Products · Product
Fedora
Raised as a usability problem by 153 people on Hacker News over 17 years (2010–2026), in 140 threads.
No issue was raised by at least 3 people in 3 threads this year.
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Every issue, all time, most people first
Partitioning unclear what it will do to the diskUnreviewed
20102026- Two manual partitioning tools and one automatic one, none of which work well2024-12-25
- Installer couldn't figure out how to create partitions alongside Windows 112024-06-07
- Partitioning is undocumented, so it took 4 or 5 tries to get right2022-12-11
Installing non-free software takes lots of hassleUnreviewed
20102026- Installing Fedora required heavy googling and config hacking, so the user gave up2022-03-26
- Installing non-free software takes a lot of hassle on Fedora2020-07-08
- Installing Fedora 21/22 was slow, buggy, and required lots of tinkering2017-08-11
Upgrades work only once or twice, forcing full reinstallUnreviewed
20102026- Breaks on upgrades and is harder to recover from than Debian2025-02-05
- Upgrades only work once or twice, forcing a full reinstall to stay current2023-05-03
- Upgrading between Fedora releases repeatedly breaks the system2023-03-26
Trackpad needs many config tweaks before usableUnreviewed
20102026- Trackpad felt foreign and wrong to use on Linux2024-10-30
- Trackpad scrolling is too fast and no setting exposes scroll speed2022-08-29
- Trackpad needs many config tweaks before it feels usable2017-03-31
Touchpad moves pointer even after being switched offUnreviewed
20102026- Touchpad behaves erratically and screen drawing is annoyingly slow to respond2023-08-13
- Touchpad buttons behave differently after updates; auto-update checking re-enables after being turned off2022-05-11
- Touchpad moves the pointer even after being switched off via button2010-07-22
App installs require reboot; many apps not available as flatpaksUnreviewed
20102026- Default Fedora Flatpak repackaged apps confuse newcomers, who waste days finding working versions2025-02-14
- Double-clicked Flatpak or other files open in a text editor or show 'no application found'2021-09-26
- Installing apps requires a reboot each time, and many apps aren't available as flatpaks2019-07-15
Apps need repeated font and scaling changes between monitorsUnreviewed
20102026- Apps need repeated font and scaling adjustments whenever switching between monitors with different resolutions2023-11-07
- 4K monitor is really hard to use until font scaling is changed manually2022-04-24
- X11 apps show at the primary monitor's scale, so windows look wrong across screens and must be moved manually2021-10-18
Unreviewed issues were grouped by machine: Claude Haiku labelled each comment as a usability complaint, named what it's about and summed up the problem in a line, and a small model grouped similar problems. Nobody has checked them by hand. Expect mistakes.
The newest 50 complaints
- Must re-enter the disk password on every reboot, annoying during multi-reboot updates2026-10-24
- No UI toggle to stop receiver switching on; fixes require config files or package removal2026-03-20
- Choosing location on map or by typing city freezes the system, requiring reboot2026-03-20
- Adding a user to a group on a live system is hard because the documentation is poor2026-02-19
- Must manually install and sign Nvidia drivers, which break after updates2026-02-11
- Simple secret management for git and keys is one of many cumulative frustrations2026-02-08
- Video playback needs lots of manual package setup that new users can't figure out2026-01-17
- Hard to find the correct installation file and no prominent install guide link2026-01-15
- Needing RPM Fusion repos is confusing and poorly documented for beginners2026-01-12
- Installer defaults to 4K resolution on a 4K display, making it unusable2026-01-12
- Too many package methods (RPM, Snap, Flatpak, installers) make it hard to know what's installed2026-01-11
- Updater installs updates during shutdown frequently, annoying with full-disk encryption2026-01-11
- Hard to build newer software; dependency clashes, SELinux failures, and RPM build errors are hard to debug2026-01-11
- Configuring suspend-then-hibernate with LUKS and swap is non-intuitive and needs insider knowledge2026-01-10
- Installer is very hard to use, with no clear path through setup2025-12-23
- Nvidia system update made kernel unbootable; full freezes force hard shutdown2025-12-01
- Installer is terribly confusing and errors out consistently2025-11-20
- SELinux makes building RPM packages and self-building software miserable and requires extra config2025-10-16
- Installer was an embarrassment and functionally terrible, with the in-house tools hard to use2025-10-14
- Had to manually configure NVIDIA drivers during install2025-10-07
- Past OS upgrades broke things, forcing a clean reinstall and weeks of restoring app data2025-05-23
- Duplicate icons for the same app appear, making it confusing to tell which is which2025-05-23
- Experienced user can't navigate disk partitioning and can't reuse existing disk contents2025-03-18
- Default Fedora Flatpak repackaged apps confuse newcomers, who waste days finding working versions2025-02-14
- Breaks on upgrades and is harder to recover from than Debian2025-02-05
- Searching for an app takes about twice as many mouse clicks, via an unlabeled workspaces bar2025-02-05
- Crashes after updating log user out and lock screen, ignoring power settings2024-12-28
- Two manual partitioning tools and one automatic one, none of which work well2024-12-25
- Trackpad felt foreign and wrong to use on Linux2024-10-30
- System freezes for minutes when disk is busy, even with RAM free2024-10-27
- Two-finger gestures don't work on login screen, so users must right-click differently before logging in2024-10-16
- Desktop feels very slow compared to Windows on same hardware2024-10-06
- User has to manually check key software after major upgrades2024-09-30
- Managing packages across several containers and Flatpak makes upgrades time consuming and not smooth2024-09-27
- Packages scattered across containers and layers felt like a frankenstein setup, and upgrades were slow2024-09-27
- Hard to tell who must approve crypto packages; contact info was dead and outdated2024-09-11
- CLI tools in flatpaks are unpleasant to use, and containers need reinstalling tools2024-08-26
- GUI update looks frozen; no clear sense of progress while updating2024-07-31
- Couldn't figure out how to permanently choose a package mirror; many searches found no answer2024-07-31
- Wacom tablet scrolling broken by a config file that is hard to find2024-06-30
- Tablet scroll fix is hard to find and must be reapplied each time2024-06-29
- Mouse cursor disappears over the installer window, blocking installation2024-06-22
- Installer couldn't figure out how to create partitions alongside Windows 112024-06-07
- Installed system boots to login then black screen loops back to login on Nvidia2024-05-23
- Setup is manual; needed a second web server and many post-install tweaks2024-05-18
- Default Wayland installer runs at about 2fps on capable hardware2024-05-10
- Common needs not addressed in friendly GUI, requiring Linux internals knowledge2024-04-28
- Cannot pick a previous driver version or block updates without many terminal commands2024-03-18
- Can't tell or change which GPU driver is preconfigured, leaving the system unusable2024-01-23
- Text glitches, letters invisible and desktop blinks when moving mouse2023-11-12