Linux Mint as been in development for over 15 years. Its good for them to get some press coverage and positive attention.
As far as I can tell most people switching to Linux Mint are fairly happy with the experience beside some minor Linux quarks.
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Linux Mint has been my go-to distro for probably ten years. Just recently helped a friend transition from Windows 10 to Linux Mint and so far she’s been pretty happy with it. Thanks again Microsoft for your stupid hardware requirements for Windows 11. Makes it so much easier to get people to switch to Linux.
I’ve been using Linux Mint Debian Edition for about a year now it’s worked almost flawlessly. I love it.
Hm? Linux Mint got plenty of attention imo (deservedly so).
Just look how many articles are listed on distrowatch: https://distrowatch.com/table-mobile.php?distribution=mint
Personally I am still pissed that they dropped KDE, though.
That’s an immediate nope for me. Kde or nothing
Yeah, that was also when I left Linux Mint. :(
+1
KDE is is designed to be customized at the cost of user friendliness. Cinnamon has a lot customization but it isn’t as overwhelming and is much more stable. It also is GTK which is nice.
I’ve said it before, I think Cinnamon is a middle ground between Gnome amd KDE. If you almost like both, go for Cinnamon.
Yeah, great, you don’t like KDE. Good for you. What does it have to do with me liking KDE very much?
Because the Linux Mint team (I think it was on guy at that point) decided that KDE could not be adjusted to make the desktop they wanted. KDE isn’t designed to be made into a separate system and neither is modern gnome. Gnome 2 was ideal and that is why it was forked and turned into cinnamon.
Linux Mint aims to be simple and easy to use. I don’t believe KDE does that as well. The good news with KDE is that is is very customizable for those who like to tinker will the desktop.
I also think Linux Mint is heavily invested in GTK. Using KDE would involve a significant shift. What’s wrong with KDE Neon?
Yes, I understand their reasoning. I still want to use KDE and thus don’t use mint. What is your point? Please stop this.
Use Debian.
I am on linux since 2006. I know there are other distros…
Real question: Is it not possible to install KDE, even though they do not provide an ISO with it?
it’s not recommended, it causes massive issues with the built in programs and you will spend ore time fighting your system then just going with a native, I just tried this a few months back
Possible? Yes. Am I too lazy to do this plus troubleshoot it all the time? Yes.
I did install it via package manager back when I used this distro and it worked well, but some weeks after, I switched distros to Kubuntu. Now I’m using Arch btw. with latest KDE Plasma (I recommend this).
At this point, Arch should just rename itself to “Arch btw”.
True! I’m currently on Mint but want to try out KDE. So I probably will have a look at Fedora when I have the free time to do so.
If you want to play games then check out Nobara. It’s based on Fedora and made by the guy that created GE Proton
Gaming is not the main priority on a laptop but I keep it in mind, thanks!
If you don’t mind Snap, Kubuntu is also a great distro.
I am not sure if it is sorted now, but a couple of years ago Mint was plagued with issues related to wifi, so much so that I had to switch off from it.
There is, and there always will be issues, this is not going to change, much less in Linux where the hardware manufacturers are many, many times offering zero help and less documentation, but they pass, they’re fixed, and things advance and improve all the time. This happens in every OS. However we’re almost certainly safe here from changes done just for the sake of profit (with extremely rare exceptions which get fought back by the community, I’m looking at you, Canonical!), so I’d say we’re MUCH better off on this side of the fence.
Oh ya, I remember that. Luckily all issues are gone. Wifi is stable
Still not great
I don’t think that is the fault of anyone in the community
Interesting, it hasn’t been big enough an issue for me to get around to investigating yet but that might be the reason my my wifi speeds are lower than expected, stability hasn’t been an issue though.
Linux Mint as been in development for over 15 years. Its good for them to get some press coverage and positive attention.
As far as I can tell most people switching to Linux Mint are fairly happy with the experience beside some minor Linux quarks.
Linux Mint is great, but is outdated. In my opinion the Mint team should definitely separate itself from Ubuntu and stop making duplicate applications… They spend too much time and resources to separate servers to avoid Snap. LMDE is a good distro. With a little more attention it can become something bigger.
