Whenever I hear about Linux distros/projects that aim to make the new user experience a lot smoother I get really excited. That was also the case when I first heard about Nobara Linux (or Nobara, for short).

To my surprise, Nobara is not only focused on being "more point and click friendly" for the average new user, but also on offering "a better gaming, streaming, and content creation experience out of the box."

First things first, I can't talk about Nobara Linux without also talking about Fedora. This is because Nobara is based on the latter.

It's a modified version of Fedora Linux (the Workstation Version) created by a developer called GloriousEggroll (which might sound familiar since he's also the creator of Proton-GE, a "beefed-up" version of Proton that boasts custom patches and tools all in the name of gaming).

One of the main things that make Nobara Linux a standout Linux distro (at least for me) is that it's not just a wanna-be gaming distro with two or three gaming-related apps slapped on top of a typical Linux OS.

Oh no, in regards to gaming, Nobara Linux adds WINE dependencies, OBS-studio, third-party code packages (for Gstreamer and for video playback, for instance), third-party drivers (such as NVIDIA drivers), and various other small but impressive package fixes.

As mentioned before, the changes are not only skin deep. Nobara Linux is really serious when it comes to improvements. Hence, users get a heavily modified Kernel with cherry-picked zen patches that also supports OpenRGB, adds a lot of SteamDeck patches, AMD GPU drivers for older cards, Microsoft patches (Surface support), improved compatibility with both ASUS and Lenovo Legion gaming laptops.

The list of improvements doesn't stop here. The Kernel is also configured with ashmem, binder, and android support for Waydroid and it includes patches for better support for fractional scaling, variable refresh rates, auto-detection of GPUs (automatic installation of drivers), and many many others.

A complete list of all the gaming-oriented updates and general usage improvements can be found on the project's main page.

Because I am mostly a GNOME user, I really wanted to try the GNOME version of Nobara. Nothing too out of the ordinary to report here, as the experience is very much "clean" since Nobara's implementation of GNOME is not as "aggressive" as that of other big distros (not going to name names, but you can guess at what I'm referring to).

There are five versions of Nobara, the Official KDE-based version, a GNOME version, a KDE version (with a clean version of KDE), a Steam-HTPC (this is a KDE-based distro that is customized to look and feel like Steam Deck), and Steam-Handheld (still uses KDE, but it's mostly aimed at mobile devices).

A cool aspect is that the first four versions of Nobara also come with NVIDIA-packed ISOs (meaning the NVIDIA drivers are pre-installed).

I found the Official version of Nobara Linux to be quite pleasant (at least for my taste). One thing I really appreciate about Nobara Linux is the Welcome app.

Sure, most modern Linxu distros also feature a Welcome app, but this Welcome app is really useful. There's a lot you can do directly from the Welcome app and that's a really important thing for new users.

For instance, you can download and install all the required codecs for video decoding, install NVIDIA and AMD GPU drivers, install apps, change the OSes layout and color schemes (you can choose between multiple layouts that emulate other famous OSes such as Windows 10 and 11, or even macOS).

Other than that, Nobara Linux comes with its own unique graphical package manager, and controller support is excellent (but then again, controller support is pretty much excellent on most Linux distros the last couple of years).

The reason why Nobara Linux only ships with GNOME and KDE (and will most probably continue to do so for the foreseeable future) is that both GNOME and KDE support VRR (variable refresh rate) on Wayland (which is a must when it comes to gaming on Linux).

Nobara Linux features a Calamares installer (which is not the best, but it's not the worst either, overall the installation process is quite straightforward).

However, the project doesn't feature a minimal/network install. This is also a good time to point out that there are no torrent downloads available (the project sticks with ISOs - mainly because of its packed update schedule). Nobara also makes do with SELinux in favor of AppARmor.

Nobara Linux disables Secure Boot. This lack of compatibility is to be expected when we're talking with heavily modified/custom kernels. This also means that Nobara is usually a bit late when it comes to Fedora's big updates. This is mostly because Nobara has tons of custom packages (including Fedora base packages) and because usually big releases are followed by tons of bug fixes.

Having said all that, should you use Nobara Linux? As with all things in life (but Linux distros in particular), "it depends." There's no denying that Nobara Linux has its own identity and I really love the project's direction and mission.

Even though it's based on Fedora (which, I have to say, is one of my favorite distros to date), it feels very different somehow.

When it comes to gaming or content creation, Nobara is bound to offer users a smoother experience and some decent little gaming performance gains. Of course, the fact that it only ships with KDE and GNOME could potentially be a drawback for some users.