Infrastructure March 18, 2026 by Greg

Fedora vs Windows 11: Why Developers Are Making the Switch in 2026

Windows 11 has become increasingly hostile to the people who use it. Mandatory Microsoft accounts. Copilot baked into the taskbar. Recall screenshotting everything you do. Ads in the Start menu. A 27 GB install that somehow needs 64 GB of disk space.

We switched our daily driver to Fedora 43. Here’s what changed.

Why We Left Windows

The Microsoft account requirement. Windows 11 Home requires a Microsoft account to complete setup. There are workarounds, but the fact that Microsoft actively blocks local account creation tells you everything about their priorities.

Copilot everywhere. We didn’t ask for an AI assistant in our taskbar, our right-click menu, our file explorer, and our Settings app. We use AI tools professionally — we choose which ones to run and when. We don’t need Microsoft’s version injected into every surface of our OS.

Recall. Microsoft’s “Recall” feature screenshots your screen every few seconds and stores them locally for AI search. Even after the backlash, it shipped. On a machine that handles client data, this is a non-starter.

Performance bloat. A fresh Windows 11 install consumes 4.2 GB of RAM at idle. Fedora 43 with KDE Plasma: 1.1 GB. On a laptop with 16 GB of RAM, that’s 3 GB reclaimed for actual work.

What Fedora Gets Right

Package management that works. dnf install nodejs and you have Node.js. dnf install git and you have Git. No downloading installers from random websites, no “Add to PATH” checkboxes, no rebooting after installing a text editor.

Native development tools. Python, Node.js, Git, SSH, Docker — all first-class citizens. No WSL layer, no Cygwin compatibility shims. The terminal is the same environment as your production Linux servers.

Updates that don’t hijack your machine. Fedora updates in the background. It never forces a restart during a presentation. It never takes 45 minutes to “configure updates” while you watch a spinner.

Privacy by default. No telemetry popups. No “recommended” apps. No Bing integration. No ads. You install it, it works, and it leaves you alone.

The Adjustment Period (Honest Take)

Week 1 was rough. Not because Fedora is hard, but because muscle memory is real. We kept reaching for Windows shortcuts that don’t exist. Ctrl+C in the terminal doesn’t copy (it sends SIGINT). Alt+Tab works differently. The file manager isn’t Explorer.

Week 2 was better. KDE Plasma is genuinely good. The system settings are more organized than Windows Settings. Virtual desktops work better than Windows virtual desktops. The application launcher is fast.

Week 3 we stopped thinking about it. Everything just worked. VS Code runs natively. Chrome runs natively. Our development workflow — Astro, Node.js, Python, SSH into servers — is actually faster because we’re not fighting WSL translation layers.

What Still Needs Windows

Adobe Creative Suite. No native Linux version. If you live in Photoshop or Premiere, you need Windows or Mac. We use Figma (browser-based) and GIMP for the occasional image edit.

Specific client software. Some industries have Windows-only applications. Accounting software, EHR systems, specialty tools. For these, we set up Windows VMs on Proxmox and access them remotely.

Gaming. Steam’s Proton layer has improved dramatically, but some titles still need Windows. We keep a Windows partition for the rare occasions we game on this machine.

Our Setup

  • Laptop: Lenovo ThinkPad with Ryzen AI 7 PRO, 28 GB RAM
  • OS: Fedora 43, KDE Plasma on X11
  • Terminal: Kitty with zsh
  • Editor: VS Code + Claude Code CLI
  • Browser: Vivaldi
  • Docker: Native (not Docker Desktop)

The same machine running Windows 11 used 4.2 GB at idle. Running Fedora with KDE, VS Code open, Docker running, and 12 browser tabs: 3.8 GB. Less than Windows used doing nothing.

The Takeaway

Fedora isn’t for everyone. If you need Adobe software or specific Windows applications, keep Windows. But if you’re a developer, sysadmin, or business owner who primarily uses a browser, terminal, and text editor — Fedora 43 is faster, lighter, more private, and more respectful of your hardware than Windows 11.

The learning curve is real but short. By week 3, we were more productive than we’d been on Windows.

Want to explore Linux for your business workstations? We handle server infrastructure and can help evaluate whether a Linux migration makes sense for your team.

Back to Blog