What are your opinions, reasons for choosing Mint ?

[Swampthing]

That's an impressive endorsement.

I've actually met a few at work that uses Linux at home, it's always nice to meet fellow Linuxers.

I had a new computer built last week by two professionals who run a business building and repairing computers, and though they both moan about the drawbacks of Windows neither has ever looked at alternatives such as Linux for their personal use, despite me promoting Linux Mint. I guess it's a case of "better the devil you know".

Well, it only takes a little hint and a bit of curiosity to convert to Linux.
Maybe they use proprietary windows programs, that they haven't found a Linux equivalent for.

[Portreve]

I've been playing with the Fedora Cinnamon spin, and it's not even close. Their software installer and updater utilities' user interfaces suck; one might just as well dispense with it and stick with the dnf command line tool. Seriously.

Between Ubuntu and Linux Mint, there's a lot we owe them for cleaning up and making much more professional the tools and their interfaces we rely on to get everything the way we like and keep it all going.

[CommonGrackle]

I've been using mostly Linux Mint for several years now, and every time I wander off, thinking another distro would be "better", I always end up back on LM within a few hours/days/weeks.

* It just works, out of the box. Everything I need to get started is right there.

* I don't have to babysit it and repair broken things after updates and installs.

* I don't have to spend hours configuring and researching just to get it to work (though I can if I like )

* It's simple to use, while allowing me the freedom to do the complex things, as well.

* I find I am most productive using Cinnamon on LM (rather than Gnome, Mate, etc.)

I've not had many problems with LM itself. Most of the time problems are user error (like when I created a bash script for adding a certain extension to files without them, but forgot the line that told it which folder to work from -- and then accidentally called it from my Home directory ), or it's some goofy hardware issue not related to LM (like an MP3 player I have that wouldn't mount, even though the others I have do).

I'm very appreciative of LM, and all those who work so hard on it. I donated several months back - the only distro I've ever done that for. It was just worth it, for all I've been able to do with it.

[thom_A]

I dual boot with Windows/LinuxMint. I won't trash Windows because that's where I came from and I'm still using applications that can only run in Windows.

I don't know why people keep doing that when it's not even related to the question. Cleary, it's about why you chose Mint over among tens and tens of Linux distros like Manjaro, Zorin, Fedora, OpenSuse, etc. etc.

I chose Mint because it's got similarities with Windows. There's still the taskbar on up or lower side where you can click and run your apps, see which Windows are active, add them in your favorites list, etc. Then the right-click context menu is still very much active. And so on and so forth.

Other distro devs are still trying hard to reinvent the wheel. They have this notion that removing the right-click context menu, as one example, is efficient, or maybe streamlined coding, I don't know what they have in mind. It's my way or the I way thing. To me you don't belong in the software industry if you have such mentality. There's no such thing as one size fits all here. There are millions of users with their own preferences. You should at least give them minimum options to change things a bit. I don't always use the keyboard, for example. I can't always be at a posture as if I'm always holding on for dear life, ie, one hand on the keyboard, pointing device on another. Things like that.

[jpjones55]

After trying a lot of the ubuntu flavors and ubuntu based distros, I chose mint because it setup my canon mx922 all in one printer/scanner right out of the box. I was impressed. It was the last distro I was going to try before switching back to windows.....Also I installed gimp and it worked with my scanner right out of the box, whereas all the other distros were a pain in the @$$ to TRY to setup. i'm getting used to mint now and really like and enjoy it. I'd recommend it to anyone.

Thanks for having me on the forums and cheers.
JP

[Hoser Rob]

... in all the years I have been on this forum, I have never read an account by someone whose machine genuinely, provably, got infected with a virus.
Not once....

Me neither.

Look at it this way. Desktop Linux has a very small user base. It has a well protected kernel space, meaning you cannot install anything without a password (you could turn that off but that'd be quite silly). You'd have to be completely nuts to want to write Linux viruses with all those Winboxes out there.

[thom_A]

I've been playing with the Fedora Cinnamon spin, and it's not even close. Their software installer and updater utilities' user interfaces suck; one might just as well dispense with it and stick with the dnf command line tool. Seriously.

Between Ubuntu and Linux Mint, there's a lot we owe them for cleaning up and making much more professional the tools and their interfaces we rely on to get everything the way we like and keep it all going.

