Linux Mint Forums

Keeping what could be a long story short:
I had been a Mac user for a good twenty years but had been becoming more and more uncomfortable with Apple's stuff for a lot of reasons, don't like the hardware, don't like the monotony of going past tens years of basically the same UI, and very much did not like Apple's business practices.
I have had my eye on Linux for quite a few years. I have always really liked the idea of Linux but it had never seemed quite ready yet.
Last year I had two Mac Minis die on me and that was kinda the last straw for me. I got a used PC and started distro surfing. I tried a metric buttload of distros for about 5 months and then installed Mint13/Cinnamon and felt right at home. Mint12 was almost there but 13 just hit the spot.
The best compliment I can give the Mint team is to say that I have hardly had to learn anything using MCE. Mint is just that easy. I have done a few things in the terminal but none of what I did there did I actually have to do. Just me fiddling around out of curiosity.
For my use case Mint13 is pretty much ready out of the box and all you really need to do is download some things in the Software Center.
I am genuinely impressed by how well everything is done in Mint amd I am one of those snooty "Mac Guys". Or at least I used to be.
I also really enjoy joining the Linux community. It's really a breath of fresh air. There is an incredibly stifling orthodoxy in the Mac world compared to the open atmosphere you find here.
With Mint13, Linux has fully become an OS anyone can use, as easy or easier than Windows or OSX. That I am happy using it is proof of that.

My friend is a snooty Mac guy, and he constantly argued with me about how Mac is so much better for months. He would not accept that there are other OS's with different pros as well. While I do admire Steve Jobs' managerial style, and creativity oriented software what I learned is, to use what works for me. Apple is used primarily for entertainment, and art content creation and distribution. They make killer mobile devices as well with a walled software garden. I was running Ubuntu just before this, but the default interface was limited in my experience. I was aware that Linux Mint is more avant garde when it comes to the GUI and software packages included, and this coupled with a recommendation from a friend made me take the plunge. I tried the KDE version because I wanted eye candy, and I was not dissapointed. In many ways it rivals the Apple OS interface. Now how you use your computer and what software you need, I think will most likely determine which you use.

I am also a long-time Apple/Mac user (+25 years) and agree with InkKnife that Mint is very easy to install and use--at least for Mac users! Also, like InkKnife, I've become disillusioned with many things that Apple has done in recent years and don't see an alternative in Microsoft either.

After a couple of years of distro hopping, I'm sticking with Mint and am currently running MInt 13 Xfce on both my iMac and MacBook. When it's time to replace either the laptop or desktop, I'll never go back to a Mac. My wife still uses Mac OS on the desktop, but I only use it for routine maintenance and to install necessary updates. My MacBook has been a LinuxBook for some time and I haven't looked back. Thanks to these forums, I've learned some cli and can tweak my desktop to fit my taste and needs. I use both cli and Synaptic Package Mange to install (and uninstall) software, but use Software Manager less often. I also use cli for updates and dist. upgrades more than Update Manager. I began using Mint with 9 (Isadora) and it's worked pretty much out of the box since the get-go. Problems with sound and printers, which used to challenge me in the beginning, are no longer a problem since I've learned how to troubleshoot them--again thanks to these forums.

Yes, there are other good distros out there, but none of them seem to fit the bill for me quite like Mint does.

3fRI wrote:
Yes, there are other good distros out there, but none of them seem to fit the bill for me quite like Mint does.

After so many years of using Macs I find the abundance of choices in the Linux universe to be exhilarating. I definitely think Linux has become the system "for the rest of us" in a way Macs never really were and certainly are not now.
I also really like the community development model. I noticed that this months featured developer is just 13 years old. Apparently doing some important work in Cinnamon. What could be cooler than that?