Linux mint is better than Windows 10

[GS3]

Not to single out this thread but in general I find posts which are "Linux is better than Windows" to be quite useless and reeking of high school yard insecurity.

Linux does not need to be compared to Windows except when the aim is to resolve a very clear objective and then only in that context.

What is better, a toothbrush or a 50 lb bag of ready-mixed concrete? It depends on what you are trying to do, doesn't it?

I do not find it useful to make Linux into a cult which is defined more than anything else by its opposition to the outside. It is not a healthy attitude for those inside the circle and will repel many outsiders. I believe a friendly coexistence and cooperation would be much better in every respect.

Personally I have no use for WIN 10. After Win XP I decided I would not continue with MS and I started using Linux but I am still using my Win XP computers a lot because I have programs I need to use and cannot run with WINE.

My wife works for a very large corp and when the pandemic hit and they were all sent home to work her IT department said they would only help with MS Windows. It took a lot of effort on my part to get the Citrix (remote desktop) software to work with Linux and their IT department wanted nothing to do with it. I finally got it to work but for anyone not knowledgeable enough or willing to put in the effort it would have been much easier to just go with Windows.

I have been using LM for some years now and the last version of Windows I have used (and still using) is Win XP. I do not like how Windows 10 works so I don't use it. Simple enough. My credentials are not suspect. And yet I feel no need to badmouth MS Windows or its users. I do not feel they are any threat to me or my manhood.

Our collective energy here would be much better served by improving Linux (there is ample space for that) and being friendly and welcoming with those who use and like Windows.

There are a few posters who feel the need to go into threads just to tell people that what they are asking is not the Linux way and they should change their way of thinking to the Linux way. "In Windows I could do X; how can I do it in Linux?" Immediately the hauptlinuxfans descend on the poor innocent newbie and tell him off as undeserving of the Linux brotherhood. A lot of people are scared away from Linux by those attitudes.

Some years ago, when I was still using only Windows, I met some boring guy at a party and he proceeded to lecture me on the perfection that was Apple compared to the trash that was MS. He just would not stop in spite of my uncomfortable smiles and statements about no accounting for preferences. A fanatic is someone who won't change his mind and who won't change the subject.

Besides computers I have met people like that in many topics. American cars are better than imported cars and I'm not letting you go until you agree. My sports team is better than your sports team. My political party is better than your political party. My religion is better than your religion. The common aspect is that their position is defined more by opposition to the other side than by anything else.

If you belong to a group which is defined by being anti-something more than anything else, you should rethink your priorities.

[Glamtrains]

You echo my sentiments. Linux has a slow uptake due to unpleasant people making it less popular.

In my former blogger life, I came across people that slammed Microsoft Edge, as they believed it was built on Google Chrome. But, they were wrong as Edge, like Brave, Chrome, Opera, Vivaldi, and a host of others is based on the open-source Chromium Project. It is sleek enough for me to download the .deb file and install it in Linux. Having said that, my main driver is Firefox, a beast that can eat 8GB of RAM and now only has 3% market penetration.

Interesting, the mention of XP. A university in Cape Town switched to Windows 2000 as XP tended to lose its own system files, just like Windows 10 lost its EFI files in my instance. That leaves the user with an unbootable system, of course. Much like some of the Arch-ish Linuxes did to me..........

I can use any OS that can run my browser, do so reliably and take up the minimum of system resources. I don't need the latest kernel or the funkiest desktop, as I don't get to see it with my browser maximized in its own workspace. LM is better than W10 with workspaces, a major factor for me.

W10 could connect to my phone and LM can't. That doesn't make the one better than the other; it just means that I need to work differently. I reiterate: W10 was fast, stable, smooth, and rather presentable, its updates were smooth and painless. LM was just less resource hungry and therefore left me with more real estate to save my work on.

[Portreve]

What is better, a toothbrush or a 50 lb bag of ready-mixed concrete? It depends on what you are trying to do, doesn't it?

The answer to that is self-evident: the bag of concrete!

I do not find it useful to make Linux into a cult

Then how about the Cult of the Concrete Bag?

[GS3]

LM is better than W10 with workspaces, a major factor for me.

W10 could connect to my phone and LM can't.

