Generated via ublue's countme script https://github.com/ublue-os/countme/blob/main/growth_global.svg
Here is Fedora's upstream graph to compare:
this is the distro I am hoping to switch to.
this post was submitted on 19 Oct 2025
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I started trying out Bazzite yesterday and itβs been great so far! HDR is not as simple to get working as their marketing would make you think, but once you know what to do itβs not so bad.
Alβs Iβm having trouble getting OpenRGB working correctly.
But other than that itβs been pretty good. Itβs harder to tweak than Ubuntu (what I was previously using) but works much much better out of the box.
I am one of them! Converted my main machine this weekend. The worst problem I have had is getting the settings right for a Jellyfin container. Got all my games running, even City of Heroes (using Wine / Lutris). Takes a little getting used to when I have mostly used Debian-based distros in the past.
Lemmy has a similar number of active users and makes about 3K . That money would be good for the ecosystem and could help fund upstream projects (I am sure wine could use the money for example). But they will have to use fundraising methods similar to lemmy to reach that number (popup, good message etc)
The donate page is kinda a mess IMO to be honest. There should be one organisation to donate to otherwise this creates overchoice.
Upstream, the Fedora KDE Plasma edition is also doing well. Nice to see that within the first release after promotion to a full edition.
Bazzite is absolutely great, if you just want a very reliable system that just works and goes out of your way. I lean nowadays way more into recommending Bazzite to new Linux users, since there is literally not much to initially set up, no matter the hardware. Gaming works perfectly fine and any regular users software needs get easily satisfied by the Bazaar.
I am too much of a tinkerer for Bazzite, but itβs still the distro I recommend the most for new users. If they decide they need more freedom, then Fedora KDE is the next step I recommend.
Most Windows expats should be completely happy with Bazzite.
I see what you mean. Sometimes I wish I could tinker with it the same way as I was used to with Arch. But in the end, it just works and goes out of my way.
It might be beginner friendly, but it doesn't mean you can't do pretty much anything else you'd want to do on any other distro. It's just a different process.
Agreed. I'm a software dev and I also have a ton of weird and niche hobbies I use my PC for and I've never run into anything I felt like Bazzite prevented me from doing. Even if they didn't offer the super convenient developer edition.
For example, the immutable root partition doesn't stop me from adding udev rules in /etc.
In fact, DistroBox gives me the freedom to use any package from any distro I want, including the Arch AUR.
Anyone who says Bazzite is "too limiting" doesn't understand how it actually works.
Absolutely. I switched to Bazzite and it is everything I wanted from the switch. So painless. I have yet to find a game I want to play that wont play. Ive been using it for all my normal computer tasks. Its been the best transition to linux Iβve experienced as ive tried in the past but always hit some sort of snag
I havent tried it but I cant see how it can be better than arch Linux with its AUR. Almost all software that exists is right there in its latest version.
Fedora feels a lot more limited. I think just because bazzite is novel, a lot of people are trying it now. I dont think the popularity will last. People will understand that they get many issues with it and go back to a normal Linux.
back to a normal Linux.
What's normal linux?
You have complete access to the AUR via Distrobox. Also, how do you conclude that it has "many issues"? I do get that Bazzite might not be for everyone, but please, elaborate.
I'm surprised Aurora is so low on the list. I've been loving it on my Dev laptop. Huuuuge improvement over Ubuntu. It feels so much snappier, ironically.
Do you know whats the difference between aurora and bazzite? Its from the same team and looks a bit similiar so I am a bit confused about it
Supposedly its focused on the Dev experience rather than the gamer experience but I also do development on Bazzite without issue. So I guess the real answer is "not much"
Booted up Bazzite and everything just worked except League of Legends anticheat and Linux SteamVR. Supposedly SteamVR got patched. So League is the last thing keeping me on Windows 11. Could probably boot to Win11 as needed anytime I want to though
Yu could just... stop playing League.
Yeah vanguard fucked up linux compatibility...
Same, I'm not gaming, but this distro for me that I find just working. I used Aurora for a bit before making the switch.