As an average user, Fedora was among the distros I avoided even trying, along with OpenSuse, and others. Maybe because of the names. I also felt like the developers behaved as if they're the second incarnation of Steve Jobs or something. They're trying too hard to impress, always introducing new things because they're too bored further developing old underdeveloped features, then leave them to others to fix issues, problems. They just can't focus on one thing... Steve Jobs was all about ease of use, take advantage of advances in technology, colors, resolution, size of monitors, the png transparency, and many more.

[BenTrabetere]

I have to echo u/cliffcoggin's reasons for why I chose Mint, but in reverse order. The deciding factor for me was the LM Forums. I continue to use it because it is easy to install, easy of use, ease of installation, and reliable and stable to the point of being boring.

I distro-hop on another machine, and I could easily switch to another distro. Even one from the Slackware or Gentoo families. I like Manjaro, Debian and Ubuntu are familiar and comfortable, and I am learning to enjoy OpenSUSE and AlmaLinux. My biggest obstacle to switching would be the desktop environment - I really do not like Gnome and I am not very fond if KDE, and none of the distros I have used implement Cinnamon, MATE, or xfce as well as Mint.

There are things I miss when using my distro-hop machine. LM comes with a lot of valuable tools too many other distros lack. It grates my soul to have to install a tool like inxi, and I think pamac (Manjaro) is the only update tool as nice as mintupdate.

[Night Wing]

Since I came from Windows 7 and saw the total train wreck which was Windows 8, I finally got fed up with Microsoft and kicked the Windows operating system to the curb and burned my bridges behind me since a linux distribution was going to be "my new daily driver" so to speak.

After doing research and looking at various linux distributions on YouTube (Ubuntu, Debian, SolydX, Linux Lite and Mint, I decided to go "all in on Mint with Xfce". Mint was easy to install, easy to use, easy to customize and I really never had to use the Terminal very much in Mint.

Best decision, computer wise, I ever made and that was back in January of 2013.

[NoWinBob]

I went from Win 7 (a year or 2) to Win 10(2 days) to Ubuntu.I used Ubuntu for a couple of years,liked it,but had some issues,especially on the laptop.It was always necessary to get on the forum an find out how to get wireless and some other stuff to work.Then I discovered Mint(18 or so)and now everything works without having to do ang geeky stuff after install.I like to experiment as much as the next guy,but these days I like stuff to just work.Mint works.I don't even mess with anything anymore.I just install and get to work(play).

[Hoser Rob]

I've been playing with the Fedora Cinnamon spin, and it's not even close. Their software installer and updater utilities' user interfaces suck; one might just as well dispense with it and stick with the dnf command line tool. Seriously....

I had a brief foray into Fedora and yes, the installer wasn't intuitive and I wasn't that crazy about their support site either. It's OK for experienced users but not for newbies ... I only recommend Ubuntu or Mint to them. Really, most distros are actually similar and the amount and level of support is the most important thing. Fedora is not newbie oriented.

Actually if I got a really new computer I might install Fedora. They release new versions every 6 months or so, which I think is normally a huige PITA but you can install it on newer hardware than LTS distros and it'll work without backports etc. Though I'd still end up installing a Debian or Ubuntu based distro as soon as the hardware was supported.

[Portreve]

I had a brief foray into Fedora and yes, the installer wasn't intuitive and I wasn't that crazy about their support site either. It's OK for experienced users but not for newbies ... I only recommend Ubuntu or Mint to them. Really, most distros are actually similar and the amount and level of support is the most important thing. Fedora is not newbie oriented.

Actually if I got a really new computer I might install Fedora. They release new versions every 6 months or so, which I think is normally a huige PITA but you can install it on newer hardware than LTS distros and it'll work without backports etc. Though I'd still end up installing a Debian or Ubuntu based distro as soon as the hardware was supported.

I know we all have our own priorities and preferences about what we think Linux is — or at least ought to be — and I'm no different.

[icewind]

I run Linux Mint LMDE because i feel its stable, has good functions and fun to use.

[Ivy_Pool]

I use LM because it is free, stable, and easy to use for a noob.

[half-word]

Mint has been for a long time one of the more popular and respected distributions, though I think people lean to heavily on the "beginner distro" aspect of it and assume that it isn't something someone more knowledgeable would use. Almost as if Mint is a stepping stone to eventually using Arch, when in fact you can do everything you want to do on LM just fine.

