Is 18.3 stable?

[robertmf]

I gave up trying 18.3 and am going back to 17.3

Just as a sanity check anybody else have the same opinion?

[JoeFootball]

I've found 18.3 to be as stable as 17.3 on all my PCs.

Joe

[Moem]

This is not a comment on your sanity, but 18.3 works fine for me, and for my mother too.

[majpooper]

Not to be wishy washy but it kind of depends on who and what.

The who = who is the user of the system and the what = what is the hardware you are running the OS on.
Early on after the release of LM 18 I would only install 17.3 on systems for folks who asked me to because I felt it was more stable and the particular folks I was doing the install for were not particularly computer savvy. Also I never install a new OS without running it from a live DVD or USB (I tend to USB now days). So far I have been able to fix any problems although a few have been rather challenging and frustrating but in the end solved.

I went to LM 18 and subsequently to 18.3 because at some point I will have to upgrade the folks who depend on me (like my wife and sister) are going to need to upgrade from 17.3 and I need to be familiar with 18.3. I did upgrade my wife's rig a month or so ago. I found my system runs better on kernel 4.4 .x and hers on 4.13.x. It can get tricky because I always do a fresh install which does not necessarily load the optimal kernel for the hardware you may be running which is why the life DVD/USB test is so important.

The other problem is I know just enough to be dangerous i.e. the proverbial "monkey with a machine gun." But I suggest you list your hardware profile because it might be your rig would run better on an older yet supported kernel. But ask here first because taking any advice from me could be fatal and a big mistake.

[Flemur]

Just as a sanity check anybody else have the same opinion?

18.3 works fine for me but the phrase "it worked in 17.x but not in 18.x" is not uncommon here, unfortunately, e.g. this one from a few minutes ago:
viewtopic.php?f=49&t=263439
Use the one that's best for you!

[Cosmo.]

The question is, what do you mean with "stable"? In the sense of running without freezes or crashes I have no objection. Regarding the number of unsolved bugs, there is a big difference; this is the reason, why no LM 18.x will get my workhorse. I run 17.3 and this will do it at least until summer; than we will see.

[Tomgin5]

I have only found 1 laptop that would run on 18.2 and not on 18.3. For safety I reverted back to 18.1. This is out of 12 machines that I currently use. This single core Atom N450 is running LM 18.3 Cinnamon 64 just fine, but is sometimes taking an extra 15 seconds to boot.

[Pepi]

I find 18.3 more stable on my PCs. On 17.3 I was running KDE though and I think it's buggy

[Pjotr]

Yes, it's stable.

[altair4]

The question is, what do you mean with "stable"? In the sense of running without freezes or crashes I have no objection. Regarding the number of unsolved bugs, there is a big difference; this is the reason, why no LM 18.x will get my workhorse. I run 17.3 and this will do it at least until summer; than we will see.

I would agree with that assessment. To put this in a slightly different context so as not to make the Mintanistas defensive I run Xubuntu 14.04 and plan on staying there until 18.04 is released - maybe.

Distro makers don't own or are responsible for the vast majority of the moving parts that make up a Linux Desktop distro so it's not a reflection of their technical prowess ... necessarily.

[austin.texas]

After sticking with 18.2 for a long time, I am now very satisfied with the performance of 18.3, after a few weeks of use.

Code: Select all

inxi -Fz
System:    Host: skynet1 Kernel: 4.13.0-32-generic x86_64 bits: 64 Desktop: Cinnamon 3.6.7
           Distro: Linux Mint 18.3 Sylvia
Machine:   Device: desktop System: Gigabyte product: GA-A75-UD4H serial: N/A
           Mobo: Gigabyte model: GA-A75-UD4H v: x.x serial: N/A BIOS: Award v: F2 date: 06/08/2011
Battery    hidpp__0: charge: 65% condition: NA/NA Wh
CPU:       Quad core AMD A8-3870 APU with Radeon HD Graphics (-MCP-) cache: 4096 KB
           clock speeds: max: 3000 MHz 1: 2100 MHz 2: 1200 MHz 3: 1500 MHz 4: 1200 MHz
Graphics:  Card: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD/ATI] BeaverCreek [Radeon HD 6550D]
           Display Server: x11 (X.Org 1.18.4 ) drivers: ati,radeon (unloaded: modesetting,fbdev,vesa)
           Resolution: 1600x1200@60.00hz
           OpenGL: renderer: AMD SUMO (DRM 2.50.0 / 4.13.0-32-generic, LLVM 5.0.0) version: 3.3 Mesa 17.2.4
Audio:     Card-1 Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] FCH Azalia Controller driver: snd_hda_intel
           Card-2 Advanced Micro Devices [AMD/ATI] BeaverCreek HDMI Audio [Radeon HD 6500D and 6400G-6600G series]
           driver: snd_hda_intel
           Sound: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture v: k4.13.0-32-generic
Network:   Card-1: Ralink RT2561/RT61 802.11g PCI driver: rt61pci
           IF: wlp1s6 state: up mac: <filter>
           Card-2: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller driver: r8169
           IF: enp2s0 state: down mac: <filter>
Drives:    HDD Total Size: 1120.2GB (23.7% used)
           ID-1: /dev/sda model: SPCC_Solid_State size: 120.0GB
           ID-2: /dev/sdb model: WDC_WD10EZEX size: 1000.2GB
Partition: ID-1: / size: 30G used: 7.9G (28%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sdb3
           ID-2: swap-1 size: 9.13GB used: 0.00GB (0%) fs: swap dev: /dev/sdb2
RAID:      No RAID devices: /proc/mdstat, md_mod kernel module present
Sensors:   System Temperatures: cpu: 31.8C mobo: N/A gpu: 26.0
           Fan Speeds (in rpm): cpu: N/A
Info:      Processes: 211 Uptime: 51 min Memory: 1572.6/7470.4MB Client: Shell (bash) inxi: 2.3.56 
 

[robertmf]

Heaps of thanks. All the posts offered different views and helped me out. I will give 18.3 another shot ...