Man. Props to the team. At least from my perspective (I'm not into distro hoping anymore) they came out of nowhere and people absolutely loved them. I should give them a test on a VM, specially since I've been recommending against them because I didn't think they are a good fit for llinux newcomers
Bazzite cured my desire to distro hunt ever again
Gonna install CachyOS tomorrow.
I know I'm late but ...
spoiler
It took me a while to backup all my game saves and memes from Windows 10 because Proton Drive limits you to 2GB unless you pay and if you don't pay your subscription they delete your email address. Could've gone with another provider but I was due for a spring cleaning anyway.
I was also trying to get through my Itch library to save me the hassle of figuring out how to work Lutris but then the Steam Next Fest came and I gave up on clearing my backlog since I have a hard deadline of the next Steam Hardware Survey.
Perhaps a bit unconventional, but CloudFlare R2 gives 10GB of free storage accessible as S3 with rclone.
I know I have other options, Google Drive for example, I just didn't want to use anything new so I did things the hard way.
Started my EndeavoursOS gaming PC. Oh no, my new-Steam lists the game as windows only?
Proceeds to install proton and related software and bam, I can game.
I know it's not Bazzite but there is sure as hell little reason not to use Linux any more except for enterprise computers and laptops.
Steam installs proton on its own when you just click the button insettings so you don't even need to install proton. Just works
What happened the 3rd week of April? Fedora got a massive spike there. The other one has a small bump at that time as well
I thought it was just my YouTube algorithm showing me install bazzite. Hehe guess there was a trend
I think its hitting a critical mass, that much upward growth is very encouraging to see. I was able to convince a handful of friends to switch to linux due to windows getting so bad, they liked the extremely simple approach Bazzite has. I think its better than Mint in this regard, Fedora has come such a long way.
What is bazzite doing differently compared to mint?
I did my first fedora atomic install yesterday. I'm doing my part!
That's amazing. Been using it for 6 months, loving it.
Question for all Bazzite/Aurora users: what do you use to make backups of your machine?
Iβm using Pikabackup to make backups of /home, but Iβm not sure if thereβs a better way?
I don't currently backup /home.
You def don't need to backup anything on the OS drive since rollbacks are built into the system and it initializes every time you boot.
on my CachyOS/Arch and NixOS machines I just use borg to backup to my dedicated server. Very easy to do. I have a couple alias' set up so I can view my backups easily through my file manager on whatever local machine. Essentially all you have to do is make a script to tell it what files/folders to backup, what to potentially ignore, how often you want to backup, the time of day you want it to happen, can also tell it to delete old backups. In NixOS it's painfully easy to set up and can be done within the configuration.nix. On other distros the only difference is you have to set up a service and timer for it.
but I like it, it's straight forward, never had issues with it.
Syncthing to my server
I use Duplicacy, personally. All you need to backup is your home directory since it's immutable.
I'm using Fedora KDE and haven't set up backups on my desktop PC yet, but on Linux servers (both at home and "in the cloud") I usually use Borgbackup with Borgmatic. Every system has two backup destinations: My home server and a storage VPS, both via SSH.
Looks like Pika Backup is a GUI for Borgbackup, so it should be a good choice. Vorta is also popular. GNOME apps tend to focus on simple, easy to use GUIs with minimal customization, so it's possible Vorta is more configurable. I haven't tried either.
Don't forget the 3-2-1 policy: you should have at least three copies of your data, in at least two locations, one of which is off-site (cloud, a NAS at a friend's or family member's house, etc). If you're looking for cloud storage, Hetzner storage boxes are great value. Some VPS providers have good sales (less than $3/TB/month) during Black Friday.
Pika should be fine, look into borg or just a simple Rsync setup if you want something a bit more detailed. But personally with backups I want it as simple and reliable as possible.
Pika is a GUI for Borg.
Rsync is doable, but it's not great since you essentially only have one backup set. If a file gets corrupted and you don't notice before the next backup is done, you won't be able to restore it. Borg's deduping is good enough to keep lots of history - I do daily backups and keep every day for the past two weeks, every week for the past three months, and every month indefinitely (until I run out of space and need to prune it). Borgmatic handles pruning the backups that are out of retention.
Shilling works.