you click it, it opens the activities view, but visually, it now shows your current virtual desktop as an elongated pill, and the other virtual desktops as small circles. The app menu also disappeared from the top bar in the process.

In the quick settings, you now get the ability to control keyboard backlight. You can also open the quick settings menu by pressing Super + S, and you can now click a background app to open its window, and you'll get a small indicator when closing one of these background apps.

Finally, in the top bar, you'll get a new webcam activity indicator.

Apart from that, there's a new "split headerbar look" that reached a few apps. In terms of apps, Nautilus gained a way faster search: tracker. Once a search has completed, you also get a "Search everywhere" button that lets you search the whole filesystem.

GNOME 45 also brings a new image viewer, called Loupe, Cheese, the camera app, is replaced with Snapshot, GNOME console got a new preference item to customize fonts, GNOME maps gained a new experimental vector based tileset.

As per GNOME Software, you can now clear all the user data associated with a flatpak app when you uninstall it, and you'll see messages in the search results and app details pages to let you know if a flatpak is end of life and hasn't received updates in a long time.

And now, let's talk hardware: the Fedora Slimbook. This is a partnership between Fedora, and, you guessed it, Slimbook, the linux hardware manufacturer based in Spain.

It's a 16 inch laptop, that only weighs 1.5 kilos, or 3.3 pounds. It has a 2K 16:10 display, at 2560 by 1600 at 90hz. It supports 100% of sRGB, and has a brightness of 400 nits and an anti glare coating.

The laptop has some Fedora branding, with a super key using the Fedora logo, and a Fedora logo is also present on the top left corner of the laptop. The chassis is a magnesium and aluminium alloy.

In terms of specs, you get an intel i7 12700H, it's paired with an Nvidia RTX 3050 Ti, with 4 gigs of VRAM. On top of that, you get to pick between 16, 32 or 64 gigs of RAM, running at 3200 Mhz, it's not soldered. As per storage, you get 500 gigs of SSD, with the ability to fill 2 M.2 slots with up to 4 TB in total.

In terms of I/O, the laptop comes with 2 USB A ports, 3.2 Gen 1, with 1 USB C 3.2 Gen 2 that supports display port 1.4, and one Thunderbolt 4 port that supports charging and displayport, but it's hardwired to the integrated intel GPU. There's also an HDMI port, wired to the Nvidia GPU, a headphone jack, and an SD card slot, plus a barrel charger port.

You'll get Wifi 6 and bluetooth 5.2, and an 82 WH battery, that, in my experience, gives you about 6h to 7h or regular use.

Finally, it has 2 speakers, that are solid enough and have decent sound and bass, a 1080p webcam that isn't terrible but also not that great, and a mic that's really mediocre.

It also has a wonderful feeling keyboard, and a giant touchpad, which feels absolutely fantastic to use especially for all the gestures GNOME has to navigate the desktop and the apps.

[Racsu]

I love to see linux hardware that also matches the distribution properly, it just looks awesome.

[fedora]

We hope the release was worth the wait! Great review, Nick! 💙

[ThePriceIsNeverRight]

I've been using fedora KDE as my daily driver for almost 4 years now, i never looked back since ! it's just perfect for me

[TheDenOfTimbsStudios]

I'm not sure about that touchpad, there is a reason why apples is standard. But it is nice to see that Linux is starting to be taken more serious.

[svta_]

Fedora 39 is by far the best distro I've ever used.

[Techmagus]

Thanks for the nice presentation/overview.
That is exactly what i personal like the most on Fedora, they always go for the latest stuff close to the edge, but if things are not ready they simply delay it or shift it to the next version and there is no. We want it in there and we put it in there and can fix it later.
For me they hit a sweet spot of being modern, innovativ and robust, stable at the same time.

[galgrunfeld]

Completely unrelated to the video: I've been watching your videos for a few years now and remember hearing you talking about your channel as being a small channel, but I just noticed that you almost have 1/3 million subscribers - absolutely crazy for a Linux channel! I hope you'll continue to grow be a bigger representative for Linux on YouTube, and bring more awareness to Linux.

[dariodcr]

I got myself a Slimbook Pro 14 KDE edition recently. I am extremely satisfied, highly recommended

[armanuki]

The problem with the numpad is not that some people don't like numpads. The problem is the spacing. The numpad is directly next to enter, backspace etc without any extra gap, so it is harder to find those important keys while typing.

[pyp]

Well it was worth waiting for this release, even after 3 delays. I knew there wasn't going to be a 4th delay when I noticed that a couple Fedora 39 kernels didn't have "Pre-Release" when my 2 self hosted servers were booting up.

[EugeniusNaumenco]

perfect timing, just installed Fedora 39 😆

[mirage]

Upgraded to Fedora 39 pretty much the moment it showed up in the software center. If there’s one thing I love about Fedora it’s how smooth and painless it is most of the time. The only time I ever see a terminal is when I want to use one. This is a great thing. People find the terminal scary.

Slimbook make some super nice laptops. Was seriously considering one a few years ago and would’ve gone with it if I didn’t get a killer deal on my current Thinkpad.

[swagmuffin]

I installed 38 with kde about 2 weeks ago not knowing about 39. First time on fedora for actual everyday use, it's pretty good so far.

[Linux_ASMR]

Dang, that touchpad is so big you could probably invite friends to eat lunch on it 😂. Other than that, I'm glad Fedora 39 is finally released.

[maxmouse]

That black tuxedo laptop looks amazing!

[SvalbardSleeperDistrict]

Hopefully Gnome extensions will be updated to the new version soon. One thing I discovered after the upgrade to 39 was that the GDM Settings app now applies settings without freezing my system!

[OhHeyItIsNano]

Love to see more Linux hardware being made. 👀

[cbmeeks]

Love your videos. We will be in Paris on Friday!! 😀

[Beryesa.]

I wish getting open modules were made easier on this release, as now declared certified + mostly fine for regular use (the current instructions are definitely broken)

[AngyGorgoglione]

The best review, for sure I subscribe ✌🏻🥰 after this review I will try fedora for the first time 😮