I’ve been using Bazzite on my laptop for a few months now, and it has been wonderful. I’ve had no problems whatsoever. The only hitches I’ve had so far, have 100% been about learning how to use ostree. And now that I’ve got somewhat of a basic grasp on how it works, I love it.
Maybe it’s because I downloaded the distro version meant specifically for my hardware (Framework), but Dolphin came pre-installed as the default file explorer. And as with any other KDE/Dolphin combo, you can add things to the context menu. So I’m not really sure what file explorer you were referring to?
BoxBuddy is another thing that I’ve only been messing with a little bit (have only needed to use it once or twice for the Fedora “toolbox”), and haven’t had any issues with that either. In fact, on the contrary, I think it’s fucking awesome lol
Not saying your experience isn’t valid, I just wanted to provide a counter. I was on EndeeavorOS for about a year and a half, and switching to Bazzite has been great. It’s just a different experience. Gotta get used to flatpaks instead of using pacman and yay. And if there is anything that I really want to use, and I only know how to use it in Arch, I can just open up my Arch box in BoxBuddy and do it there.
It has been much more stable, and it idles at a lower cpu % and is consistently cooler than when I was on Arch
Bazzite lets people choose between GNOME and KDE when downloading it. I had no familiarity with either, but received tips that GNOME is more user-friendly.
In terms of discoverability, I was investigating the OS’ settings menu pretty intensively, and saw no suggestions that I could add commands to the menu. My other annoyance was around having the right set of things available from the left-hand quick-access on the Files screen. On Windows, this is simply a matter of drag and drop. It’s possible I could change this on Bazzite’s base file explorer, but if so, it did not make anything readily apparent, even from investigating the available settings and everything in the default menus.
I’d definitely prefer Flatpaks for software, but not every program is available by browsing the Software screen. Programs that I attempted to install through BoxBuddy both took far more terminal knowledge and googling than should be necessary, and didn’t actually export to my programs menu as they claimed.
I’m okay with adjusting to a different experience. Less okay with things just not working as documented, or losing out on obvious discoverability options. It feels like an OS has less longevity when its documentation is not built in and relies specifically on message boards - many of which apply their solutions more broadly to Arch or Ubuntu than something as niche as Bazzite.
Gnome’s default file explorer does allow drag and drop to add a directory (folder) to the left sidebar. It just has to go into the middle list on the left sidebar. You cannot add things to the top list by drag and drop.
KDE is far far more customisable than Gnome, but changing too many settings can sometimes make KDE unstable. If you choose KDE, try changing only a few settings at a time. Gnome takes the approach of making it more beginner friendly by making it harder to break and providing an experience that Gnome devs think would be the best.
I’ve been using Bazzite on my laptop for a few months now, and it has been wonderful. I’ve had no problems whatsoever. The only hitches I’ve had so far, have 100% been about learning how to use ostree. And now that I’ve got somewhat of a basic grasp on how it works, I love it.
Maybe it’s because I downloaded the distro version meant specifically for my hardware (Framework), but Dolphin came pre-installed as the default file explorer. And as with any other KDE/Dolphin combo, you can add things to the context menu. So I’m not really sure what file explorer you were referring to?
BoxBuddy is another thing that I’ve only been messing with a little bit (have only needed to use it once or twice for the Fedora “toolbox”), and haven’t had any issues with that either. In fact, on the contrary, I think it’s fucking awesome lol
Not saying your experience isn’t valid, I just wanted to provide a counter. I was on EndeeavorOS for about a year and a half, and switching to Bazzite has been great. It’s just a different experience. Gotta get used to flatpaks instead of using pacman and yay. And if there is anything that I really want to use, and I only know how to use it in Arch, I can just open up my Arch box in BoxBuddy and do it there.
It has been much more stable, and it idles at a lower cpu % and is consistently cooler than when I was on Arch
Bazzite lets people choose between GNOME and KDE when downloading it. I had no familiarity with either, but received tips that GNOME is more user-friendly.
In terms of discoverability, I was investigating the OS’ settings menu pretty intensively, and saw no suggestions that I could add commands to the menu. My other annoyance was around having the right set of things available from the left-hand quick-access on the Files screen. On Windows, this is simply a matter of drag and drop. It’s possible I could change this on Bazzite’s base file explorer, but if so, it did not make anything readily apparent, even from investigating the available settings and everything in the default menus.
I’d definitely prefer Flatpaks for software, but not every program is available by browsing the Software screen. Programs that I attempted to install through BoxBuddy both took far more terminal knowledge and googling than should be necessary, and didn’t actually export to my programs menu as they claimed.
I’m okay with adjusting to a different experience. Less okay with things just not working as documented, or losing out on obvious discoverability options. It feels like an OS has less longevity when its documentation is not built in and relies specifically on message boards - many of which apply their solutions more broadly to Arch or Ubuntu than something as niche as Bazzite.
Gnome’s default file explorer does allow drag and drop to add a directory (folder) to the left sidebar. It just has to go into the middle list on the left sidebar. You cannot add things to the top list by drag and drop. KDE is far far more customisable than Gnome, but changing too many settings can sometimes make KDE unstable. If you choose KDE, try changing only a few settings at a time. Gnome takes the approach of making it more beginner friendly by making it harder to break and providing an experience that Gnome devs think would be the best.