Ultramarine Linux 40 continues to be one fine unofficial Fedora Spin

In 2023, I reviewed Ultramarine Linux, which was based on Fedora 39, calling it the “desktop of the year.” Since then, the developers have released a new version based on Fedora 40 (which is one release behind the official Fedora distribution). This new release vastly improves the documentation experience, fixes numerous bugs, and polishes the distribution to a gleaming, sparkling shine.

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As with my original review, I opted for the Flagship version, which uses the Budgie desktop. Out of the box, the layout looks and feels instantly familiar and defaults to a dark theme (a practice that has become quite common with many Linux distributions).

When I review a Linux distribution (or even an app) that defaults to a dark theme, the first thing I do is configure it for the lighter side of things — because dark themes and my eyes do not get along well.

Installer changes coming

Before I get into this, I want to point out that the developers are preparing to ditch Fedora’s Anaconda installer and go with their in-house-built Readymade. As of now, Readymade is not ready for prime time, so you won’t see it in Ultramarine 40. Hopefully, we’ll see this new installer in version 41 of the OS.

Ultramarine Wiki

Also, the developers have really upped their game with the documentation found in the Ultramarine Wiki, where you’ll find information about installing and using the distribution. The Wiki contains some pretty valuable information on things like installing codecs, NVIDIA drivers, and setting up backups.

But what you’re really here for is to find out about the Ultramarine Linux distribution itself. Let’s dive in.

Out of the box

As I mentioned, Ultramarine opts for a dark theme out of the box, which is done quite well (if you’re a fan of dark themes). Personally, I prefer light themes, which are easier on my eyes. Since I don’t usually view the desktop at night, it makes sense for me to go the lighter route.

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The default Budgie layout is fairly straightforward: a panel, start menu, system tray, and desktop icons. It’s standard and works well for users of any skill level. However, Budgie is all about customizations, and it took me very little time to configure the desktop to my liking. All I had to do was right-click the desktop, select Budgie Desktop Settings, go to Style, and configure as needed. I also customized the Bottom Dock (switching the panel to Dock Mode) and Desktop (disabling desktop icons).

After that, it was just a matter of adding apps to the Dock by right-clicking an open app’s icon and clicking the Star button to add it to the Favorites.

Windows Shuffler and Hotcorners

With Ultramarine’s Flagship edition (Budgie), there’s a tiling feature enabled by default, as well as the Hotcorners option. The tiling feature (found in Menu > Accessories > Window Shuffler Control) allows you to enable or disable the Shuffler drag-and-drop edge tiling feature and lists the quarter and half tiling keyboard shortcuts (such as Top-left – Ctrl + Alt + 7).

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The Hotcorners feature is disabled by default. To enable it, open the Budgie Hotcorners Settings app and click the On/Off slider until it’s in the On position. Next, click on the hotcorner you want to configure, toggle its associated On/Off slider to the On position, and then select what you want that hotcorner to do when used.

Pre-installed apps

As far as pre-installed apps, you get the usual collection: Firefox, LibreOffice, Gedit (text editor), and the Rhythmbox Music Player. You’ll also find the Wallstreet wallpaper manager and GNOME Software for installing and managing applications. GNOME Software makes it easy to install the apps you need.

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Because Ultramarine Linux is based on Fedora, you can bet it includes the Flatpak universal package manager. The developers have also baked Flatpak support into GNOME Files, so you’ll find tons of software to install (even proprietary apps like Spotify and Slack).

Ultramarine Linux includes all the codecs you’ll need to play nearly any type of multimedia, which is a departure from Fedora, where those codecs must be installed by the user due to licensing restrictions in the US.

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Upgrades

When I opened GNOME Software, the first thing that caught my eye was the update to Ultramarine Linux 41. This was a surprise, as the most recent download was for version 40. Nevertheless, I clicked Download as prompted and waited for it to complete.

My only issue with Fedora (and many Fedora-based distributions) is that an update often requires a restart. Unlike many distributions that only require a restart if the kernel is updated, Fedora-based distributions run the update during a restart. So, after the download was completed, I had to click Restart & Update to apply everything. Since this was a distribution upgrade, it took a bit longer than a standard update.

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Keep in mind, however, that this is Linux, so you don’t have to worry about an upgrade requiring a restart going south or taking hours (as Windows upgrades sometimes can). All told, the upgrade from Ultramarine Linux 40 to 41 took roughly 20 minutes, and I’m perfectly OK with that.

Performance

Given how incredible Fedora’s performance is, it should come as no surprise that Ultramarine Linux performs like a champ – it’s quite fast. Apps open immediately and run smoothly. Then again, I’ve found that just about any distribution based on Fedora performs quite well, and Ultramarine Linux is no exception.

My overall take

Just like when I reviewed this Linux distribution the first time around, Ultramarine 40 (and then 41) was an absolute delight. I will also add that, upon updating to version 41, I found the desktop as a whole included even more refinement and eked out a bit more performance than version 40. The difference was subtle, but it was there. Considering I ran Ultramarine Linux in a virtual machine with only 3GB of RAM and 2 CPU cores, I found the performance even more impressive.

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If you like the idea of having a Fedora-based distribution that ships with “sane defaults,” so the out-of-box experience is brilliant from the start, Ultramarine Linux does not disappoint. Of course, the Budgie desktop is certainly a thing to behold.

For anyone looking to distro hop to a Fedora-based distribution that’s ready to go out of the box, you can’t go wrong with Ultramarine Linux.