Snaps are crap. Not using them is one of the main reasons I’m considering switching to Mint
Linux Mint is not outdated, it always uses the up-to-date version of a supported LTS kernel. This is on purpose, to prefer stability over cutting edge.
You may prefer cutting edge (ex. AUR) over stability, that’s fine, but that doesn’t mean Mint is out-of-date.
Thank you for this. Im new to mint and Linux in general. After reading that comment I was concerned that mint wasnt safe because its old software.
they are migtstion to using their mint edge kernel as default
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They really need to update Mint though. Sure it is good… on old computers. Anything made the last couple of years will have issues due to an ancient kernel and mesa. We should stop calling it stable/lts and unstable, because users will always pick the one called stable, even if the ‘unstable’ one is the one that would in most cases work the best for desktop linux. Or at least we should separate the kernel and mesa away from the rest of the ‘stable’ packages, and include recent versions of that by default, to not scare away people with driver issues.
They always make sure to be on the latest version of a supported LTS kernel. It’s not old or outdated, it prefers a tried and tested, more stable kernel, over the newest but possibly not well supported kernel.
That said, you can simply switch kernels, even from
mintupdate’s GUI. This is what I did for my recent AMD graphics card.Also, they offer up-to-date drivers from the same channels Debian/Ubuntu does, and even make proprietary Nvidea drivers much easier than the Debian or Ubuntu they’re based on. So any driver issues in Mint are going to be worse in those two. Maybe you’re comparing it with Arch or Fedora, which are different experiences altogether.
I’m only saying this because I’ve seen a few videos about windows users switching to linux mint lately. Having to update the kernel for the computer to work is a common occurrance. IMO the newest available one should be the default one. We should strive towards giving new users the best possible first impression of linux.
And I am not. They stuck with old tech stack and do much of pointless drama. But wish them luck, they has their niche and are quite popular.
I’ve been using Mint for years now and I’m blissfully unaware of whatever drama is going on, or went on. It’s an OS people, not a vanguard of political or philosophical ideology.
Not really, people treat their distros like rednecks with a confederate flag. I’ve always found it worrisome.
Out of curiosity, since I switched from Windows to Mint recently so I’m not married to it just yet - what would be your recommended distro for Windows users that uses a better/newer tech stack? Mint worked out of the box for me, but if love to try other distros too if they’re better.
I think OP is talking about Mint’s Desktop Environment only.
If Mint works out of the box, pretty much any modern distro will. It’s about the kernel, not about an individual distro anymore. There’s nothing much special about individual distros except UI, and package management, of which Mint shares the latter with any Debian-based distro.
For the most part there are two things that are important when choosing a distro the “stack” (kernel, drivers, security patches) and “packages” (how often your software gets updated)
For something like Linux Mint which is based on Ubuntu LTS, it does major updates of the “stack” every 4 years with just security updates in the meantime. This means that newer hardware may not work fully due to lack of the latest drivers (and even then it’s edge cases), but you are getting a very stable base. The packages may also not be the very latest versions. Something like flatpaks can be a healthy compromise where you are getting the latest package updates, but you still have a rock solid stack.
Something like Arch would update it’s stack far more often but could potentially not boot with a newer kernel with your hardware eg more risky. Fedora is something that would be a newer stack than Ubuntu LTS but also newer packages. Wouldn’t be as new as Arch but would also be more stable as a daily driver.
To add to this, I found that Bazzite was a great middle ground for me, and it worked out of the box for everyday needs as well as gaming, even with my Nvidia card.
I am just now dipping my toes into the Linux desktop life with a Bazzite dual boot. I’m very impressed so far. The Steam Deck finally won me over on the Idea of switching.
I would look at OpenSUSE and try whichever flavor meets your needs. It’s more niche than Ubuntu but on vanilla installation is easily as user-friendly. The only downside is that if you start messing with stuff, tutorials are not written with SUSE/zypper in mind as often.
I’ve been running Tumbleweed with Nvidia drivers for about 6 months and have had basically no issues. Switch between X11Plasma/KDE when I just need something direct, and Wayland/Hyprland when I want to mess about and I’ve not had to blow everything away yet.
@doctortofu @kenkenken ZorinOs?
