I tested Fedora Miracle: Why Linux needs a ‘broken’ flag for orphaned spins

fedora-miracle-screenshot-2026-03-31-135109 — Screenshot by Jack Wallen/ZDNET

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ZDNET’s key takeaways

Fedora Miracle blends a tiling window manager with this top distro.
Unfortunately, the distribution isn’t worth using, and it points to a problem.
I’ve experienced this issue before, and developers need to know how frustrating it can be.

There are a figurative metric ton of Linux distributions available. That vast amount of choice can cause problems for some, especially for new users. However, there’s a much bigger problem that needs to be addressed: Broken software that isn’t labeled as such.

This tripped me up a week ago, when I installed Fedora Miracle for testing and wasted two hours on it before figuring out why it was unusable.

Fedora Miracle leans heavily into the Miracle tiling window manager. Tiling window managers are fascinating. On paper, they sound like the most efficient way to interact with your desktop. You open an app, and the tiling window manager automatically places it to make the most of your current screen real estate. You don’t have to open an app, place it where you want it, and then adjust its size to fit the screen.

Sounds great, doesn’t it? It’s like window snapping on steroids.

The problem is that many tiling window managers are overly complicated. To use these window managers, you have to forget how you’ve interacted with your desktop for years and learn keyboard shortcuts.

That’s a lot.

Also: This fun tiling window manager may be rough around the edges – but it has big potential

But not all tiling window managers are created equal. Take, for instance, the Fedora Miracle spin. This version of Fedora Linux uses the Miracle Window Manager (Miracle WM, for short), which aims to vastly simplify learning and using.

In theory.

The Miracle that wasn’t

I’ve used Miracle before, and it seemed like a solid entry in the tiling window manager space. So, I decided to try its new(ish) spin to see if it succeeds at the task.

Miracle WM is based on Canonical’s Mir Display Server and somewhat resembles i3 and Sway. This new take on the tiling window manager is highly configurable, supports customizable keyboard shortcuts, allows tiled and floating windows on the same workspace, offers animations for window transitions/movements, and includes a plugin system for adding other features and capabilities.

That’s when things took a turn for the worse.

The Miracle Window manager, for some time, depended on the nw-shell. Unfortunately, Miracle-WM has transitioned from nw-shell to QuickShell, which is based on DankMaterialShell, for Fedora 44. Because of this transition, the Miracle SIG (Standardized Information Gathering ) has orphaned those packages, and Fedora Miracle has yet to make the change to DankMaterialShell..

The key to this is soon, because the current iteration of Fedora Miracle still contains nw-shell… which is broken.

The fix Linux needs

This sort of thing happens. I’ve seen it occur many times over the past few decades with open-source software, but such transitions can happen fairly quickly and seamlessly. In this case, however, the Fedora Miracle seems to have been broken for a while, and devs neglected to mention this on the official spin site. It took me considerable digging to find out why things weren’t working during my review.

That’s a big problem, one that could lead to a lot of frustration… especially with those new to Linux. When projects are in a state of brokenness, the developers need to flag it as such. Front and center on the distribution’s main page, display something like “Warning: This software is currently broken, and we’re working to fix it.” Then they need to remove the download files, so those who don’t read such warnings can’t download the app/OS and install it, only to find out after the fact that it’s broken.

Hopefully, the transition to DankMaterialShell will happen soon (the transition was decided in February 2026), so Fedora Miracle can live up to its name.

With that in mind, let’s talk about the current state of Fedora Miracle. Just remember: That which is broken will soon be unbroken.

What to expect with Fedora Miracle

The first thing to expect from the current build of Fedora Miracle is… not much.

There’s supposed to be a top bar in the Miracle Window Manager, but no matter how many times I installed Fedora Miracle, or upgraded Fedora — that rascally top bar refused to show itself. I tested this on both Virt-Manager (using KVM) and VirtualBox.

Also: I installed this Arch-based distro my way in under 5 minutes – so can you

Oddly enough, the nwg-panel Settings app did open, so I thought there was hope. I moved the panel to different locations and resized the panel with no luck.

That’s a shame, because a panel is a crucial aspect of the tiling window manager.

At the time, I had no idea of the changes Miracle WM was going through, so I decided to spin up a Ubuntu virtual machine and install Miracle-WM with:

sudo snap install miracle-wm –classic

Guess what? Miracle, installed via Snap (the suggested method), doesn’t work either.

Fun times.

My last-ditch effort was inspired by the possibility that the issue stemmed from running Fedora Miracle as a virtual machine. I tried with both Virt-Manager/KVM and VirtualBox. To test that theory, I burned the Fedora Miracle ISO as a bootable USB drive and ran it on a laptop to see what would happen.