I find that's often a common error in thinking. Linux is Linux. There isn't anything you can't do on Mint you could do on Arch or Gentoo or whatever. The same software works on all of them. Most advanced tools are already present on Mint/Ubuntu and Debian. What isn't, of you need a newer version of, it's either available from a PPA or an upstream official repo. And in any case you can compile it yourself, which is a routine affair for any advanced user, no matter the distro.

The main thing is the user interface: LM is by default a desktop distro. Even an advanced user will not mind having a configured desktop ready for daily use!

The only exception is if you don't care for a desktop environment and you're setting up a hacking-only machine. For such a machine you may want it to have a simple tiling window manager or something like that. Then Arch will do fine, but many old hands will also chose Slackware or LM's granddaddy - Debian.

[Marie SWE]

One thing that concerns me about linux security
Is this idea thats its so secure
you dont need to even check it for bad programs

Consider this:
in all the years I have been on this forum, I have never read an account by someone whose machine genuinely, provably, got infected with a virus.
Not once.
Linux viruses do exist but they are exceedingly rare 'in the wild'. And those that do exist almost always have to be installed by the user.

I got some malware/virus on my Mint19.0 I started notice I had unwanted network traffic and unwanted disk activity on one of my laptops.
I was new on Linux then and didn't know how to trace it in my laptop.. I could trace the network traffic to Russia but I couldn't see what had hit my laptop. So I wiped it and installed LMDE3 on it.
So now you know about one.
I think I got it when I was stupid to do copy--paste terminal sudo commands from different webpages.

So to you new Linux users out here..... DO NOT COPY AND PASTE SUDO COMMANDS FROM ANONYMOUS WEB PAGES that you din't know to 100% what they meaning.

[Marie SWE]

My question is :
What are your opinions, reasons for choosing Mint from other Linux distros ?

To answer the question.
Linux Mint was my first step in to the Linux world... And I recommend every new Linux user to start with Linux Mint as it is a really good distro, it's easy to get started, it has a good forum community in different languages and a lot of Linux Gurus that know Mint and can help new Linux users.

I switched to Linux for the wrong reason.. I only switched as win7 reached EOL and was to expensive to have ESU on them all and I really hate windows rolling releases. I have no real interest of linux I still prefer win7 over Linux
I started with Fedora, Open suse and a lot of other distros.. I tried Ubuntu, but it was something with ubuntu i didn't like.. Still today I can not put my finger on it what it was with ubuntu i didn't like... I ended up with Mint 18.3 and I just loved it.. it just worked on my hardware without having to fight it for hours and hours..

Even if i don't use Mint any longer as I have gone back to root to skip the forks, I still recommend Linux Mint for every new Linux user as Mint is a damn good distro.
My mother who is around 75years old use Mint 20.1 and it just works for her. So Five big thumbs up to Mint.

[Moem]

in all the years I have been on this forum, I have never read an account by someone whose machine genuinely, provably, got infected with a virus.
Not once.
Linux viruses do exist but they are exceedingly rare 'in the wild'. And those that do exist almost always have to be installed by the user.

I got some malware/virus on my Mint19.0 I started notice I had unwanted network traffic and unwanted disk activity on one of my laptops.
I was new on Linux then and didn't know how to trace it in my laptop.. I could trace the network traffic to Russia but I couldn't see what had hit my laptop. So I wiped it and installed LMDE3 on it.
So now you know about one.
I think I got it when I was stupid to do copy--paste terminal sudo commands from different webpages.

Ah, but then it fits the condition of needing to be installed by the user. I will however keep it in mind! Next time I will say: I have never read an account by someone whose machine genuinely, provably, got infected with a virus, without installing it themselves.

[Marie SWE]

Ah, but then it fits the condition of needing to be installed by the user. I will however keep it in mind! Next time I will say: I have never read an account by someone whose machine genuinely, provably, got infected with a virus, without installing it themselves.

It can't be any rules in life without the exceptions.
Often it is the same on Windows.. to 99.9% the user have done something stupid to get it... it is just easier to get infected in windows by click on a link in an email as one example.

[RollyShed]

I have never read an account by someone whose machine genuinely, provably, got infected with a virus, without installing it themselves.

It can't be any rules in life without the exceptions.
Often it is the same on Windows.. to 99.9% the user have done something stupid to get it...

Something stupid such as installing Windows or allowing Microsoft to provide updates after sacking their testing staff. The updates work exactly the same way a virus does, crash the system and delete everything. Seen it happen.