Exploring Fedora Spins with Alternative Desktops: A Journey Through Miracle-WM, Sway, and KDE Plasma Mobile

Recently, I decided to take Fedora Linux for a spin, diving into some of its alternative desktop environments. The focus? Miracle-WM, Sway, and the Fedora KDE Plasma Mobile Spin, all of which came out with ISOs in Fedora version 41. These were the spins that intrigued me the most, so I spent some time getting to know them and seeing how they measured up.

Here’s a rundown of my experience with each, along with some first impressions.

Miracle-WM: A Diamond in the Rough

Image courtesy of Fedora: Fedora Miracle-WM Spin

Let’s kick things off with Miracle-WM. If you’re familiar with System76’s Cosmic desktop, you’ll find Miracle-WM’s approach somewhat familiar. It feels like an alpha version of something that could eventually be fantastic, but as it stands, it’s still very much a work in progress.

One thing that threw me off was the panel on the left. It looks like a dock, but there’s only one icon – to show the application drawer. I wasn’t sure if that’s the design intention, though it makes sense given Miracle-WM’s focus on keeping things minimal and out of the way. It would be great if we could pin some apps to it, though.

The only other issue I ran into was the lack of an obvious way to adjust monitor settings. The config app that comes installed only covers basic settings that can be adjusted - which did not include anything for the display, and you might need to dig into configuration files to tweak things, kind of like with Hyprland. While not a major problem, the monitor configuration is definitely something that could be improved.

That said, I’m really looking forward to the development of Miracle-WM. The project has a clear goal: to create a tiling window manager that anyone can use, with less of a focus on expert users. If it can leverage something like Hyprland, but with a user-friendly process for configuration, that would be the sweet spot.

Overall, Miracle-WM feels like it’s on the edge of something great, but there are a few rough edges to smooth out. I’m excited to see where it goes!

Sway: Lean and Mean, But Not Quite My Style

Next up, I tested Sway, a tiling window manager that’s designed to be lightweight, minimalistic, and fast. If you’re a fan of no-nonsense window managers, Sway is for you. I first heard of it due to the drama between its creator and the developer of Hyprland, and that piqued my curiosity when I saw it as one of the Fedora Spins that was available.

The most obvious difference between Sway and Miracle-WM was the lack of the dock/panel that appeared in Miracle-WM on the left side of the screen. Instead, Sway opts for a top panel, which, if I’m not mistaken, is powered by waybar. This panel provides basic info like network status, but it’s otherwise very utilitarian.

Image courtesy of Fedora: Fedora Sway Spin
Sway is unapologetically simple. It’s a classic tiling window manager — everything stays out of the way unless you need it. The panel, while functional, felt a little too plain. On the plus side, it comes with a floating note that briefly explains how to launch apps, kind of like KRunner in KDE Plasma, which is a nice touch for quickly running commands.

The window management experience in Sway felt quite similar to Miracle-WM. There are no flashy animations when moving windows, which I can appreciate for the sake of efficiency, but the lack of polish was a bit jarring. The keyboard shortcuts for window resizing and movement were also fairly similar between the two environments, which makes sense, given their common goal of simplifying window management.

While I appreciated the minimalism of Sway, I found that Hyprland clicked better for me. Both Sway and Hyprland come with the challenge of manual configuration, but thanks to resources like Stephan Rabbe’s M4LW dotfiles (https://github.com/mylinuxforwork/dotfiles), configuring things became a lot easier. Much like Arch’s archinstall command, tools like these make setting up a system much smoother.

I definitely enjoyed Hyprland more, although I’ll admit, I spent more time with it than with Sway — about a week with Hyprland and just an hour or so with Sway.

KDE Plasma Mobile: A Beautiful Surprise

Now, for the last spin in my testing, I gave the Fedora KDE Plasma Mobile Spin a try. As someone who’s been using standard KDE Plasma on-and-off for years, I wasn’t sure what to expect from the mobile version. I’d seen some reviews online, like The Linux Cast’s take on Plasma Mobile on an actual smartphone, so I had a rough idea of what it might look like. Check out their video here.

Image courtesy of: Fedora KDE Mobile Spin

To my surprise, I was impressed. The interface is clean, polished, and incredibly intuitive. Honestly, I found myself enjoying it more than the traditional desktop version of Plasma. The mobile version feels like it was designed with purpose — a solid blend of aesthetics and usability.

That said, there were a few minor annoyances. The dock at the bottom of the screen, which features three buttons — a square, the KDE logo, and an ‘X’ — felt a little too thick at times. The dock often appeared to be three times the height of these icons, which seemed excessive. I’m guessing this could be related to touchscreen optimizations, but it still felt off. I’d love to see the dock height match the more balanced proportions of the dock/menu panel in the regular KDE Plasma desktop.

Another minor issue I ran into was with the Konsole app. Even after disabling the virtual keyboard, I couldn’t get rid of the pesky keyboard shortcuts for keys like Alt, Delete, and Esc. It’s a small gripe, but one that stood out.

Despite these minor quirks, the KDE Plasma Mobile Spin left a lasting impression. It shows real promise for an open-source mobile OS. I don’t have a device to fully test it on (I’m mainly an iPhone/iPad user and my Samsung Galaxy tablet isn’t supported by most of these types of projects), but I’m still excited about where this could go. Currently, compatible devices seem to include older models like the Nexus 5 or phones from Pine64, so if you have a compatible device, this could be worth your time.

Final Thoughts: A Diverse Linux Playground

Testing out these different Fedora spins was like going on a whirlwind tour of Linux’s alternative desktop environments. Some were rough around the edges, while others were surprisingly polished. But in each case, there was something to appreciate.

Miracle-WM shows a ton of potential, though it’s still very much in its infancy. It is still very much a work-in-progress, but I believe it will evolve into something significant.

Sway, while functional, didn’t really win me over. I still prefer Hyprland for its flexibility and ease of use once configured. Sway is definitely lean, but I think I’ll pass for now.

And the KDE Plasma Mobile spin? It was an very enjoyable. I didn’t expect to enjoy it as much as I did. Sure, it has a few quirks to iron out, but it’s clear that KDE is onto something special with this project.

In the end, Fedora’s diverse spins provide a unique playground for those looking to experiment. The Linux desktop ecosystem is more varied and customizable than ever, and this experience only deepened my appreciation for it. There’s always something new to try, tweak, and make your own.