Same outcome.

I installed Fedora Miracle on two different virtual machine apps and on bare metal — with the same results. That’s when I dug deeper and discovered the real problem.

Why is this bad for Linux?

There are three main reasons why this situation is bad, not just for Fedora Miracle, but for Linux in general.

It undermines trust.
It repels new Linux users.
It wastes people’s time and effort.

Linux is on a serious uptick at the moment, and with the new changes in Wine 11, I predict that will continue. Now more than ever, Linux developers need to be extra careful about the status of their software.

If you know something is broken, flag it. Transparency is the heart and soul of open-source software.

I spent over two hours trying to get Fedora Miracle to a working state, but it simply wasn’t happening. It was not only a waste of my time but also very frustrating.

Imagine how that would make someone new to Linux feel? My guess is that they’d go running back to Windows or MacOS and never look back.

This isn’t a good look for Linux, especially with it growing in popularity.

And if you break a user’s trust, you might never get it back.

As for other tiling window managers to try, my favorite is Hyprland via the Stratos Linux distribution.

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Bree Lambert

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Recent Reviews

I Wish My Brother Had Been Diagnosed With Schizophrenia Before He Turned 18

Do you ever walk past a person on the streets exhibiting mental health issues and wonder what happened to their family? I have a brother—or at least, I used to. I worry about where he is and hope he is safe. He hasn’t taken my call since 2014.

James and his brother as young children playing together before his brother became sick. James is on the right and his brother is on the left.

When I was 13, I had a very bad day. I was in the back of the car, and what I remember most was the world-crushing sound violently panging off every surface: he was pounding his fists into the steering wheel, and I worried it would break apart. He was screaming at me and my mother, and I remember the web of saliva and tears hanging over his mouth. His eyes were red, and I knew this day would change everything between us. My brother was sick.

Nearly 20 years later, I still have trouble thinking about him. By the time we realized he was mentally ill, he was no longer a minor. The police brought him to a facility for the standard 72-hour hold, where he was diagnosed with paranoid delusional schizophrenia. Concluding he was not a danger to himself or others, they released him.

There was only one problem: at 18, my brother told the facility he was not related to us and that we were imposters. When they let him out, he refused to come home.

My parents sought help and even arranged for medication, but he didn’t take it. Before long, he disappeared.

My brother’s decline and disappearance had nothing to do with the common narratives about drug use or criminal behavior. He was sick. By the time my family discovered his condition, he was already 18 and legally independent from our custody.

The last time he let me visit, I asked about his bed. I remember seeing his dirty mattress on the floor beside broken glass and garbage. I also asked about the laptop my parents had gifted him just a year earlier. He needed the money, he said—and he had maxed out my parents’ credit card.

In secret from my parents, I gave him all the cash I had saved. I just wanted him to be alright.

My parents and I tried texting and calling him; there was no response except the occasional text every few weeks. But weeks turned into months.

Before long, I was graduating from high school. I begged him to come. When I looked in the bleachers, he was nowhere to be seen. I couldn’t help but wonder what I had done wrong.

The last time I heard from him was over the phone in 2014. I tried to tell him about our parents and how much we all missed him. I asked him to be my brother again, but he cut me off, saying he was never my brother. After a pause, he admitted we could be friends. Making the toughest call of my life, I told him he was my brother—and if he ever remembers that, I’ll be there, ready for him to come back.

I’m now 32 years old. I often wonder how different our lives would have been if he had been diagnosed as a minor and received appropriate care. The laws in place do not help families in my situation.

My brother has no social media, and we suspect he traded his phone several years ago. My family has hired private investigators over the years, who have also worked with local police to try to track him down.

One private investigator’s report indicated an artist befriended my brother many years ago. When my mother tried contacting the artist, they said whatever happened between them was best left in the past and declined to respond. My mom had wanted to wish my brother a happy 30th birthday.

My brother grew up in a safe, middle-class home with two parents. He had no history of drug use or criminal record. He loved collecting vintage basketball cards, eating mint chocolate chip ice cream, and listening to Motown music. To my parents, there was no smoking gun indicating he needed help before it was too late.

The next time you think about a person screaming outside on the street, picture their families. We need policies and services that allow families to locate and support their loved ones living with mental illness, and stronger protections to ensure that individuals leaving facilities can transition into stable care. Current laws, including age-based consent rules, the limits of 72-hour holds, and the lack of step-down or supported housing options, leave too many families without resources when a serious diagnosis occurs.

Governments and lawmakers need to do better for people like my brother. As someone who thinks about him every day, I can tell you the burden is too heavy to carry alone.

James Finney-Conlon is a concerned brother and mental health advocate. He can be reached at [email protected].

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