Mint vs Ubuntu - Why Mint?

[martienne]

I would love to hear from the enlightened and experienced, why you prefer Mint over Ubuntu.

My own reason was as simple as seeing a video that said Mint was easier to use, more customisable + looked prettier. Reasons that appealed to me. I may or may not have got that wrong.

[austin.texas]

I switched from Ubuntu to Mint a long time ago, because it seemed to me that Ubuntu was following the Microsoft way of doing things, related to makiing decisions about how the OS worked, and locking the user into their way, instead of letting the user decide how things worked.
To be fair, that may have been a decision based more on my inexperience than anything else.

[richyrich]

I like all of the Mint tools. A customizable and safe Update Manager, Software Sources, the Driver Manager, and Login Window program, are my faves !

[BigEasy]

My own reason was as simple as seeing a video that said Mint was easier to use, more customisable + looked prettier. Reasons that appealed to me. I may or may not have got that wrong.

What prevent you from try Ubuntu, Mint then made decision by your own, not after seen somebody's video?

[martienne]

My own reason was as simple as seeing a video that said Mint was easier to use, more customisable + looked prettier. Reasons that appealed to me. I may or may not have got that wrong.

What prevent you from try Ubuntu, Mint then made decision by your own, not after seen somebody's video?

Time!!!

[jimallyn]

I haven't used Ubuntu a lot. I did have it installed on my computer so I could support friends who were using it, and I have to use it at church now and then, but I don't like the user interface as well and it doesn't feel as polished. It's certainly quite usable, but I like Mint better.

[BigEasy]

Time!!!

Ask in native forums the question like "native vs something not native" is not time saving thing. Everything required own experience.
P.S. yes, the best *buntu in the world is Mint. it's my own experience, not your's!

[Habitual]

For me, the green theme was easier to look at than orange.

[Pjotr]

Mint is more to my liking out of the box, so it saves me some tweaking time.... Plus I like the nifty extra Mint tools and especially the sensible improvements in update management.

In my opinion: Ubuntu is good, but Mint is simply somewhat better.

[tdockery97]

When I was ready to try Linux six years ago, I read all I could find about the different distros and had it narrowed down to Ubuntu or Mint. The reason I tried Mint first was that I liked the way it came with a single panel at the bottom rather than top and bottom panels. But the real deal-maker was the Mint Menu. While I still try a live test of various distros periodically, Mint has remained the one installed on my computers.

[Fred Barclay]

My reasons for Mint:
1. More stable thanks to the Update Manager.
2. More customisable. Every time I've installed Ubuntu, I've spent a lot of time trying to configure it the way I want (and usually failing). To me, the Mint defaults are sensible, but I can also change them much more easily than I could in Ubuntu.
3. LMDE! Betsy is the best Mint.
4. Not as much distraction. Ubuntu feels more like an "eye-candy" distro. While I like certain aspects of it (I particularly like the default window theme of deep grey and the circly buttons), using the distro long-term would drive me crazy! Cinnamon on the other hand is nicely polished yet it feels like a "real" DE.
5. More community-oriented. I love being able to launch HexChat and chat with Clem and the other devs whenever I need! These forums are also kind of like family to me. We're not so big that I feel like "just another user."

martienne: was that video by Nixi Pixel? If so, that's what sold me on Mint too!

[xfrank]

I tried Ubuntu, but while it can be good and useful for many, for me not because:

1 - I don't like Unity, I prefer a "traditional" DE like Xfce, Mate or Cinnamon. Moreover, I don't like orange or violet as dominant colors. I prefer green and gray.
2 - I prefer to have more choices/options to tweak my system/GUI, instead of just use the "standard"
3 - I'm not interested in the commercial side of the OS (buy apps, services, etc.)
4 - Mint has some useful extra tools (Mintsources, Mintstick, etc.)
5 - The Mint forum is smaller than Ubuntu's but resemble more a community and is very friendly

[mdiemer]

I could not get used to the Unity DE. I put the Cinnamon DE on it, and it looked great. Then I tried Mint, and it just felt smoother. I ditched Ubuntu.I was really only interested in it because it is more multi-media-friendly. But I can just go with a dedicated M/M OS for that. Finally, somehow Mint is more relaxing (possibly related to the colour green).

I have been comparing three Linuxes - Ubuntu, Mint and Zorin. I have eliminated Ubuntu. So now I am down to two: Mint and Zorin. Tough decision, I really like them both. Maybe, Mint on M-W-F, Zorin on T-TH-S, on Sunday flip a coin? (Oh, no gambling on Sunday...).

[z31fanatic]

I started with Ubuntu but couldn't stand the UI. Then my brother-in-law told me to try Mint which I didn't know it existed at the time. The single panel and the Mint menu (Cinnamon only as I didn't like the other Mint desktops) did it for me.

[1.618]

Started off on Ubuntu 10:10 with gnome desktop as a total newbie to the world of computing, only had about 3 or 4 months experience of xp prior, I quite liked Ubuntu but found following releases started being glitchy and I really didn't like unity, gnome 3 was usable but just didn't feel as nice as gnome 2,and the amazon search lens was a proper deal breaker then I heard the mint team had an edition with the mate desktop, a fork of gnome 2 so tried v13 and have been here ever since, just felt good to use from day one. Banshee always glitched in buntu but in mint works flawlessly (touch wood!) It's easier to customise and use, has a better update system, a lot of 'buntu' bugs have been sorted and green is easier on the eye.

[Flemur]

They're basically the same, you can get the same DE's in either (no, you're not stuck with Unity if you use Ubuntu). The biggest difference is that "Ubuntu" is a silly name.

[Pjotr]

They're basically the same, you can get the same DE's in either (no, you're not stuck with Unity if you use Ubuntu). The biggest difference is that "Ubuntu" is a silly name.

That reminds me of the Ministry of Silly Walks:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IqhlQfXUk7w

Still: I don't think you can get Mint's outstanding update management in Ubuntu. Not without some serious hacking, anyway....

[austin.texas]

"Ubuntu" is a silly name.

Ubuntu: "I am what I am because of who we all are." (From a definition offered by Liberian peace activist Leymah Gbowee.)

Open Source: Open-source code is meant to be a collaborative effort, where programmers improve upon the source code and share the changes within the community.

[martienne]

They're basically the same, you can get the same DE's in either (no, you're not stuck with Unity if you use Ubuntu). The biggest difference is that "Ubuntu" is a silly name.

What do you mean by "they are the same"? (bear in mind, I am a n00b)

[Pjotr]

What do you mean by "they are the same"? (bear in mind, I am a n00b)

Mint 17.x is built on Ubuntu 14.04. They're for more than 90 % identical. Mint even uses Ubuntu's very own software sources....

Mint stands on Ubuntu's shoulders. Ubuntu stands on Debian's shoulders. Made possible by the concept of free (libre) software, as legally embodied in the GPL:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNU_Gener ... ic_License