I have never used workspaces so I couldn't say anything about that. I suppose it is something some people might find very useful and others might not. Like I always found dual monitors more trouble than they are worth and yet my wife absolutely, positively needs two monitors.

Interesting about the phone. I used to connect my Android phone to Win XP and it used to work until it stopped working. I investigated and it seems there are different ways (protocols) of connecting and now I needed the latest one so since then I can only connect my phone to Linux where it works well.

As you say, I just use whatever tools I have in the most convenient and efficient way for me.

[Moem]

W10 could connect to my phone and LM can't.

That surprises me, I've always been able to connect my phone to my LM laptop with ease (and an USB cable).

[GS3]

Yes, I am confident it should not be difficult to get an Android phone to work with LM. At least mine all work without problem or need to install or configure anything. I do get a pop-up error message saying something like "unable to open folder on phone" but everything works fine and I have access to everything.

I seem to remember I used to have a problem with LM changing the timestamp of photo files but that issue has disappeared in my latest installs.

Unless there is something very special and specific in this case I think the experts (not me) could help.

[Glamtrains]

Can you sync PIM info such as contacts, calendars, notes, SMS, etc? Can you send SMS via your computer by using that USB cable? I guess not, as there is no software interface such as Your Phone. Linux don't have that and the few attempts to it fails, as always.

Dear old Google comes in for much flak yet it is the only sane way for me to sync SOME PIM info via the cloud. Linux handling of smartphones is plain archaic.

I tried to back up some of my /home to the 32GB microSD in my phone via USB the other day, and it said it would take several DAYS to do that. Yes, it worked, but was it effective and efficient? No.

[GS3]

Can you sync PIM info such as contacts, calendars, notes, SMS, etc? Can you send SMS via your computer by using that USB cable? I guess not, as there is no software interface such as Your Phone. Linux don't have that and the few attempts to it fails, as always.

Dear old Google comes in for much flak yet it is the only sane way for me to sync SOME PIM info via the cloud. Linux handling of smartphones is plain archaic.

I tried to back up some of my /home to the 32GB microSD in my phone via USB the other day, and it said it would take several DAYS to do that. Yes, it worked, but was it effective and efficient? No.

Oh, OK, I thought you were talking about just the basic communication between phone and computer like for transferring photos. I see the issue is more about software that can handle certain kinds of data. If there exists that specialised software for Windows but not for Linux then I can't help as I know nothing about that.

Have you checked these? https://alternativeto.net/software/your-phone/?platform=linux

[Moem]

Can you sync PIM info such as contacts, calendars, notes, SMS, etc? Can you send SMS via your computer by using that USB cable?

I don't know what PIM means... I can sync such things by manually copying files back and forth. I cannot send an SMS from my computer because I do not have software on my computer that is capable of sending an SMS.

For easy syncing through WiFi, there's a piece of software called SyncThing. It may even work on Android, not sure, I don't use Android (or Windows). It runs on my phone and on Linux Mint.

I guess not, as there is no software interface such as Your Phone. Linux don't have that and the few attempts to it fails, as always.

I have no idea what you mean.

[Glamtrains]

Maybe my usage of a computer is just more advanced than some. I am used to having my PIM apps (Personal Information Management, search online when you don't know) always in sync, as I have explained, having used Nokia Suite long before. That was when there was Windows 95.....some readers here weren't even born then.

In Windows 10, there is an app call Your Phone and it has an Android equivalent; these two apps work wonders to ease one's day and I can even make or receive calls via my laptop when using that. It is extremely convenient. I don't expect Linux users to know about such things as it typically don't exist here, except for rather quirky software called GS Connect and KDE Connect that often simply refuse to work. Linux really lags in this area and I don't see anyone developing a suitable app any time soon. As I am retired now and don't need to have my finger on the pulse, I can live without it. But, were I still in business, I would have really needed it.

[Moem]

In Windows 10, there is an app call Your Phone and it has an Android equivalent; these two apps work wonders to ease one's day and I can even make or receive calls via my laptop when using that. It is extremely convenient. I don't expect Linux users to know about such things as it typically don't exist here

And since I'm not an Android user, it wouldn't have worked for me anyway. I don't miss it since I'm not much of a syncer; I typically restrict things like email to my laptop. I'm not sure about 'advanced' or not... but as smartphone users go, I use very few apps.

[Glamtrains]

People tend to see life only from their own perspectives; IT had taught me to think and plan on behalf of the many users out there that needed me to bring them working solutions. For the record, iOS is worse, Apple broke my iPhone through updates. They're worse, much worse than Microsoft. I had the sweetest running MacbookPro in all of Cape Town; it had Linux Mint on it. If only I could do that with my phone...............

Android, for the record, is a port of the Linux kernel to ARM processors. The Linux kernel is not an OS but just that: a kernel that makes hardware calls. A desktop, package manager, repositories, etc., are what makes it an OS. Mac OS, Like the 'nixes, is based on BSD. But MacOS is not Linux; just remotely related small cousins.

[Moem]

For the record, iOS is worse, Apple broke my iPhone through updates. They're worse, much worse than Microsoft.

I have never owned any Apple product with the exception of a tiny iPod my father bought me forever ago.

Android, for the record, is a port of the Linux kernel to ARM processors.

Yup, it is. And the rest of what you're saying is correct, too.

[exploder]

I have grown to have an appreciation for both Linux and Windows 10. I started messing with Windows 10 around Christmas last year. I would like to flip gaming computers for extra income. Gamer's want Windows 10 Pro generally and a Steam survey suggests most people are on mid range hardware. It takes a good few hour to tweak Windows 10 for good performance and some necessary software additions have no Linux equivalents that I know of unfortunately.

MSI Afterburner is a good example. Currently high end graphics cards are next to impossible to get a hold of. The next best thing is to set up overclock profiles in MSI Afterburner. With a little time and patience you can really improve performance! Most decent benchmarking programs are Windows only too. Cinebench and Heaven Benchmark can test how well you have any given system configured, Benchmarking tools for Linux are few and far between and usually way out of date.

Linux on the other hand most times works out of the box, is very secure, needs very little tweaking and is very customizable! Mint goes the extra mile in my opinion to make otherwise difficult tasks easy and provide desirable features. Most of the popular YouTube channels on computing provide content featuring Linux Mint.

Windows 10 tends to have a lot of useless software I immediately remove! Even Microsoft is starting to do away with some of it by default. I think both Mint and Windows are good these days, it just depends what you are wanting to do. I am not saying you can't game on Linux but it is a lot easier on Windows.

[Joss]

I have to agree that Linux Mint is better than Windows 10 but I have a different style applied.

could you share a link to that theme?

[ABitMenthol77]

The theme is - https://www.gnome-look.org/p/1275087/
The icon pack is - https://www.gnome-look.org/p/1400021/
and the cursor is - https://www.gnome-look.org/p/1408466/

[Joss]

Thanks.

[pinballfan]

Windows 10 tends to have a lot of useless software I immediately remove! Even Microsoft is starting to do away with some of it by default.

Yeah, I was appalled at the fact that first of all, Windows had "S mode", which meant that newbies might think that they can only use Microsoft products and services. It even locks you from downloading third party programs/drivers if it is outside of the Microsoft store. It is simple to change out of S mode, but plenty of casual users out there may not be aware.

Then there is the fairly frequent pop ups when you log in, encouraging/reminding you to buy Microsoft products, and you have to click no thanks or ignore, not at this time sort of thing. There is also the fact that Microsoft Edge runs whenever the OS loads. If you quit the program, it still runs in the background process. So I thought, I'll just uninstall it from control panel....didn't work. I had to find a third party tool to remove it for good! Having their stuff forced on its users is really intrusive. Windows used up more system resources than Linux, and also ended up getting a virus. I couldn't run any anti virus software because it kept freezing. The safe mode is through software rather than booting from bios in hardware like it used to be before 10. It wouldn't let me get in to safe mode because it required a password. The stupid thing was that it accepted the password in normal mode, but rejected it in safe mode.

It is no wonder people give up on Windows.

[Glamtrains]

So how is it different from all the crapware that comes with Mint? Timeshift, Warpinator, Thinderbird, Firefox, Libreoffice....upon installation, I cannot choose not to install things I neither want nor need. Uninstalling bundled Linux bloatware in the past did break my system.

[thursty]

Why don't you install Ubuntu server, and then add what you choose?